Slowcooker Recipe: Kitchen sink stew

I had a few of you intrigued last week on Facebook whilst I was making this - and a few of you guessed right - it's called kitchen sink stew because, it has everything but the kitchen sink in it!

Seriously though, it's a great way to use up leftover veges or to use when you've first done your vege shop - which is what I did.  I get so inspired when I pick up new produce on farmgate.  "Oooh, look at THOSE... I'll just grab ONE and I know it's not on my meal plan, BUT'... you get the picture right?

I've got to say it though:  the eggplant is the unsung hero of slowcooker stews.  I use it in my sausage and eggplant casserole and by gosh it's amazing.  It cooks down nice and saucy and the kids (and hubby) have no idea it's eggplant.  That' makes it double-triple-amazing don't you think?


Serves 8
Ingredients:
700g diced beef (cheap cuts like gravy beef and blade steak work well)
1 eggplant diced
2 brown onions, diced
2 large carrots, roughly chopped
2 sticks of celery, roughly chopped
6 chat potatoes, quartered
6 tomatoes, diced
400g tin tomatoes
1 cup red wine
3 tb tomato paste
500ml beef stock
3 stalks fresh or 1 tsp dried thyme
2 stalks fresh continental parsley, chopped


Method:
Literally, the most time consuming part of this recipe is the chopping up of everything.  But if you've had a frustrating day, pretend those vegetables are the things you didn't get done or you didn't say.  Chop them people!  Or, just lose yourself in the monotony.  I love doing that sometimes.

Throw everything in the slowcooker apart from the parsley.  If you've had a REALLY bad day or are particularly cranky throw it in hard for effect.  Stir, put the lid on.

Go and do some stuff.  In a perfect world you'll be having a massage, getting your hair cut or catching up on your favourite TV show uninterrupted... but let's face it - most of us are doing the washing or working... anyways... 6 hours later you'll come back to this:

Doesn't that put you in a good mood?  It smells so good and you made dinner so easily - and it's totally healthy - you hit it out of the ball park.  The beef is soft and tender and the veges have that thick and tasty sauce cooked all the way through them.  Go pour yourself some wine and make some rice if you'd like some.  You could even add a wee bit of cream at this point (turn off the slowcooker if you're going to do that).

Just before you serve, throw in the parsley, stir it around and get the troops in for dinner.  Tell them how you SLAVED over this and make them thank you profusely.

Enjoy with your wine, and there you go - it wasn't such a bad day after all was it?

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