My refrigerator is slowly dying and I again needed an emergency dinner so I turned to my trust crock pot. I LOVE my crock pot! I had frozen stew beef and needed to make something so the easiest way for me to cook is my crock pot.
Ingredients:
- 1 1/2 lbs. stew beef well-trimmed
- 1 1/2 lbs. red potatoes – quartered
- 1 bag of baby carrots
- 1 onion – large chop
- 1 tsp. garlic
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 1 tsp. or to taste salt
- 1/2 cup of water
- cornstarch
Directions:
- My stew beef was frozen so I didn’t even bother browning it first in a fry pan. It went right into the 6 qt. crock pot on low.
- Wash and quarter potatoes. Lay them over the top of the beef.
- Add quartered onion over the top of the potatoes.
- Add carrots on top of the onion.
- Add 1/2 cup of water poured over the meat and vegetables.
- Sprinkle garlic, salt and pepper evenly over the top of the carrots.
- Cook on low for 5-6 hours until beef and potatoes are cooked through. It may take more or less time depending on your crock pot and the size of your potatoes.
- When done remove all meat and vegetables from crock pot into a bowl.
- In a small dish mix 2 TBSP of cornstarch with warm water until smooth. Add this to the juices in the bottom of the crock pot. Salt and pepper to taste. Add the vegetables and beef back into the crock pot stirring lightly to coat all vegetables and meat with the gravy. Continue to cook 5-10 minutes until gravy thickens.
- Serve with bread or biscuits.
My stew this time was delicious but the beef was so well-trimmed that there was little fat to make the gravy. It was still delicious but my family did ask for more gravy next time!