I'm still figuring this out, but aiming for it to have as big a place in as any winter meat-based dishing my cooking rotation.
Ingredients
2 pounds stew beef
2 pound russet potatoes
1 pound carrots
1/2 pound mushrooms
six cloves of garlic
1 large onion (not a sweet one)
1 bottle of Belgian Stout
A tablespoon of Better than Bouillion chicken
1/3 cup flour
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Tools
Big skillet (smaller will work but take longer)
Slow cooker
Cooking tongs
Eight hours to spend on something really good.
Steps
Combine flour, a teaspoon of salt, and a good sprinkling of pepper in a bowl. Stir, and add pepper if you can't see any.
In batches, toss the beef pieces around in the flour until all sides are covered, then shake so the extra comes off, put those pieces in another container, and repeat until everything is floured.
Coat the bottom of the skillet with olive oil and heat over medium heat until you smell the oil and can feel the heat when you hold your hand an inch above the surface.
Put a bunch of beef in, making sure the pieces are half an inch apart.
Now you're going to do two sets things at once.
The meat you'll flip after three minutes, then move to the crockpot after three more, then start a new batch and continue until it's all done.
Meanwhile, you'll peel the carrots, cut them into thick coins, cut the onion into pieces about the same size, cut the mushrooms in thick slices, peel the garlic cloves, and slice them pretty thin (or if your slices seem thicker, cut them crossways a couple of times).
When the last batch of meat is done, take the pan off the stove for a minute or two to cool a bit. Add some more olive oil, so it's more than just a coating--like two or three coatings worth. Put the pan back on the heat, set lower than for the meat.
Add the carrots. You want them to sweat in the oil for about five minutes, flipping them once in the middle. You aren't aiming for them to brown: you're softening them and making the flavor richer.
While that's happening, finish the onion/mushroom/garlic steps if any are still waiting.
Gently move the carrots to the dish that used to hold the meat waiting to cook, trying to leave nearly all the oil.
Add the onions to the pan and repeat the process.
Add the mushrooms to the pan and repeat again--but when they've been cooking for four minutes, add the garlic and do a lot of stirring.
When the mushrooms have had their five minutes and the garlic has had one minute, tip the whole pan over the slow cooker so everything drops in at once. Then add all the other vegetables.
Mix the better than bouillon with a cup of hot water and pour it into the crockpot.
Add the ale to the crockpot and then add a tablespoon of salt.
Stir every thing until the meat and vegetables are all mixed up.
Add a bit more hot water, enough for the meat and veg to be almost/not quite covered. You should see little islands above the lake.
Put the lid on the crockpot, plug it in, turn it on, and set it on high.
After an hour and a half, wash the potatoes and cut them into pieces that are roughly as big as you can put in your mouth happily without cutting them again. (You can peel the potatoes if you really want to. I wouldn't)
Put some three or four cups water on to boil.
When the stew has been cooking for two hours, add the potatoes to the crockpot, stir so that they're all mixed up with everything else, and then add boiling water to almost/not quite cover the meat and veg again.
Cook for another four hours, stirring only a couple of times. Then test a piece of carrot and a piece of potatoes to see if they have the right texture. Right means "the way you like carrots and potatoes in your stew." If not, cook for half an hour and check again, repeating until you like what you find.
If you like your stew broth to have some thickness, now you can make that happen. Put two tablespoons of flour in a cup, add four tablespoons of water, and mix them together really well with a fork. Add some not all of that to the crockpot and stir thoroughly for about a minute. Stop if you like the texture, or repeat the adding-and-stirring until you do. Be sure to give it a full minute so you can see how much thickness it adds.
When you like the stew, unplug the crockpot, put some in bowls, add some pepper and eat.
(If you put the pepper in while cooking, the potatoes will absorb it all. This wisdom is a gift from Uncle Paul. Use it.)
When the crockpot has had an hour or so to cool, you can move the crock to the fridge.
