French Beef Casserole | Crock Pot Beef Stew

This French inspired Crock Pot Beef Stew recipe is the perfect “prepare the night before, set it to cook before you dash out the door” recipe. Load all the ingredients into a Slow Cooker Liner Bag, pop that in the fridge overnight and in the morning the bag gets put straight into the slow cooker, set the slow cooker cooking and you are out the door.  I love recipes like these.  Marinating the meat overnight is essential to the success of this recipe and it has the added benefit of making getting dinner on in the morning before you leave the house so easy.  If you find you have a few more to feed, you can increase the meat up to 1lb before you need to adjust the other ingredients.

This is a great company is coming recipe, if you have an automatic oven that you can program to cook foil wrapped roast potatoes, then you will just need to quickly prepare the other side dishes and dinner will be ready in minutes.

Serves 4
Cook on low for 8 hours

1 cup red wine
2 Tbsp brandy
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
sprigs of rosemary and thyme
1 whole orange (unpeeled) quartered
4 small onions peeled and quartered
8 sun dried tomatoes
500g/½lb beef, cubed
1 tsp cinnamon
2 bay leaves
2 tsp paprika
2 carrots, diced
1 leek finely diced
440ml/14oz can crushed tomatoes in juice
150g/5oz whole button mushrooms

• In a Slow Cooker Liner Bag, add all the ingredients. (I find it easier to put the liner bag into a container that helps it stay open and upright, I fold the top edge of the bag over the sides of the container while I fill the liner bag up. When finished adding ingredients, unfold the top edge and secure neck of bag to avoid leakage and minimize aroma transfer to other items in the fridge!)  Massage to mix ingredients.  Store in fridge overnight.  Resting or marinading the meat allows flavor to develop and be absorbed which brings a rich, full flavor to this casserole.
• In the morning, remove the bag from fridge and get the slow cooker out.  If I am putting a bag from the fridge into the slow cooker, I don't preheat the slow cooker.
• Place the slow cooker liner bag into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 hours.
• Thirty minutes out from serving, remove the bay leaves and oranges now, taste and adjust seasonings as necessary and also check to see if you want to thicken the gravy.  (If you are going to thicken the gravy, turn slow cooker to high.)
• To thicken the gravy, put 3 tablespoons for the cooking liquid  into a heat proof jug, add 1 tablespoon of cornstarch and mix vigorously until smooth, pour mixture back into the slow cooker, stir to combine and replace lid. Cook for a further 20-30 minutes.

Serve with buttered pasta, roast or mashed vegetables and seasonal greens.

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