crockpot beef stew

Crockpot’s are brilliant and I miss mine so much, I think I may have to invest in a new one soon. I had never owned one before, but we were given one in the States, which although I didn’t use all the time, proved invaluable for busy days when cooking was going to be tough to fit in. This Beef Stew, was my first Crockpot recipe, and after I made this in it, I crock potted all my stews, chilli’s and even Bolognese sauce. I love that you can throw everything in the one pot, add limited clean up and that you flick a switch, show up 8 hours later and HEY HO! It’s ready to eat….. If I am honest the best stews where made in my Crockpot.

After having a look on Amazon, I have found that you can buy them from as little as £16.00, obviously some are a lot more expensive, it depends on what brand you want and what you want them to do, I saw an all singing all dancing one, which, steamed, slow cooked, and was also a rice and porridge maker, but that was £68.00. Although it was and is totally lovely, I would probably not use it to it’s full potential – I buy boil in bag rice, so the rice maker bit wouldn’t get used – frozen vegetables, so the steamer bit is out, I am not naïve enough to think you can only steam vegetables, I am just left wondering if I would really steam anything else? Porridge, hmmm, maybe, but I don’t make it often enough to warrant a maker. So that’s the porridge bit out too. This machine was by no means the most expensive either, I settled on a Morphey Richards slow cooker 6.5litre, so very big and it was £27.00, I have put it in my wish list for later. I’ve managed without for 17 months a little while longer is not going to hurt!!

Beef Stew

2lbs beef, cubed

¼ cup flour

½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

1 ½ cups beef broth

1tsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 garlic clove

1 bay leaf

1tsp paprika

4 carrots, sliced

3 potatoes, sliced

1 onion, chopped

Put meat into the Crockpot, mix flour, salt and pepper, and stir to coat the meat, stir in the rest of the ingredients cover and cook…