Derek Bender — design, art direction and illustration

Adventures in Cooking

I like to cook and a few days ago I tried my hand at a new recipe for Chinese Beef that I was fortunate enough to get from an awesome coworker (thanks Liana!) after I noticed how good her lunch smelled. Here's the recipe.

First, you'll need a crockpot (slow cooker). I was fortunate enough to remember I had one packed away in some boxes that I hadn't opened in years. Here are the rest of the ingredients you'll need:

1. 1 to 1½ lbs. beef
2. 1 cup chicken broth
3. 1 tbsp. soy sauce
4. 1 tsp. ground ginger
5. 1 onion
6. 1 bell pepper
7. 2 4oz. cans of mushrooms
8. 3 tbsp. cornstarch mixed w/ 3 tbsp. water

Take the beef and cut it up into bite size chunks. Dice or chop your onion and cut your pepper into slices. Mix everything, minus the cornstarch & water mix, together in your crockpot. Add a dash of pepper & salt if you'd like to. The recipe calls for either a low heat cook for 7 to 8 hours or high heat cook for 4 to 5. Since my crockpot doesn't have any settings I really couldn't change it but mine came out great in around 4½ hours. At about an hour before the its done you'll want to stir in the cornstarch & water mix so the sauce can thicken up.

Enjoy with your favorite vegetables and rice on the side. Feeds about 3 or, like me, you can have leftovers for a couple days.