My variant of Alan's beef stew

I've posted this recipe before.  It's just about my favourite winter dish to cook.  It's labelled a stroganoff as it has paprika, and it's meant to have sour cream as well, however Alan's recipe doesn't really use the sour cream and in fact I actually forgot to add it in this time.  Oh well.  In fact with all the red wine it's more like a boeuf bourguignon.

No two stews are ever quite the same.  It depends a little on what's on hand and what needs using up.  But the core of it is much the same.

For this one I had a kilo pack of chuck steak, cubed; two 200g packs of streaky bacon, chopped; a bag of mushrooms, sliced; an onion, diced; several cloves of garlic, crushed; red wine, beef stock, flour, mixed spices, paprika, fresh thyme (leftover from all the other French stews that needed it) and a packet of cream of mushroom soup.  The sour cream didn't get used, and I also added in most of a packet of tomato paste.

Beef stew

Everything prepped

Beef stew

So find a plastic bag with no holes in it and mix up several tablespoons full of paprika, herbs, flour and the cream of mushroom soup

Beef stew

Give it a good mix

Beef stew

Then add all the beef into it and mix it all up so the beef is coated.

Beef stew

So here's the onion, garlic, mushrooms and bacon waiting to be browned (the beef is next to this too)

Beef stew

Meanwhile, you can chuck half a bottle of wine into the slow cooker (or more if you want), beef stock to cover everything (save some for deglazing pans too), the tin of tomatoes and a goodly dollop of tomato paste.  Turn it on to start warming up.

Beef stew

So browning the onions and garlic

Beef stew

And the mushrooms in a couple of batches

Beef stew

And the bacon in a couple of batches

Beef stew

And finally the beef

Beef stew

And chuck the whole lot into the slow cooker.

Beef stew

Set to high and go occupy yourself somehow for the afternoon.

Serve with some rice to soak up the saucy goodness.

Sadly I forgot to take a photo of the finished product.  But it was very yummy, and our dinner guests went back for seconds.