Stewed steak/beef stew

cover the meat in flour, add vegetables of choice, stock and either put in the slow cooker or on low in the oven for a few hours. The longer you cook it, the softer the beef gets

I sometimes use a colemans mix packet tbh

All of these recipes sound great but I always add a bay leaf too, it’s surprising what a difference it makes. I also use those little pots of jellied beef stock rather than cubes which I find too salty. Tomato purée is good too. And whole shallots (Tesco sell frozen ready peeled)

Slow cooker is probably the answer. Chuck in the slow cooker an inexpensive piece of brisket, whatever vegetables you like, a couple of peeled potatoes, whatever gravy you like, any herbs you like. At least 8 hours on low. Baste and turn the beef over a few times whilst cooking. Add some water if the gravy starts to get low or it’s too thick. Easy delicious meals, enough for 2 or 3 days or more. You can freeze it too. I do this with a whole chicken, piece of pork, lamb joint or whatever inexpensive piece of meat I can get hold of. Enjoy.

Slow cooker. Brown the ingredients first, adds tons of flavour.
Onions sliced, chopped, diced however you can do it. I use quite a few, brown these .I do add carrots cos I love them . Maybe you could use what you can tolerate as add flavour.
Chopped celery, usually one stick as it's quite strong; then brown your meat in the pan too. Gets some colour on it. You can add a tablespoon of flour if you want the stew thick.
Now the seasonings. OXO cube or similar, Worcester sauce, soy sauce, garlic if you like it tom paste if you like it.
Boiling water to cover and then let it bubble away on slow cook for an eternity lol
You can add mushrooms near the end but I'm not keen if they go slimy.
If you have any preference on veg. Just bung them in when you sweat off the other veg. I don't put potatoes in mine as don't like them going to mush.
I usually serve with baked duets rather than dumplings. Same ingredients. Twice as much flour as suet a punch of salt and a bit of water to mix X
I'm wanting this for supper now xxx

A little bit of dark chocolate adds a little something to beef dishes.

Guess what we are having for tea!!!Beef casserole and mash.

It’s all very well recommending a slow cooker method, but some of don’t have one of those.
Also, you have to brown meat before putting it into the slow cooker, so it’s not exactly a case of throwing it all in.

Greciangirl

It’s all very well recommending a slow cooker method, but some of don’t have one of those.
Also, you have to brown meat before putting it into the slow cooker, so it’s not exactly a case of throwing it all in.

Browning the meat before putting it into the SC is a choice - I never, ever do it. The taste is slightly different, but I've never had any complaints.

And if you don't have a slow cooker, you can adapt the recipes quite easily for the oven.

Guess what I'm making for son's visit tomorrow?
3 hours in casserole dish in oven today . Half hour or so tomorrow
Smells delicious.

In my neck of the woods, we have a charity giving slow cookers to families struggling with fuel bills. They get the cooker and a personal lesson on how to use it.

I'm a 'throw it all in' kind of girl.
I've got an electric pressure cooker so that helps a lot.

I've also got an onion chopper that chops into 5mm cubes, so any veg I'm not keen on get chopped through that so that (in most cases) they'll 'melt' into the gravy.
I'll usually grab a bag of frozen beef or chicken cubes in Asda for about £3.70, some onions, carrots, maybe a parsnip and leeks, (you can add other veg too if you choose), a tin of baked beans, a couple of dessert spoons of pearl barley, maybe 1 dessert spoon of red lentils, a teaspoon of mild curry powder, a splash of Worcestershire sauce, half a teaspoon of garlic granules or a couple of crushed cloves, maybe a few potatoes (to save doing them separately) and a few stock cubes, then just throw it all in the pot, press the 'stews' button, change the time to maybe 45mins and when it beeps to say it's done, I add a couple of teaspoons of corn flour that's been mixed with a little cold water and put the pot back on for 5-10mins and voila! One loverly hearty stew.

You could do this in a slow cooker but it would take several hours or throw it into a big pan and cook it on the stove for maybe 2hrs.

@m0nica... which area do you live in? Just a general area would be helpful to let people know whether they might be able to obtain one of these free slow cookers

I use either a slow cooker or a heavy saucepan on lowest heat.

Beef shin - consistently best results. Stewing steak too £ & just not as unctuous. Browned off in plenty of good olive oil.

Then chuck in:
three/generous stalks celery as this is a garlic & onion free FODMAP realm;
two bay leaves:
big pinch dried mixed herbs;
clump of fresh thyme;
beef stock to cover (Bay’s Kitchen FODMAP beef stock in a jar is good, £ but it is onion & garlic free);
big dollop of tomato purée or small jar/tetrabrick passata;
ground black pepper;
Star anise or two;
splash of vino to deglaze pan after meat browned.

Cover pan.
Slow simmer pan on hob/slow cooker on auto.
Do something else for at least 120 minutes.
Return to pan, test meat for tenderness, taste for flavour, tweak seasonings.
Do something else until meat tender. Final taste for flavour & season to taste.

Current favourite is slow cooked shin meat as pie topped with GF Jus-Roll puff, all cooking liquid as superb gravy alongside, with tons of steamed carrots & green beans.

I also don’t like carrots in a casserole stew.
The only extra vegetables I might put in at the beginning are turnips (sublime slow cooked) & funnily enough green runner beans which impart a subtle sweetness & depth. Don’t look much after a slow cook but do add something.

Also fistful of finely chopped parsley thrown in to heat through just before serving perks things up a bit.

Also, use cornflour to thicken liquid to make the gravy just right.

Stargazer I had better not. I read about the charity on a village noticeboard and I think it is very small and very local and would probably not have the capacity to cope with a sudden influx of applications.

Were I to stray across the farm, another hearty stew is lamb neck fillet. Not a cheap as cut as it used to be but delicious at a good price.

Same guidelines as beef: stick, herbs, vegetables etc… & my twist is long squeeze of anchovy paste or a few chopped anchovies from the eternal jarful in the fridge door.

MawtheMerrier

Ox cheek or shin are wonderfully tender in stews, you could eat the meat with a teaspoon it is so tender!

Thats interesting to know. I think a trip to the butcher is in order!

ParlorGames

cc

I make a ragout which is small cubes of beef, diced carrots, fried onions, orange peel/juice, thyme, seasoning and a star anise. Half cover with some liquid and slow cook. This is lovely the next day. It might disintegrate a bit after being reheated a few times, at which stage you can layer it with potatoes and cook in the oven to brown.
When my kids were at home I used to make a huge one and they were happy to eat it for a few days.

Oh cc, how many times did you reheat it? Surely, leftovers should be reheated only once??

No problem reheating casserole, just bring it to a high temperature - you can use a thermometer to get it to 65 degrees if you're ultra-fussy. The one thing I don't re-use is rice.