Stu’s Beef Stew (Pot or Slow Cooker)

16th February 2016 · Food and Drink

Ingredients

  • 300-450g Beef Steak (cheap frying steak or pre-cubed are both fine)
  • 1 OXO Cube
  • 1 can of Oxtail or Royal Game Soup
  • 200-300g carrots
  • 200-300g parsnips
  • 200-300g potatoes (or a can of new potatoes)
  • 250g of (button or white) mushrooms
  • HP Sauce

Pot Method

  • Roughly cut or cube steak into medium-large sized pieces, then brown in pot on stove just to seal it.
  • Once browned, crumble in OXO cube, add can of soup, and then fill pot to about half way with cold water. Keep heat on whilst preparing the vegetables.
  • Peel and chop carrots, and add to pot. Then the same with the potatoes, then the parsnips.
  • Remove stalks from mushrooms. You do not need to slice the mushrooms, unless they are larger than normal, they will shrink during cooking. Add them to the pot.
  • Add the “secret ingredient”… a nice big dollop of HP sauce. Then a little more sauce…
  • If it’s not boiling once everything is added, it should be within a few minutes.
  • Once boiling, turn down the heat and simmer for about 3-4 hours. Just stir every half hour, or hour, or so to stop things sticking.

Slow Cooker Method

  • Roughly cut or cube steak into medium-large sized pieces and add to cooker. There is no real need to pre-brown the steak, but you can if you want to.
  • Crumble in OXO cube, add can of soup.
  • Peel and chop carrots, and add to cooker. Then the same with the potatoes, then the parsnips.
  • Remove stalks from mushrooms. You do not need to slice the mushrooms, unless they are larger than normal, they will shrink during cooking. Add them to the cooker.
  • Add the “secret ingredient”… a nice big dollop of HP sauce. Then a little more sauce…
  • Set the heat to high for the first hour, then reduce to low and leave to cook for about 10-11 hours. If you need it to cook quicker, go from high to medium, then to low. Adjust the timings based on your cooker.
  • There is no real need to stir whilst cooking apart from when changing from high to low/medium, just to make sure everything has heated through.

Serves

1 very greedy person or 2-3 normal people. You can vary ratios and overall quantities to taste.