Meal in a Jar: Beef in Sauce

This is one of my favorite, easy weeknight meal recipes. Canned meats can be extremely tender and flavorful, and they store easily on a shelf with no electricity for years, waiting to be eaten. Here's a very simple asian-style beef that is delicious served with mixed veggies over rice - and can be made in 20 minutes or less! (Really the rice is what makes it 20 minutes... you could heat this and serve it straight if you wanted!)

2 lbs stew beef or sirloin tip cut into large cubes

1 cup beef broth

½ cup soy sauce

1 tablespoons garlic

2 tablespoons brown sugar

Loosely pack your beef cubes into 2* pint size jars (serves 2, for a family of 4 pack into a quart jar) and mix up the sauce. Pour over beef, leaving one inch headspace. I find a lot of air gets trapped so I run a butter knife around the inside of the jar to get any air bubbles out, and fill with more sauce if needed. Wipe your rims and affix your lids and rings, and process the jars in a pressure canner at pressure for your altitude (10 pounds for me) for 75 minutes for pints, 90 minutes for quarts.

To serve: start a pot of rice – we prefer the sticky white rice frequently used in sushi. In a second pot with a tight fitting lid, pour your beef and sauce and put on medium heat. Slice some zucchini into straws, mix with broccoli**, matchstick carrots, peas, or other veggies you like and cook, covered, until meat is warmed through and vegetables are tender (about 10 minutes). Serve over the rice and enjoy!

*Quantities are approximate, you will get roughly a pound of meat into a pint but sometimes a little less.

**We don’t eat broccoli or peas so they are not pictured.