Slow Cooker Beef Stew

Ingredients

2 lbs. boneless beef for stew
1 lb. carrots\cooked, peeled and sliced
8 potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups celery\cooked, sliced
1/4 cup bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 large onion\cooked, diced
3 Tbsps. Minute Tapioca
4 cups tomatoes\cooked
1 Tbsp. brown sugar



Instructions

Combine all ingredients and salt and pepper to taste in a slow cooker on high heat. Cover and cook 5 hours.

For beef stew, I'd prefer to brown the beef first and let it caramelise, cos the bits left in the pot is very tasty.

I also brown some bacon for the stew. (Who doesn't like the flavor of bacon!?)

And then I'd add red wine and beef stock and slow cook it.

I have a similar recipe here: slow cook beef stew

Mmmm! That recipe looks very good. I live beef stew. It's one of the few things my hubby & I can both agree on.

The other idea sounds good too. That probably would be good to brown the meat first. I've never heard of anyone doing that for stew before.

Hehe. I got that browning tip from watching Ina Garten in Barefoot Contessa. But she did not use a slow cooker. She used one of those very heavy pots (I don't know what it's called) to brown the beef and bacon, then use wine to deglaze (remove the delicious brown bits) the bottom of the pot.

I'm glad I found this recipe through the search option. I have been looking for a recipe using the Minute Tapioca. I'm interested in the volume of liquid to use with it. I have learned though that when using the Minute Tapioca you have to bloom it for about 15 minutes before you start to heat it.

Yeah you really did find it!!!

The Ironic Chef said:

I'm glad I found this recipe through the search option. I have been looking for a recipe using the Minute Tapioca. I'm interested in the volume of liquid to use with it. I have learned though that when using the Minute Tapioca you have to bloom it for about 15 minutes before you start to heat it.

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Let me know IC! I might just give it a try!

Where does the actual broth come from? It looks like it's just all solid ingredients. And second, do you mean to actually cook the carrots, celery, etc before hand and not in the slow cooker? I guess I'd think if you put them in pre-cooked they would turn to mush.

@simcooks: how much beef stock/wine would you add to this? I like my stews with a lot of broth.

I'm new to all this so trying to learn.

Also, I've almost never heard of stew that the meat WAS NOT browned first. Might just be something passed down in the family, but I know everyone from my great grandma to my cousins all brown it first. Probably depends on what flavor you like.

agroom said:

Also, I've almost never heard of stew that the meat WAS NOT browned first. Might just be something passed down in the family, but I know everyone from my great grandma to my cousins all brown it first. Probably depends on what flavor you like.

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I listed a really great recipe on here a while ago called "Red Wine Beef Stew" I got it out of the Southern Living Magazine, and in that recipe you brown the meat first, it is so good you may want to look it up and give it a try!!!