Crockpot (aka slow cooker) beef stew... finally...

I know the above photo wasn't very well-taken, but I was hungry and I couldn't wait to try out the beef stew that I had been wanting sooo long to try cooking! Besides, it was so hot it kept fogging up the camera lens... :D

Anyway, it's really simple and convenient coz it's a crockpot dish and all you need to do is to serve it with rice or toasted bread, whichever you prefer (my hubby prefers rice, so rice it was...) and if you like, you can pair it with a salad to make the meal a healthier one! I thought the amount was too much for us so I didn't prepare the veggies but it was so tasty we felt that it wasn't enough! :) Should have cooked more rice.... lol.

Anyway, Alicia had this for dinner too! This is hers... I shredded the beef and lightly mashed the potato and carrot chunks... quite a heavy dinner since there's quite a lot of rice and stew... she managed to eat about half of everything... btw, this is a toddler-sized bowl in case you're wondering... :)

Beef Stew (serves 2 adults + 1 toddler) (edited on 27 May 2011)

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of beef (the packaging indicates it's for stewing) bought from Cold Storage (about S$10)
• 1 white/ yellow onion (minced)
• 8-10 white button mushrooms
• 1 big carrot (cut into chunks)
• 4 small potatoes (peeled, cut into chunks)
• 2-3 sticks celery (sliced)
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 Knorr Beef cube
• 400ml water

Marinade for beef:

• 2 tablespoons cornflour
• all-purpose salt-free herbs (enough to coat the beef cubes nicely)
• ground black pepper (as desired)
• 1-2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1/2 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

Method:

1. Rinse the beef cubes and cut into appropriate sizes.
2. Marinate the beef cubes.
3. Dissolve the Knorr beef cube in 400ml hot water to make the beef stock. You may use other types of beef stock if preferred.
4. Add some oil/ butter and brown the beef briefly in a non-stick pan.
5. Remove and set aside.
6. Add a bit more oil/ butter to the pan and fry the onion till soft then add the mushrooms. 
7. After frying the mushrooms and onion for a couple of minutes, add the beef back to the pan together with the beef stock and bay leaves and let it come to a boil.
8. Place the potatoes, celery and carrot chunks in the slowcooker.
9. Pour the ingredients from the pan into the slowcooker and cook on high heat for 4 hours (or low heat for 6hrs) and resist the temptation to open the lid to taste the stew before the time is up! - opening the cover before the cooking's done adds another 15min to cooking time (each time u open it!): so unless you're prepared to wait longer for this stew, do not open the cover unnecessarily.

Here it is, served with rice.. Tuck in!

I'm really starting to love my slow cooker... Because dinner was fixed so easily and so quickly, I had time to iron the laundry today! Yay!!!! :D