Beef stew in a slow cooker: features and methods of cooking

 Beef stew in a slow cooker: features and methods of cooking

Braised beef has always been popular, because it is not only very tasty, but also useful.If before the housewives had to stand for hours above the stove and make sure that the meat did not burn, then today the multicooker is used as the main assistant. It allows you to significantly simplify the process of cooking, just enough to decide on the recipe.

Basic cooking rules

Beef stew in a slow cooker turns out delicious, it is juicy and soft, no matter what piece of meat was used. Professional chefs advise you to be especially careful when choosing beef tenderloin, but with the advent of the slow cooker, this requirement has become unnecessary if you want to make a great meal for guests or family members.

Quenching can take from 4 to 8 hours, it all depends on the regime that was chosen by the hostess. Meat is pre-cleaned of streaks and fat, cut into small pieces. It should be borne in mind that the smaller the beef pieces, the faster the dish will be cooked.

It is imperative to fry it over high heat before adding to the multicooker, the process takes about 10-15 minutes, but it allows you to make beef stew especially aromatic.

If the dish is too liquid, then add flour or a mixture of cornstarch and water to it. The result is a wonderful gravy. To make a delicious beef, which is not ashamed to treat guests, all the ingredients must be fresh. Meat can be pre-battered or soaked in milk, marinade, this will speed up the cooking process. During extinguishing it is not possible to open the lid until the slow cooker informs about the end of the process.

Selection and preparation of ingredients

For beef stew, it is better not to use the purchased frozen meat, if you can buy fresh tenderloin on the market, you should give preference to it. Potatoes need to choose the one that does not boil soft, but otherwise, after many hours, under the influence of temperature, it will not be visible. However, such a vegetable has its advantages - it provides the necessary density of gravy. If you do not want to put potatoes in a dish, you can replace it with a lot of carrots and onions. Mushrooms are also a good addition to this recipe.

You can use tomato paste or tomatoes, which are previously peeled for a few seconds in boiling water and peeled.

Choose all the ingredients should be carefully, they should be fresh, unspoiled, just so beef stew will please with its flavor. When using a thickener, for example, flour or starch, you can not take water, and broth. It can be vegetable, chicken or beef, it all depends on the preferences of the cook.

Some recipes use peas, take it fresh or frozen. If you use frozen, then you do not need to wait until it is defrosted, because it is already prepared very quickly. As for seasoning, homemade is the best ingredient, but if you prefer to use packaged seasonings, then you should pay attention to the content, because there may be herbs or spices inside that are completely unsuitable for this meat.

Recipes

Even a novice hostess can cook beef stew according to any of the suggested recipes, if she breaks it down step by step. Some make a dish with sour cream, but this is an amateur, in the classic version they put a lot of vegetables, including onions, tomatoes, carrots, sometimes prunes, potatoes, mushrooms, garlic, and even cabbage. The more vegetables, the tastier and more rich the gravy is obtained without the use of thickeners. Meat can be cut in large pieces as well as small ones.

Before cooking, you will need to process the meat, remove all connective tissue and fat, which, if not removed, will give the dish an acidic flavor. In the next stage, put the meat in a bowl and season it. You can now cut into desired pieces, salt and add a little flour.Salt just before frying so that the meat does not lose juice, and flour is added, because in the next step all the pieces will need to be fried.

Some hostesses are in a hurry and miss this stage, but this is not entirely correct. Meat without pre-frying is dry, the crust on top allows you to keep the juice inside, resulting in the desired tenderness and softness. It is best to take a frying pan with a Teflon coating for roasting, so as not to add too much oil and not to increase the calorie content of the dish.

Now spread the beef into the multicooker tank and start working with vegetables. Onions, carrots, tomatoes, zucchini must be peeled. We get rid of the peel, rinse under running water. Cut onions into small cubes, carrots can be chopped or grated on a coarse grater, in principle, this is the desire of the cook, but the sliced ​​vegetable will give more flavor to the dish.

We spread onions and carrots in a frying pan and fry them a little, then we spread them to the meat. Fill the beef with a small amount of broth, add a little soy sauce and put in stewing mode for four hours. Half an hour before full readiness, open the lid, add the zucchini and tomatoes, cut into large cubes, and close the lid again.

As soon as the timer informs you that the beef stew has finished cooking, open the lid, pour the finely chopped greens into the stew and mix everything well, the dish should stand for a while before serving it.

If you want the sauce to be thicker, then you can add a couple of tablespoons of flour or starch diluted in broth. It is necessary to pour in the mixture an hour before the end of cooking.

You can make beef stew and another recipe. You will need to have on hand for meat:

  • 1/3 cup flour;
  • ½ tsp onion powder;
  • ½ tsp Italian seasoning;
  • black pepper;
  • salt.

As other ingredients for the dish are required:

  • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
  • 5 cloves of minced garlic;
  • 1 medium onion, chopped;
  • 3 medium carrots, chopped;
  • 4 tbsp. l wine vinegar;
  • 2 teaspoons oregano;
  • 1 bay leaf;
  • 4 tablespoons of tomato paste;
  • 4 cups beef broth;
  • 2 tbsp. l corn starch;
  • 2 tbsp. spoons of green peas;
  • fresh chopped parsley.

Rinse well and dry the beef, cut into cubes. Place the meat in a bowl and mix with flour, onion powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper. Put a large griddle over medium heat. As soon as the oil warms up, you need to put the beef. It should get a ruddy shade from all sides. On average, this process takes 5 minutes. Spread the meat in a slow cooker, add garlic, onions, carrots, potatoes and a little broth. Wine vinegar is poured into the mixture, oregano is put in, bay leaf, tomato paste is set to extinguish.

