Feb 16

49. Beef Stew

Some of you may wonder why I use my slow cooker so much. A couple of reasons.
1. On Tuesdays I take one of the dogs to Dog Obedience and I dont get home until almost 8, so its easy to start dinner in the afternoon
2. My sweet husband bought me the mother of all crock pots for my birthday a couple of years ago. Its an All Clad slow cooker. He bought it for my birthday and had me open it in front of my parents...then asked me to look inside. We all thought there was something inside. It was just the slow cooker and we all still tease him about it. Then after I had had it a year or so it tried to kill me. Thats right...KILL me!! It turned off early and I wondered why. I tried to turn it back on and it sent a shock up my arm and I felt it in my teeth. So it was a bad day! William Sonoma traded it in for us! So I feel I need to use it a lot!

*8-13 small potatoes (1-2 lbs) I used Yukon
*4 large carrots, cut into 1 and 1/2 in lengths
*1/2 cup flour
*1/2 tsp paprika
*1/2 tsp salt
*1/2 tsp pepper
*2 lb boneless beef chuck, tripped of fat and cut into 1 1/2 in chunks
*1-2 TBSP olive oil
*1 large onion, cut into wedges
*1 large rib celery, sliced 1/2 inches
*6-8 mushrooms, cut in half
*2 cups beef broth
*1/2 cup tomato paste
*1 TBSP soy sauce
*1 TBSP red wine vinegar
*1/2 tsp sugar
*pinch of cloves
*1 bay leaf
*2 sprigs fresh parsley (I used bottled that I had)
* 10 on. package of frozen peas, thawed

Place potatoes in the slow cooker
Top with carrots
In a bag or bowl, combine flour, paprika, salt and pepper
Toss the beef to coat
In a skillet heat the olive oil over medium high heat
Add the beef, do not crowd the meat
Brown on all sides of the meat and remove to the slow cooker
Add the celery, onion and mushrooms to the slow cooker and stir, but do not disturb the potatoes
Mix the broth, tomato paste, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, and cloves
Pour into the cooker
Tuck the bay leaf and parsley into the stew
Cover and cook for 8 hours on low or high for 4 hours
Discard the bay leaf and parsley
Stir in the peas and cook on High until peas are hot.