Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Slow cooker beef stew

Also on Sunday night, Hub followed my directions to prep for a slow-cooker beef stew. This is part of our effort to figure out how to actually work out of the house and get dinner on the table and not resort to fast food too often. He did the prep Sunday night, then I threw everything into the pot on Monday morning. YiaYia and PaPou came over and brought bread...other than that, it was a complete meal and provided enough leftovers for the next night's supper and for my lunch today! I love leftovers...

2.5 lb cheap beef (beef chuck underblade is what we bought)
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 onion, coursely chopped
4 medium potatoes, cubed to about 2"
1 12 oz bag of baby carrots
2 branches rosemary
1 bay leaf
1 cup mushrooms, quartered
1 quart mushroom broth (Pacific brand is what I used) or I suppose beef broth would work
  1. Cut beef into 2" cubes, removing fat and membranes as desired
  2. Mix flour, salt and pepper in a freezer bag
  3. Put beef into the bag and shake, refrigerate
  4. Mix vegetables and herbs and broth in a bowl, refrigerate
  5. In the morning, put the beef on the bottom of the crock-pot, then throw everything else on top. Set on low.
  6. When I got home, the potatoes were still a bit hard (they were cut too big) and I put the heat on high for 30 minutes. But I think if the potatoes were cut smaller like I've said in the recipe, that wouldn't be necessary.

2 comments:

Jen said...

We are making beef stew this weekend. If I think of it, I will write down what we do and post it here for you.

Is there anything better, by the way, than homemade bread?

I once made my own starter (still have some in the fridge, and it's about 7 or 8 years old) from scratch (no yeast) which can leaven bread by itself. It makes artisan breads-- you make them over a two-day period. Once upon a time in my life, I made homemade bread daily. I even kept a bread journal at the time, and wrote down how I did each recipe, any variations, the humidity, my mood, etc. Sometimes I took shortcuts and added yeast so I could make it all in one day. It was still fabulous, but there is nothing quite like the crust of a slow-leavened, artisan bread.
/end rant. :)

art2mis said...

Oh, wow. I'm very, very, impressed. I have trouble with bread because my house is too darn cold most of the time, so I can only make it on a day I'm doing laundry -- I let it rise in the laundry room while the dryer is on.