Cooking Under the Influence: Ginger Bread Brown French Dip

Anyone who has a slow cooker knows how nice it can be to out everything in, set the timer, walk away, and come back at the end if the day to dinner being ready. Normally I use it a lot during fall and football season, but since it's been unseasonably cool lately, I decided to pull it out of the pantry.

I always like a simple recipe. For one thing there's an ease in the kitchen who you keep things simple. Another nice thing is that it allows the food to really shine, as long as it's cooked well. This recipe has very few ingredients, and it's one that The Big Guy has requested become a more regular part of the rotation. That's how I know I got this one right.

I took a recipe that I found on Pinterest and added some delicious local beer to it. I went with some Ginger Bread Brown from Triton. The flavors in the beer were a really nice complement to everything else that was in the slow cooker. I kept everything else very minimal.

Ingredients

• 3 pound beef roast (such as a rump or top round)
• 1 (12 ounce) bottle of dark beer
• 2 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• French baguette, French rolls, or other crusty bread for serving
• Slices of provolone

Directions

1. Trim excess fat off of roast and place in a large slow cooker. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 to 10 hours or longer if you can. More time gives all those flavors a better chance to blend with each other.  
2. Split open your rolls (and spread with butter, if desired). Heat in a toaster oven until toasted or bake in a regular oven set to 350°F until warm and toasty (about 10 minutes).
3. Slice meat across the grain and pile on top of toasted rolls. (Our roast pulled apart once it was done so we didn't need to slice it all.)
4. Place cheese in rolls and add meat to create sandwiches.  
5. Serve hot sandwich with a small bowl of reserved au jus for dipping.

 

I served the finished dish with some Brussels sprouts roasted with garlic and pepper.

Click here to view the original recipe.