A little bit Teriyaki, a little bit beef stew, and a whole lotta flavor…but not out of the freezer.  This meal was born last weekend, entirely out of “what do we have* that can be thrown in the slow cooker with these red potatoes?”, and turned out wonderfully.  I used my l33t “dump  and sniff” skills to add various things until it smelled just right, and damn, was it lovely.  I can’t attest first-hand for the survival of this dish in the freezer pre-cooking, but I can’t imagine there’d be any problems.  To SRSLY-ify this dish, skip the schmear and dump all of the ingredients in a bag instead of your slow cooker, and freeze until ready to roll.  And yep, that is our actual slow-cooker above, getting warmed up to cook this actual dish.

Sweet and Zippy Beef Stew

Ingredients:

• 2-3 lb. beef roast
• 4-5 tablespoons garlic and ginger paste
• 1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes, washed and quartered
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons teriyaki sauce
• 2 tablespoons mirin
• 3 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 cup beef stock
• 3 tablespoons dijon mustard
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• black pepper to taste
• 8 ounces canned bamboo shoots, drained
• 8 ounces canned water chestnuts, drained

Place potatoes and vegetables in bottom of crock pot.  Smear beef with garlic and ginger and set on top of potatoes.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour around and on top of roast.  Cover and cook on low until beef is cooked and the lovely sweet and zesty smell has permeated your entire house.

Serve with duck sauce (this is how I like it) or plain yogurt (Mer’s choice):

*After typing this, I realize that most people probably don’t have things like mirin and oyster sauce and sesame oil and teriyaki sauce bandying about their pantries.  All I can say is…you should!  Then you can make things like this and this and this and…well, they’re yummy, at any rate.  A pantry stocked with flavorful goos like this is a pantry that can make any plain Jane dish a superstar.