Beef Stew

I'm finding it hard to describe the taste of this scrumptious slow cooked beef stew.

I'll try.

The beef was oh so tender.

The gravy was bursting with flavors, mopped clean with a crusty bread and the tender vegetables just melted in my mouth. 

Will that do?

This stew recipe is a basic one  and the ingredients list can be widely varied to suit your needs or tastes, for example the actual recipe calls for red wine, and I omitted that. (I rather sip my wine while enjoying this stew).  

600 g beef (brisket, chuck or any other stewing steak)
4 medium size shallot
2 carrots 
2 sticks celery 
1 clove of garlic
1 large potato
2 bay leaves
1 sprig of thyme
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard 
500 ml beef stock 
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil 
salt to taste
2 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce. 
1 cup of leftover red wine

Chop the meat into bite size cubes, then season the with salt & pepper.  Coat each cube in flour and  fry it ( Oil)  until it is browned on all sides. 

Do this in batches  and don't over crowd the pan else the meat will boil and not brown. Set aside.

Cut all the carrots, potato and  celery into a bite size pieces  and gently saute it in the same pan, not forgetting the shallots.
Transfer all the meat, vegetables and the rest of the ingredients  into a slow cooker with a lid for 3 hours, checking it every half an hour to make sure there is enough liquid (if it appears to be getting too low, just add some hot water). 
After 3 hours, remove it from the cooker and serve with crusty bread or you can use this stew to make your favorite beef pie.

Enjoy...jue.
recipe modified from Really Nice Recipe