Asian Inspired Pot Roast Recipe

My journey through a world of flavors for my pot roast continue today as I share with you this recipe for an Asian inspired pot roast. I have already enjoyed a Moroccan and Greek inspired dishes. For the Asian one my first thought was of course incorporating soy sauce and ginger, two things I think of when I think of Asian cuisine. Also for the startch I settled on using soba (buckwheat) noodles. They have more to offer nutritionally speaking that most noodles we eat in this country. Finally for the vegetable portion of the dish I wanted to use broccoli. Beef and broccoli is a classic combo you find in American Asian cuisine. The broccoli is pre-cooked and added when serving up the meal.

Ingredients
3-4 lb chuck roast
2 cups beef stock or broth
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 oz freshly grated ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
canola or olive oil
1 lb broccoli, stemmed
9-10 oz soba (buckwheat noddles)

Instructions
The first thing you will want to do is brown the pot roast in a stainless skillet. You don't want to use non-stick because you want some brown bites to be stuck to the bottom of the pan. Heat the pan up over medium-high heat with a bit of canola oil or olive oil in the bottom. In the mean time, liberally salt both sides of the chuck roast. When the pan just starts to smoke, place the beef in. Cook until you get a nice brown sear on one side, then flip and repeat. Remove the beef to a slow cooker. Add the chopped garlic, cook just to soften, don't burn it. Then add the garlic to slow cooker. Now pour in about ½ cup of the beef stock and scrab all the brown bites off the bottom of the pan. I like using my tongs that have tongs with silicione edges. Add the liquid from the pan as well as the remaining stock to the slow cooker.

Add in the soy sauce, ginger, and cinnamon. It's important to taste your cooking liquid. It needs to be really flavorful. So test it first and then add any salt, soy sauce, ginger, and/or pepper. Cook in your slow cooker for at least 4 hours.

Prepare the soba noodles
Bring a gallon of water to boil in a large pot. Salt the water so that is taste like the sea. Then add the soba, cooking until it's no longer chewy in the middle about 3-5 minutes.

Final Prep
Once the soba is ready, it's time to bring the whole dish together. Put some soba on a plate, put the meat on top, and stir in some broccoli. Add any additional (if you like) soy sauce or rice wine vinegar on top. Enjoy!