Cook on a low temperature of 8-9 hours or high for 4-5 hours, until the meat becomes tender. Approximately 30 minutes before serving, add corn starch mixed with 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl. Pour the mixture into a slow cooker, cover with a lid and cook for 20-30 minutes until the broth thickens. Fifteen minutes before the end of the cooking process pour peas. Served with chopped parsley, on top of the garnish.

Beef stew is a classic way to go home and have a hearty dinner with the whole family. Using a multicooker allows you to set the delayed start mode, so the dish will be hot to the return of the hosts. Any housewife can change a few simple ingredients to get a dish that will be loved by the household.

The classic recipe for cooking beef in a multi-cooker involves the use of fresh tenderloin, which is first cut, then salted and pepper, roll in flour and fry. At the second stage, they start preparing vegetables.They clean four potatoes, which need to be cut into cubes and put in cold water so as not to blacken. Peel the carrots and one onion, and wash the celery stalk with water.

Meat is spread in a multicooker container, chopped carrots, onions, potatoes and celery are poured there. Pour a little beef broth, you can reduce the calorie content of the dish and use vegetable. Pour in a couple of spoons of soy sauce, add seasoning, close the lid and set to a low temperature. The timer is set at 10 o'clock. Despite the duration of cooking, it turns out to be exceptionally fragrant and tasty, the beef melts in the mouth, the vegetables gave all the juice to the broth

The following ingredients can be used to make beef stew:

  • meat;
  • 1/4 cup flour;
  • salt and pepper;
  • 1 1/2 cups beef broth;
  • cabbage;
  • tomato paste;
  • 1 sliced ​​onion;
  • 1 bay leaf;
  • 1 tablespoon of paprika;
  • 4 sliced ​​carrots;
  • 3 diced zucchini;
  • 1 celery stalk.

You do not need to fry the beef separately, you can do it right in a slow cooker, then add onions and carrots, pour broth and tomato paste, salt and pepper, put the rest of the cut vegetables, close the lid and turn on the slow cooker. The dish will cook on its own, the equipment will notify the end of the mode with a sound signal.

It should be said that beef stew with vegetables has been a favorite dish of many nations for many centuries. It is convenient in that it quickly saturates the body, prepares almost without the participation of the cook, it turns out tasty and healthy. The longer the vegetables are stewed with meat, the better is the final product. From such a hearty and fragrant dinner, few refuse. You can make beef stew using the following recipe:

  • 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
  • diced beef;
  • sliced ​​white onion;
  • four cloves of minced garlic;
  • 3 sliced ​​carrots;
  • salt;
  • potato cubes 5 pieces;
  • corn;
  • Bay leaf;
  • 1 1/2 cups beef broth.

Load the cut meat into the slow cooker and fry it a little. Add all of these ingredients, mix everything well and activate slow cooking at medium temperature. The timer is set to 4 hours, this will be enough to make the beef soft and the vegetables to give their juices to the dish.

The earliest known cookbook contains a beef stew recipe that uses onions, spices, broth, oil, and wine vinegar. Then the dish was cooked on a fire, so he had to spend more than one hour on fire to be completely ready. Over the centuries, technology and formulation have changed, but the main principle has remained unchanged.

Today, many people make a hearty meal of beef and vegetables for the morning or for dinner. The slow cooker has become this chief assistant. It is enough to put a delayed start and in the morning you will have to wait for a rich and healthy breakfast, which does not need to be warmed up. The easiest recipe involves the use of a minimum of ingredients:

  • beef;
  • 3 potatoes;
  • 4 carrots;
  • 1 celery;
  • salt and pepper.

Multicooker can reduce cooking time from several hours to one. That's because the stew is cooked under high pressure at a constant temperature and without loss of moisture. As a result, collagen and connective tissues are quickly destroyed, and the meat becomes tender. Before you put the beef in the capacity of the slow cooker, the meat will need to be fried, without this the dish will not work as it should. All cut ingredients are put to the meat, poured broth and just turn on the mode of quenching.

If you want to please the guests and offer them something incredible, special, then you should use a more complex recipe. It requires the following ingredients:

  • diced meat;
  • 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil;
  • 2 cloves of garlic - peeled and finely chopped;
  • 1 onion - peel and chop;
  • two hundred grams of white mushrooms - if large, rinse, cut into half;
  • 3 carrots - peel and cut into slices;
  • 2 celery stalks - cut and chop;
  • 4 large red potatoes washed and cut into cubes;
  • 1 big turnip - peel and chop;
  • 1 cup of frozen peas;
  • 3 cups beef broth;
  • tomato paste;
  • prunes;
  • butter;
  • flour;
  • 1 bay leaf;
  • 1 teaspoon dried thyme;
  • salt and pepper to taste.

Beef is fried in a frying pan in a small amount of sunflower or olive oil. You can do the same in the multicooker tank, so as not to waste the dishes. Now add mushrooms, onions and garlic. Stir and stew for 3-5 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft and the onions are translucent. Add turnips, carrots, potatoes and celery, prunes, pour broth. Lay tomato paste, bay leaf and thyme on top, mix everything well.

Stew meat at a low temperature for 8-10 hours or high for 4-5 hours until the beef is very tender. Thawed peas are added to the last hour of cooking. After the cooking time has completely expired, add a mixture of butter and flour. In a small cup, mix these two ingredients and spread them in a slow cooker. Cover and simmer another 10-15 minutes. And last but not least: take out the bay leaf, season the stew with salt and pepper.

To learn how to cook beef stew with potatoes in a slow cooker, see the next video.

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