Crock Pot Beef Stew

What happens when hunger strikes and the larder runs emptier than your brain on a Monday morning? You turn to me, the Hungry Homebody for an Easy Peasy recipe that keeps you out of the fast food line up during the hectic supper hour and on to the grocery store to rectify that lack of food in the fridge situation in a SNAP!

A simple way to defeat the twin demons of predictable five o’clock hunger pains and the urge to line up for a Burger King Fix is to always stay ONE MEAL AHEAD on week nights. Make all or most of Wednesday night’s meal on Tuesday so it just needs a quick zap in the microwave after a long day at work! This way you never cook when you are starving (or should I say, you never have to face the prospect of cooking when you are starving!). In slaying the mighty time crunch beast, the crock pot is truly your go to friend… dependable, reliable and forgiving, especially when all you have left in the fridge is a few odds and ends.

 

 

Depending on which remnants you have hanging around your kitchen, add a mixture of any of the following chopped vegetables:  onions, mushrooms, potatoes, celery, carrots, parsnips, whole garlic cloves. I used carrots, mushrooms, an onion and several cloves of garlic for this post.

"The Hunger Slayer"

The night before (or morning of if you are more of a morning person that yours truly), you need to procure 1.5 to 2 lbs of stewing beef. Pat it dry with paper towel, (even though it may seem kinda icky and time-consuming).  In the meat world this means the difference between okay stew and the lick the pot clean stew… simply because the flavour and flour coating will stick better to dry meat and then the meat browns more evenly, and then our bellies will be happier in the end.

Add about 1/3 cup flour, 2 tablespoons mustard powder, ½ package of crushed Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix (or powdered beef bouillon), 2 tablespoons garlic powder, 1 tablespoon paprika and some black pepper to a clean and dry plastic bag. Give it a shake to mix the dry ingredients together and then add the beef to the bag and shake until it’s evenly coated. Remove the excess flour mixture and reserve it in the fridge. Brown the beef in hot oil, then add to the crock pot.

Eyeball the amount of vegetables according to what you have on hand, or your preferred meat to vegetable ratio…  As we all know, some days it’s all about the beef and not so much about the carrots! The recipe is pretty forgiving in terms of the number of vegetables to add, just remember that in the crock pot the meat and vegetables will give off a lot of liquid during the cooking process so you may want to adjust the amount of cooking liquid recommended below if you add a lot of vegetables.

Once everything is nestled in the crock pot, add 1 Tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce (or Soya Sauce), and give or take about a 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of any ONE of the following: red wine, beer, cooking sherry or beef stock. The beef and vegetable mixture should not be covered with liquid or you will end up with a soup rather than a stew! 

If you are making it the night before, put the ceramic portion of the crock pot (with the lid on it) in the fridge. Whip it out of the fridge the morning you are planning to cook it, stick it in the crock pot shell, plug it in and marvel at your domestic god(dess) self, but only for a moment, or you might forget to turn the crock pot on LOW for 8 hours…. And that could lead to disaster! Ahem, not like that’s ever happened to me…

Be prepared for the moment when you walk in your front door after being away all day, because this is going to smell FANTASTIC. Lesser mortals may be willing to skip this next step in dig right in, but I know my readers will see it through to the proper ending.

Remember that bag of leftover flour mixture that I told you to put in the fridge that made you wonder if I was nuts?  Add that mixture to the stew at this stage to thicken the cooking juices into luscious gravy… that tastes great as a finger swirl from the side of the ceramic pot! Give it a quick taste and add a bit of salt and / or pepper if necessary.

Be sure to remind your family of how hard you worked to put dinner on the table and how you managed to make something outta nothing, while they are scarfing down a bowl of deliciousness!

Hungry Homebody