There really is nothing better then a good beef stew. Throughout the summer the barbeque is the king of dinner. As the weather cool the crock pot comes out and the beef stew start too cook.

This is really a basic stew however it can be modified to suit your taste. This will get you started in the right direction and you can take it from there.

Start by getting the crock pot set up and heated. Fill the pot with hot tap water and start to heat it up. I don’t like to heat up the crock pot without liquid in it. I don’t want to crack it.

Then in a large saucepan add some oil to the pot and let it heat up add the beef and start to brown it. The goal is to seer the meat and lock in the juice. Keep turning the cubes so all the sides get browned. Keep an eye on the heat, you don’t want to burn the beef to the pan. I generally use about 6 on my stove. The meat should cook about half way then remove it from the pot.

Add a little oil if needed and start adding your cut carrots, potatos and onion. Get everything moving around so everything gets covered in the oil. You also want to scrape off the bits left on the pan from seering the meat. There is a ton of flavor left in the “pan drippings”. Read the rest of this entry »