March 21, 2018
This week I have for you another slow cooker recipe! I’ve been trying to lift my cooking game a bit and try different things midweek instead of my usual go to of grilled chicken or a stir fry, and this has resulted in getting a lot of use out of the slow cooker! I guess the meals I’ve been drawn to are ones that you can’t usually cook mid week as they need a few hours in the oven, but luckily I can usually work out a slow cooker version that saves the day!
This week I decided to try a slow cooker version of beef burguignon. It’s something that I’ve never cooked myself, but that my mum used to cook a fair bit when I was living at home. She had all these different and delicious pot roasts and stews that she used to make and they were always so delicious, but something that I’ve never tried making myself. When I was looking for inspiration for the week and found a recipe for beef burguignon on Pinterest, I decided it was time to try something new and give it a go! I rarely cook with beef, and even less when it involves slow cooking it, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try something new!
I think the other reason I decided to cook this meal is that I am starting to get excited for our trip to France in June! I am not one to usually cook French food, and so I figured it was time I started experimenting a little so that I can get in the mood for France. Often I find French food quite rich, and this dish can be no different, but I found this version of it to be no where near as rich as it can be. It was the perfect combination of delicious without being too heavy, and having it cook all day meant that the beef was super tender and perfect when it came time for dinner!
- 700 grams chuck steak, diced
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1 brown onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 4 carrots, diced
- 3 celery stalks, diced
- 3 dried bay leaves
- 4 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 sachet tomato paste
- 2 cups beef stock
- 1.5 cup red wine
- 300 grams button mushrooms, chopped
- handful fresh parsley, chopped
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In a frypan over a medium-high heat, heat the olive oil. Season the steak pieces with salt and pepper, and add to the fry pan. Cook on all sides until all the steak is browned on the outside (you may need to remove excess liquid from the pan). This should take about 10 minutes.
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Remove the steak from the pan and place in the slow cooker. Maintaining the heat in the fry pan, add the onion, carrots and celery and cook for about 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding olive oil if sticking occurs.
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Add the onion, carrots and celery to the slow cooker once the onion is browned and the carrots and celery begin to soften. Add the red wine to the fry pan and allow to simmer for a minute, ensuring you use a spoon to scrape off any caramelised bits from the pan. Pour the red wine into the slow cooker and remove the fry pan from the heat.
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Add the garlic, bay leaves, fresh thyme, tomato paste and beef stock to the slow cooker and stir to combine. Place the slow cooker on a low heat for 8 hours.
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An hour before serving, add the chopped mushrooms to the slow cooker and stir.
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When you are ready to serve, spoon the mixture over pasta or polenta, or greens if you wish, and sprinkle with fresh parsley.
What I loved about this recipe was how easy it was to make, but that is the beauty of the slow cooker. I love being able to dump a bunch of ingredients in the pot, leave it for hours, and when you come back from work the food has developed into something incredible. It really doesn’t take that long in the morning to get the dish ready, and that little bit of extra work before you go to work makes the biggest difference when you get home and there isn’t much left to do!
I served this dish with some polenta and I probably should have done something that would soak up the sauce a bit better, but it was still quite delicious! I also put some steamed zucchini with it too which was a nice addition to all the veggies that had been cooking away all day. You could easily serve this with mashed potato if you wanted to, or some pasta. I’ve also had leftovers with just some baby spinach which is a lighter option if you’d rather.
This dish was so delicious and packed full of flavour from cooking all day. The wine sauce, along with all the herbs and a bit of tomato, is the perfect match with the slow cooked beef. Cooking the chuck steak all day makes it super tender and full of flavour as well, and I know when I walked in the door I was hit with the beautiful smells of the meat cooking away. I feel a bit bad for our puppy, the smells of the apartment must have been driving him crazy while he was home alone! I also loved how many vegetables were in this stew, and having them cooking away in the juices made them that much more delicious. It was very difficult to resist having two servings of this amazing meal.
I’m definitely going to be trying some more french cooking in the lead up to my holiday! Does anyone have any recommendations?
Until next time, happy eating!
Ella xx
