TEENY MCMUNN: MY RECIPE BOX

Are you asking yourself, what happened to the perfect pound cake recipe I was talking about last week? I spent at least a half hour looking for it on Saturday and couldn't find it. I think I pulled it out of my drawer so I would have it when I was ready for it, so it is somewhere. So frustrating; but that seems to be how I roll.

I saw this recipe and it caught my eye because of the smoked paprika. We have some, but I've never used it. It seemed like a lot of paprika, but the reviews all said it was good, so I made it for dinner last night. It's worth repeating.

INGREDIENTS:

1 Tbsp vegetable oil

3 onions, sliced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

¼ c. smoked Spanish paprika

1 tsp coarsely ground pepper

1 tsp salt

3 pounds stew meat, cut into cubes

3 Tbsp veg oil divided

1 ½ c. water

1 -6 oz can tomato paste

1 -10 oz pkg egg noodles

½ c. sour cream, optional

8 sprigs fresh parsley, optional

DIRECTIONS:

Heat one Tbsp oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir onions until they soften and begin to brown at the edge, eight to 10 minutes. Add garlic and cook for one minute. Transfer mixture to a slow cooker. Cover and set cooker to low

Mix together paprika, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Toss the meat cubes in the paprika mixture until evenly coated.

Heat one tablespoon of the oil in the skillet over medium heat. Put a third of the beef cubes into the skillet and cook until nicely browned on all sides (see my notes). Transfer to slow cooker. Pour two tablespoons of water into the skillet and scrape the browned bits from the pan. Pour liquid into the slow cooker. This prevents the paprika from burning when you brown the next batches of beef. Add another tablespoon of the oil to the skillet and cook the next batch the same way. Repeat for the third batch.

Stir in the tomato paste and the rest of the water into the slow cooker. Cover. Cook on high for four to five hours, or low for six to eight hours.

Cook noodles according to directions and maybe slightly under cook them. Add sour cream on top if you like.

MY NOTES: The recipe actually said how to cook the noodles, but "follow directions" works for me. Here are a few of the things I did differently. I used only two onions and two pounds of stew meat. I cut up a three-pound roast, which was cheaper than stew meat, and saved one pound for after. We have enough left over for two more meals, but there is only two of us. I could have easily used three onions and three pounds of stew meat. It seems like a lot of onions but they cook down. I also used minced garlic.

The original recipe said two teaspoons of salt, but I cut it down to one. I also salted mine a bit afterwards. I think it's better to do that, than to make it too salty for someone else. I guessed at the pepper and wished I had actually put a full teaspoon in.

I also brown all the meat at once in a large cast iron pan, and lastly I cooked it covered in a 275 degree oven for three hours. It came out very tender and the smoked paprika was just right. I used wide egg noodles but one could use mashed potatoes also.

ENJOY –I was pleasantly surprised