In 2001 my Grandma sent me a slow-cooker in the post to my university house- she obviously thought it was a kitchen essential, and remembered that my very favourite of all the meals that she cooked was her steak pie, which had a gorgeous filling made in the slow cooker. It came with a little booklet, and the very first recipe in it was a beef and ale stew. I don’t think I ever made it past that page in the book as it was so good I didn’t cook anything else in the slow cooker for years!
As much as I love beef and ale stew, I wanted to find an alternative that didn’t involve ale or red wine. It’s important to me that a beef stew looks good as well as tastes good- I like it nice and dark- I know it seems silly but it matters to me! This experimental version was very nice, and the whole family enjoyed it which is always a bonus!
If you are on Slimming World you could easily make this much lower syn by missing out the oil and flour- you don’t need to pre-cook the meat, I just think it comes out nicer this way, and the flour thickens the sauce but it still tastes good without!