Beef steaks in slow cooker

Queen-Bee_2

Hello everyone,

Well I made a beef stew with half the meat, a jamie oliver recipe I found on the net, But to be honest it tastes a bit... boring!!!!!

I'm keen to follow up Andy's idea of a curry for the rest of the meat, but am not confident with the spices I'd need to use and would like to avoid having to buy in anything specially. Andy... if you're readings this.....

As well as the boring stew, I made a caldron of leek, ginger and parsnip soup. This is really flavoursome!
QB

andygb

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Hello everyone,

Well I made a beef stew with half the meat, a jamie oliver recipe I found on the net, But to be honest it tastes a bit... boring!!!!!

I'm keen to follow up Andy's idea of a curry for the rest of the meat, but am not confident with the spices I'd need to use and would like to avoid having to buy in anything specially. Andy... if you're readings this.....

As well as the boring stew, I made a caldron of leek, ginger and parsnip soup. This is really flavoursome!
QB

Hi QB, here I am back again.
I have one of the normal sized slow cookers (1.5 litres I think - medium?), and I use the following measures:
2 tbs vegetable/sunflower oil
I large onion roughly chopped
3 - 5 cloves of garlic, well crushed
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper (brilliant for beef)
1 tsp chilli powder (i like it hot, so sometimes put two in)
2 tsp tandoori masala powder
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp garam masala powder
Fry the onions, salt, pepper and garlic in the oil gently to turn them golden, and soften them, do not burn. Then add the rest of the spices, and stir well, not allowing them to stick on the pan or burn (because this will make the taste very bitter).
Then add around 500g - 750g of chopped beef (1 inch chunks), and stir in well, coating with the spice mix. Allow the beef to get a bit of colour, then transfer it to a larger pot. Add the finely chopped potatoes and peas to the onion mix in the pan and gently fry, then add to the beef in the stockpot.
Put the stockpot on a low/medium heat, add one tin of chopped tomatoes, juice of one lemon, one tablespoon of tamarind juice, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and one handful of coarsely chopped fresh coriander.
Bring this all up to the boil and simmer for 15 minutes whilst the slow cooker is warming up.
Check the seasoning regularly, and the consistency. If it is too thin then add a handful of yellow lentils.
It should take around 4 - 5 hours on high to cook, and it tastes a little like a Vindaloo. You can of course alter the amount of chilli if you like your curry mild.

Andy

Queen-Bee_2

Thank you Andy!!!

Yum yum yum...

I'm looking forward to my spices after that boring stew. Shame I made four portions of the stuff. So much for Jamie Oliver.

I didn't know about the burning making stuff taste bitter - useful to know.

Well, I'm off to do my curry now. Will report back anon...
QB

zippychick

HI Queen-Bee:hello:

When you say your stew is boring, can you not play about with it to give it some flavour? Have you seasoned it well? Was it this recipe? Could you use a portion or two of stew as a pie filling?

Found a few other links for you as well with other recipe suggestions

Beef steaks in slow cooker

Slow cooker beef casserole

Beef brisket in the slow cooker

Joints of beef in the slow cooker

Index of Slow cooker beef recipes

I'll add your thread to the Beef steaks thread later to keep the ideas together

thanks
Zip

andygb

Queen-Bee wrote: »

Thank you Andy!!!

Yum yum yum...

I'm looking forward to my spices after that boring stew. Shame I made four portions of the stuff. So much for Jamie Oliver.

I didn't know about the burning making stuff taste bitter - useful to know.

Well, I'm off to do my curry now. Will report back anon...
QB

I have to admit that I find most food boring unless I add spices or herbs of some kind. I was brought up in a household where bland food was the order of the day, even if it was cooked quite well. We used to never see smoked bacon, garlic, chilli, in fact the most adventurous addition was sage and onion stuffing in the Sunday roast chicken .
I ate my first curry at the age of 21, after passing an Indian restaurant whilst out on a marathon training run. I got home, had a shower, and ordered a meal (going by their advice), and I have never looked back.
If I cooked an ordinary beef stew (Bouef Bourgignon for instance), I would add a touch of chilli powder, just to lift the flavour, in addition to a bouquet garni, or mixed dry herbes de Provence (Oregano, Rosemary, Thyme and the like). I would also fry off some smoked bacon lardons with the onions, to add more flavour, as well as three cloves of garlic.
If you go into any small French village/town where there is a market, you will see large cauldrons of different stews, real country style, slow cooked food. It all smells and tastes fantastic. All we get over here are burger vans!:(
So, experiment with big flavours, and remember it takes time to master the balance, and get the taste just right.

Andy

Wee_Bargain_Hunter

Hi QB,

Maybe you could quickly cook a tin of tomatos & spices etc & add to the stew you have already made? Or fry some bacon bits & add some red wine?

If you are still looking for a less boring stew then goulash served with rice & natural yoghurt is lovely;
(for 4 people : 750g beef, 1 onion, 1 garlic clove , 2 tbsp paprika, 1 red pepper, 175g mushrooms, can chopped tomatoes, 2tbsp tomato puree, pint beef stock, 1tbsp cornflower to thicken).

Just fry off the paprika gently for a short time to release flavour at the end of softening the onions etc before adding any liquids & put the whole lot in your slow cooker.

This is a "normal" recipe I have used many times but havn't written down the adapted sc instructions so you will probably have to use less liquid especially with the mushrooms included. I usually just put in whatever veg I have available.

As for the beer, I usually replace some of my stock with it & have beer & mushroom stew with whatever other veg I have. Mixed herbs work well with it but maybe a bit too bland for you?

Edit: Just noticed that Zippy & Andy got in while I was typing but I hope my ideas are still useful!

Queen-Bee_2

The curry was fab - thanks everyone for your suggestions to liven up my stew. I think it's probably very nice, but like Andy, I like more flavour in my food. I too was bought up in a household which had perfectly good, but uninteresting meals - there were far fewer 'exotic' ingredients around in those days though... even garlic was seen as being a departure from the norm!!
QB