Tesco Value Chef: Beef stew

I have blogged beef stew before, but it's one of those simple dishes that bears repeating - I've also learned a couple of things and discovered some new products since then. I've also tampered with it slightly, so I want to show that it's OK to muck about with recipes if you decide you want things done slightly differently.

We're well into April now so I wouldn't normally be serving dishes like this but it's been such a horrible spring - it rained this morning - that I still want nice warming stew. Also, I can never resist using my slow-cooker - complete with timings in today's recipes so you can see how slow I go on my days off!

14:30

First of all, chop up a couple of shallots (or onions and a clove of garlic) and peel and slice a couple of carrots. I've found that I prefer thin slices of carrot to big bite-size chunks but it's all down to personal preference. These are from our excellent local greengrocer - he's cheaper than the supermarkets and the veg always looks more appealing.

14:44

Sweat the shallots and carrot in a drop of veg oil and a knob of butter over the lowest possible heat. You don't want to brown them, just soften them.

14:47

While that's going on, prepare your meat. Waitrose do an excellent range of "forgotten cuts" and I couldn't resist trying ox cheek the first time I saw it. One cheek gives you around 350-400g meat: this one was 370g costing £2.40. A bargain! I decided to top it up with 250g braising steak (costing £2.75 from the local butcher) because I like variety. I'm a big fan of cheap cuts - a fiver for enough meat to feed four hungry people or about six WeightWatchers portions is A Good Thing.

Chop your cheek into bite-size portions. It's fairly lean but you'll want to trim away any lumps of fat you find.

14:59

By this time the shallots and carrots will be nicely softened, so spoon them all into the slow-cooker insert. Get the pan smoking hot, add a drop more veg oil if you need to and brown the meat on all sides. This is the opposite to what we did with the shallots and carrot: just a few seconds on each side at a blistering heat to maximise flavour. Do it in batches to avoid crowding the pan and transfer the meat straight to the slow-cooker insert.

Looking at the old recipe, I used to coat the meat in cornflour in the belief that it would thicken the sauce. I've got lazy and stopped doing that, and I don't think it makes a blind bit of difference to the sauce. What do you think?

15:04

Once that's done, pour half a pint of beer into the pan and boil it for a minute or so, scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon as you do so that you don't leave any flavour behind in the bottom.

I used to just add beer to the slow cooker, but I've since read that when cooking with beer or wine you should boil it in order to reduce it and get a full flavour while getting rid of the harshness of the alcohol.

The usual rule with beer is to buy local. For some reason I went to Sainsbury's when I bought this and disappointingly they didn't have anything local so I just went with what was on special offer - Greene King is perfectly acceptable beer, especially for £1.

Chuck that in the slow cooker too, then add your stock.

This is unusually profligate of me, but I have recently discovered the delights of Waitrose Heston stock. It's expensive so you won't be using it every single time you want stock, but for something like this - a big production, with guests round - it really impresses. If you can't afford Heston, or you think it's a waste, at least use home-made or a decent brand. An Oxo cube is really not up to par in these circumstances, when the stock is a main ingredient of the dish.

15:10

I used to add chunks of potato or parsnip, but I've since decided I don't like the texture they develop in a slow cooker. It needs something to bulk it up though, so I go with pearl barley - 75g in this case, as it expands quite considerably when cooked. The Heston stock is so good it doesn't need much in the way of seasoning, but I also chucked in some thyme, a bouquet garni and a couple of bay leaves.

Turn the slow cooker on Low and go and enjoy the rest of the afternoon.

18:49
A stew needs mushrooms, but they don't take very long to cook so pop them in not too long before the end of cooking time.

19:02
Once the 'shrooms are in, follow the instructions on a pack of suet to make dumplings. I always find I need a few drops more water than they recommend. They like a big of heat to cook through, so turn the slow cooker up to High at this point.