Beef Casserole

By popular demand here is a recipe for a gorgeous slow cooked beef casserole.   I easily got 4 portions out of this (well 2 and then we both went back for another helping with some left over for the next day!)  Slow cookers are great, start all your ingredients off in a pan and then transfer them over into the dish and leave it to cook, so simple!  This one took about 3 hours to cook but it was totally worth the wait, the beef melted in my mouth.

To make the beef casserole you'll need the following:

• 1 pack of beef cubes or braising steak
• 8-10 shallots either left whole if they are small or cut in half if they are quite large
• 1 pack of baby button mushrooms either left whole or cut into quarters
• 1 carrot sliced (don't bother peeling)
• 1 tin of cherry tomatoes or chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 bottle of red wine ( any will do as long as its good quality)
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 200ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tsp rosemary
• 1 tsp parsley
• 1 tsp mint (this was actually added by mistake but it blended in well)
• 1 tsp thyme
• Salt and Pepper
• Olive oil for cooking

Its quite a long list of ingredients but it creates such a beautiful meal! 

Cut your beef up into nice bite sized chunks (the picture is not the size the beef ended up, that's how it started!) and seal in a frying pan for a couple of minutes.  It doesnt need to be cooked all the way through, you are just starting the process off.  Add to the slow cooker.



In the same pan that you used for your beef, fry the shallots, mushrooms and garlic in a little olive oil for a couple of minutes and add that to the slow cooker.  Meanwhile add your carrots to a pan of boiling water for about 5 minutes otherwise I find that when the rest of the ingredients are cooked the carrots are still as tough as old boots! Once cooked drain and transfer to the slow cooker too

In the same pan again, add the red wine and simmer for 5 minutes cooking off some of the alcohol, then add this to the slow cooker.

Add your tinned tomatoes, tomato ketchup, tomato paste, stock, herbs and seasoning to the slow cooker and give it a good stir to mix it all together.  Cook on high for 3 hours and voila...a beautiful beef casserole.

                                                  Before                                      After

Serve with some creamy mash.  I can't tell you just how good this is, infact writing this is making me so hungry im off to eat the leftovers!!