Shredded beef tacos

It's been a little while since I last posted on this blog. I was travelling last week and my mother-in-law came to visit, so the crock pot stayed in the cupboard. I do love my MiL, and I appreciate all she does for us, but when I come home I find all sorts of strange things in my fridge and on my pantry shelves. It takes me a couple of days to get everything straightened out the way I like it.

Just before I went away, we made this recipe for Shredded Beef Tacos, from the Australian Women's Weekly easy slow cooking book. I had a nice piece of round steak and considered making a stew, but the weather was getting warmer and the children like the notion of assembling their tacos at the table, so I went with this instead.

Preparation

I was off work, so didn't need to get prepared the night before. Instead, on the day, I assembled everything in the crock pot. First I mixed together 1/4 tsp chilli powder and 1tsp each of ground cumin, ground coriander and paprika, and then rubbed this all over the beef (about 2 lbs of good quality round steak). I put this into the crock pot and added: a beef stock cube; 2tbsp sundried tomato paste; 2 garlic cloves, crushed; and half a cup of water. This was cooked, on the low setting, for about 7 hours.

When cooked, I took the beef out of the pot and shredded it roughly, using two forks. The shredded meat went back into the sauce.

The Result

We served the shredded beef with flour tortillas and an assortment of sides: shredded lettuce, guacamole, chopped tomatoes, sour cream, grated cheese. Each person assesmbled their own tacos according to their own tastes. For Ms Fussy Eater, this means nothing except beef, and very little sauce. For Mr Teenager, large helpings of grated cheese are involved.

The beef was delicious, in quite a spicey sauce. The original recipe calls for a sliced red chilli, which I didn't add. I'm quite pleased because I don't think Ms Fussy Eater would have been able for any further heat. There was a lot of shredded beef, probably enough for at least six people. We had our fill and there were leftovers which went into sandwiches during the next few days.

The photo was taken after we had eaten our dinner, so it depicts just the leftovers!

The Verdict

Ms Fussy Eater enjoyed her two tacos, even without anything more than the shredded meat in them. Mr Teenager declared the whole thing to be delicious.

I would certainly make this again, perhaps even adding the extra chilli.