Browning the meat

I really like cooking stews in my crockpot. The idea of not having to do much at dinner time to get dinner ready appeals to me, and I love the way the aroma fills the house. I used to make a stew with chuck, canned mushroom soup, and onion soup mix. I like it, but since I only cook on the weekends now, I’m up for more of a challenge.

Veggies ready to be added, and my new
tea strainer in the background. I love it
even if it is yellow.

People at work bring in their old magazines and catalogs for the restroom. So when I need a break at work and really want to be left alone, I go sit on a toilet and read a magazine. This recipe came from one of those magazines.

I like colorful things.

This recipe called for a dutch oven, not crock pot, but I figured that was close enough. However, it did mean that I needed to wash an additional pan because I don’t know if you can brown meat in a crock pot. I’ve never coated my stew meat before. The flour makes the meat really unappetizing looking. However, it browns nicely.

Easy flavoring

The recipe also called for the veggies to cook in the dutch oven for a few minutes before adding the liquids. Does this really make a difference?

Make it soupy.

Anyway, after browning everything, I transferred it to the crockpot and added tomato paste, mustard, beer, and beef broth. The recipe called for dark beer, but I used the stuff that DH uses to bar-b-que ribs.

Delicious

The stew came out more like a thick soup, which was fine by me. It was really, really good.