Hearty Slow Cooker Beef Stew

I made this yesterday and it still wasn’t done cooking in time for dinner so we have to eat it tonight. Cooked on warm all night. To give this recipe a fair shot, I made it as written minus browning my meat and adding extra cup of broth. All of the changes I made were done this morning.This recipe is a good base but it needs more everything. The broth did not thicken at all (because I added an extra cup) so I made a cornstarch slurry 1:1tbsp and that helped a lot. I had to add another cup of beef broth otherwise my beef wouldn’t have been covered. I did brown my beef before adding it to crock pot, always brown your meats! “No color=no flavor” —Lord gordon Ramsey. I used the extra cup of broth to deglaze the pot I cooked the beef in.I added A LOT more Worcestershire sauce because what was called for was NOT enough. All of the seasonings needed to be doubled, if not tripled. I added 2tbsp German seasoned salt, 2tbsp crushed rosemary, like 3 or 4tbsp of red wine vinegar. I added the salt first thinking that’s what it needed but no, it needed an acid and really really badly so I also threw in a can of fire roasted diced tomatoes for a bit more. My husband likes corn and green beans in his stew so I also added a can of niblits, drained and about a cup of fresh green beans, cut into 1in pieces. I used about half a tbsp of sugar to counter the saltiness. Now I have a delicious proper stew.

I used about a pound (maybe a bit more but not 2 lbs) of leftover beef from a Prime Rib I cooked this week. I diced the beef and browned stovetop in a bit of olive oil - then added the celery (3 stalks), carrots, onion and garlic - sprinkled with the salt and pepper. Cooked all of that for a bit and the sprinkled it with about 1 heaping tablespoon of flour, the paprika. Cooked that for a bit and added it to the slow cooker. De-glazed the pan with the beef broth and added that to the slow cooker. Add the bay leaf, diced potatoes and butternut squash. I used a large butternut squash - more than the 3/4 lb called for. There didn't seem to be enough liquid to cover the potatoes. I initially started with one 14 oz can - which is more than the recipe called for but not nearly enough broth, so I added another 14 oz can of beef broth. You need to cover the potatoes with liquid or then will turn black. Set this to cook on low. It didn't need more than 5 hours. The escarole did not get added - I didn't have any and planned to add cabbage or bok choy at the end of the cooking time but I forgot and the troops were hungry. The butternut squash and beef flavor combination is wonderful.