Braised Steaks with Horseradish Smashed Potatoes & Sautéed Asparagus
It was another slow cooker recipe from Cook's Illustrated's Slow Cooker Revolution Volume 2. The recipe called for blade steaks, which our local Wegmans didn't have. A butcher told us a blade steak is a kind of chuck, so, we bought a kind of chuck steaks that they had. We were glad the alternative worked very well. After 5 and a half hours on high, the steaks turned fall-apart tender. The sauce that was simply made with onion, garlic, tomato paste, and juice from the steaks was very flavorful. J was helpful at the final prep stage. He smashed the small red potatoes that were cooked on the top of steaks in the slow cooker and mixed with warm milk, melted butter, cream cheese and prepared horseradish. Then, he made a neat "dome" of the smashed potato on the plate while I was quickly sautéing asparagus. The potatoes and asparagus were perfect sides for the melting steaks; horseradish in the potatoes and freshly squeezed lemon juice on asparagus were nicely offset the sweetness of the steak sauce. It was an amazing meal with classic steak-potato comfort as well as sophisticatedly well-balanced flavors and textures. We enjoyed it very much!
