Slow cooked beef

Ingredients

1kg gravy beef or round steak, cubed
2 rashers bacon, chopped
2 onions, finely sliced
2 potatoes, chopped into 1cm dice
10 button mushrooms, halved
half a cup (125mL) good quality beef stock
half a cup (125mL) red wine

Method

I have recently borrowed my foodie mother-in-laws Crock Pot/Slow Cooker

Here is my first crock-potted meal (if you dont have one, check the notes below for other cooking methods). Place potatoes, onions and mushrooms in the crock pot (vegies take longer to cook), then add beef, bacon, stock and red wine.

Now I know it doesnt look like much liquid, but dont add anymore or you will end up with soup (like I did!).

You can always add more liquid towards the end of cooking if you would like more sauce.
Turn the crock pot onto the low setting and let it go for 8-10 hours.

Thats it you dont need to take the lid off and you dont need to stir it.

Notes:

Miraculously, my children were ready for school early the morning I decided to crock-pot.
If you can tolerate raw meat at 8am, then do as I did and have your dinner cooking by 8.15am!
You could prepare all the ingredients the night before, refrigerate them and throw into the crock pot before or after school drop-off.
I had too much sauce, so at about the 9 hour mark, took the lid off, turned the heat to high and let it boil away to reduce the sauce.
I did still need to thicken with a tablespoon of cornflour mixed with a tablespoon of cold water.
My potato chunks were too big and I had to blast them in the microwave for a couple of minutes at the end of the cooking time, but if you follow the method above they will be fine.
If you dont have one, or cant borrow one from a relative, use a stock pot or casserole dish. Increase the wine to 1 and a half cups and the stock to 1 cup.
For the stock pot, bring all ingredients to the boil then reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 1 and a half hours or until beef is tender.
For the casserole dish, preheat oven to 180C, cover dish and bake for 1 and a half hours.
Reduce the sauce if needed (see point above).
Recipe created by Melissa Hughes for Kidspot.