- Bottle of beer - I used Abbot this time but can be Guinness, Black Sheep, what ever takes your fancy
- Knorr beef stock pot
- Bay leaves
- Black pepper
- Carrots - 1 to 1 1/5 per person depending on size
- Large onion or a couple of medium ones
- 3 - 4 cloves of garlic
- Shallots (bag off)
- Lean stewing beef - 400g ish
- Plain flour
- Dark muscovado sugar
- White wine vinegar
- Fresh thyme
Add beer, 1/2 pint boiling water and the stock pot in the slow cooker, and turn it on high
Chuck in 3 - 4 bay leaves and a good grinding of black pepper
Finally chop the onion(s), crush the garlic and fry them slowing in some olive oil until softened and translucent, when done add to slow cooker
Peel and slice the carrots, fry them slowly to sweeten them, when they get a bit of colour add them to the slow cooker
Dice the beef, turn the heat under the frying pan up and quickly brown in small batches to seal the meat, then add to slow cooker
Peel the shallots (soaking them in water first makes it easier), chuck them in the frying pan an start to get them to colour up a bit, after a while sprinkle some plain flour in and a good teaspoon of dark sugar (and may be a bit of water) to caramelise the shallots.
When done add to the slow cooker and be sure to add the scrapings from the frying pan too
Drop two cap fulls of white wine vinegar in the stew
Artily place a couple of sprigs of fresh thyme on top
Leave to cook until done, you'll probably want to turn the slow cooker to low at some point
Can also add other root veg like parsnip, or fried lardons if you fancy.
When cooked serve with green veg and baked potatoes with lashings of butter
Either re-heat and have them splashed over a doorstop of fresh white bread
Or make them into a pie with some puff pastry