Roast beef stew is an old-fashioned country dish that can be cooked up in a crock pot with little more than some leftover roast beef and a handful of farm or garden vegetables. While bay leaves are a popular ingredient for beef stew, and could be added here, some people are allergic to them; so it's nice to have a beef stew recipe that doesn't use bay leaves at all. Because this is a recipe for using up leftovers, there's no one right way to proportion the vegetables; just add them in amounts that suit your preference and vegetable availability.
Instructions
1. Cut your leftover beef roast into 2-inch or smaller cubes. Trim off most of the fat for a healthier stew. Place the cut-up meat into a crock pot on high and pour enough water into the pot to cover the meat. Cover the pot and let the meat begin warming as you tend to the vegetables.
2. Scrub the potatoes and carrots vigorously under running water. You can peel them too, if you like, but as long as they're well cleaned it's not necessary.
3. Trim both ends off the carrots and cut out any sprouted eyes in the potatoes, as well as any bruised, soft spots or places where the potato skin is broken.
4. Slice the potato into 1-inch chunks. Slice the carrots medium thick, about 1/4-inch pieces. If you're using skinny carrots you can cut the pieces thicker. Add the potato and carrot pieces to the stew meat in the crock pot. Stir to ensure that everything is well distributed.
5. Peel the outer skin off your yellow onion and chop it into 1/4-inch rounds, then lay each round flat and cut it into eighths. Peel and dice several cloves of raw garlic, too, trimming out any brown spots and other blemishes. Add both garlic and onion to your stew in the crock pot.
6. Stir to ensure the contents of the crock pot are well mixed. Wash several stalks of celery and chop into 1-inch or smaller pieces. Add those to the mix as well. Stir.
7. Add a dash of cayenne pepper. Grind three or four black peppercorns into the stew and add about a teaspoon of salt. Cover and let cook for at least two hours.
8. Test the meat and potatoes periodically to see whether they're done. When the meat is ready, it'll be tender enough that you can cut into it with a spoon. The same is true of the potatoes.
9. Taste the stew and add more seasonings to suit your preference. It'll taste even better the next day, once the flavors have blended. Serve hot.
Tags: beef stew, chop into, crock Stir, crock Stir ensure, into 1-inch, Stir ensure, suit your