Swiss Steak in the Crock Pot

Here's another "fix it and forget it" kind of meal. This is my first go at Swiss steak. I've seen lots of recipes over the years, but it wasn't until I saw this Swiss Steak on Coleen's Recipes that I knew I had to try. Here's what she had to say about her recipe, "Super easy, super flavorful, super leftovers...what more can I say? This is comfort food at its best." If that wasn't enough to make me want Swiss Steak, her next description, "This recipe will fill your kitchen with nostalgic aromas from your childhood and leftovers make the best panini sandwiches for tomorrow nights dinner." sealed the deal. I had to try it! Plus, I had just picked up a cooler of beef from my grandparent's farm on my last trip home.

Colleen's recipe called for 2 lbs. of round steak. However, there was a large package with a bright yellow sticker labelled "Swiss Steak" in my freezer. I figured if I was making Swiss Steak, I'd better use this. So I thawed it in the fridge overnight and unwrapped it yesterday morning to prepare for the crock pot. I apologize to my more squeamish readers for the bloody meat shot that I'm about to post...but just look at this thing! Now that is a chunk of meat! I weighed it just to see what I was working with. It was over 3 1/2 lbs! You can bet we have leftovers. Thanks to Coleen for recommending a panini for the leftovers. That was my lunch today... and I probably have enough for 30 more paninis : )



The next step is to trim the fat, cut the meat into serving size pieces, and coat with flour.




Heat some vegetable oil in a skillet and add the steak.



Brown on both sides before moving to the crock pot.



Now round up your veggies. I used what I had in the fridge; onion, carrot, celery, and cabbage. I was out of the "big" carrots, so I used baby carrots. The recipe didn't call for cabbage, but I had half a head chillin' in my crisper, so I threw that in too. You can chop up the veggies really fine, but I kinda like em' chunky (and I was in a hurry).




I added a little more oil to the skillet and sauteed the veggies until tender-crisp. Give em' a little sprinkle of salt if you're so inclined.



While the veggies sauteed, I mixed together the sauce ingredients. Because I had almost double the amount of beef as the recipe called for, I doubled the sauce. Combine brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, diced tomatoes (I used a can of whole tomatoes too), basil, salt, and pepper.



I dumped the veggies and sauce into the crock pot, stirred it up a little, put the lid on, and set it to cook on LOW.



6 or 7 hours later when dinner time rolled around, I served it over some hot egg noodles. Coleen was right, "Comfort food at it's best!"



Head on over to Coleen's blog to get the recipe. Just click HERE.

Oh, and those paninis? I spooned the leftover meat and sauce over two pieces of bread, topped with some peperoncinis and provolone and set a weighted hot skillet on top of the sandwich on my griddle. It was perfection.

Happy Tuesday!