I had to resist opening the slow cooker every hour…the house smelled so good, it took all I could muster to not make a bowl before the 6 or 7 hours was up.

I put all of the veggies in the my crockpot first, then add the meat after it’s browned. Next, the broth you simmered on the stove along with two bay leaves.

The result is a nice medley of tender beef, wonderfully flavored veggies and the broth is so flavorful with both beer and red wine. This is a winner and is going to make it into our regular rotation!

Do you have a slow cooker favorite or a favorite beef stew recipe?

Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker)

Yield: 4-6

Prep Time: 35 min

Cook Time: 9 hours

Total Time: 9 hours 35 minutes

A slow cooker beef stew that's easy to prepare. Full of flavor from the beef broth, red wine and Irish beer; the ultimate comfort food.

Ingredients:

2 lbs russet potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
2 lbs baby red potatoes, peeled & cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
4 stalks celery, chopped, approx. 1 1/2 cups
4-5 carrots, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces, approx. 2 cups
1 medium yellow or white onion, roughly chopped
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 3/4 lbs stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp butter, I used Kerrygold salted
2 cups low sodium beef broth
3/4 cup red wine
3/4 cup Guinness
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1/2 Tbsp dried thyme
2 bay leaves
1 Tbsp cornstarch + 1 Tbsp water
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

Place the chopped vegetables into the crockpot. Rinse the meat and pat dry with paper towels. Salt and pepper the beef.

In a large, heavy bottomed skillet, heat olive oil at medium to medium-high heat. Add beef to the pan and brown on all sides, about 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and cook for one minute, do not burn the garlic. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the beef and add to the crockpot on top of the vegetables

Turn the skillet back up to medium heat. To the skillet, add butter until it's melted. Add beef broth, red wine, beer, tomato paste, sugar, soy sauce and thyme. Using a wooden spoon, stir the liquids as well as scrape the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, allow to boil for at least two minutes. Then lower heat to low and allow to simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Add cornstarch and water and stir together.

Pour broth mixture into the crockpot over vegetables and beef. Add bay leaves and cook on high for 4-6 hours or 6 to 9 hours on low.

Skim the fat from the stew, if needed, before serving.

Cook's notes:
You can buy a chuck roast or round cut (except top round). I actually looked this up on this site in the store on my iPhone. But then, I opted to buy stew beef already cut up by my grocer's meat department because I needed less than 2 pounds.

Recipe modified for the slow cooker from Crepes of Wrath.

Irish Beef Stew (Slow Cooker) © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

Before we get to the recipe, I wanted to tell you about a giveaway from one of my favorite bloggers, Susan. She is giving away two KitchenAid mixers, one to a winner and one to their friend. So if you want to try to win a KitchenAid mixer, go on over to She’s Becoming DoughMessTic and enter the giveaway and say I sent you! You have to leave a comment and please say I sent you, use my twitter username @juliebakes. You must follow her on facebook or twitter to win. Be sure to read her instructions carefully, if your name is drawn, she will check the entry out. We can win a pair of KitchenAid mixers together! Thanks!

Okay, now the recipe. I love this recipe because it’s tasty and quick! The herbs and tomatoes and the saltiness of the parm cheese make it very rich even though it’s very easy to make. I have made it a bunch of times and I like it to have more of a broth than the original instructions call for. It goes really well with salad and bread for a lighter dinner and comforting enough to have when it’s cold.

Pasta Fazul

Ingredients:

4 Tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 onion, chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 Tbsp chopped fresh parsley or 1 tablespoon dried parsley
2 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes
1/2 to 1 cup of water
1 (14.5 ounce) can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
8 oz. macaroni
2 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. In a large skillet, saute garlic, onion, carrot, parsley, basil and oregano in olive oil until onions are tender.
2. Add the tomatoes plus juices and the salt and pepper to taste. Cover and stir frequently, simmering for 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. After simmering for a couple of minutes, I usually add 1/2 to 1/3 cup of water.
3. Add the cannellini beans and cover. Simmer for 20 minutes.
4. During any of the above steps, cook macaroni according to package directions, drain and toss with butter and Parmesan cheese. Add to tomato and cannellini beans. Serve immediately with additional Parmesan cheese, if desired.

Modified from allrecipes.com.

Pasta Fazul © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.

With Central Florida weather being pretty chilly this week, this is the perfect comfort soup to have right now. I know everyone up north is laughing at us but with wind chills putting us in the 20s and 30s, we’re not used to this!

After moving away from the Orlando area where I was able to enjoy Fiddler’s Green’s potato leek soup all the time, I was on a quest for a recipe. I found this one on allrecipes.com. After trying a couple of different recipes, I am pretty happy with it. I have tweaked the recipe just a little bit. It’s very yummy and makes tons. It tastes even better the next day. The most time consuming part of the recipe is peeling and cutting the potatoes.

This gives you an idea of how I cut up the leeks and this is about half way through the cooking process in step 1.

Yummy! This is how I eat my potato leek soup. No bacon for me as I do not eat pork. You’ll see me cook with it though because my husband loves pork.

This bowl has all of the garnishes.

Potato Leek Soup

Ingredients:

1 cup unsalted butter (4 sticks)
2-3 leeks, sliced and halved
salt and pepper to taste
1 qt + 1 14.5 oz can low sodium chicken broth
1 Tbsp cornstarch
5 pound bag of Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled and diced
2 cups heavy cream
cheddar cheese, shredded
bacon, cooked & crumbled
1 bunch green onions, chopped

Directions:

1. In a large pot over medium heat, melt butter. Cook leeks in butter with salt and pepper until tender, stirring frequently, about 15 minutes.
2. Stir cornstarch into broth and pour broth into pot. Add the potatoes and bring to a boil. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the cream, reduce heat and simmer at least 30 minutes, until potatoes are tender.
3. Season with salt and pepper before serving. Serve in bowls and garnish each bowl with cheese, bacon (optional) and green onions.

Tips:

• Fill a good sized bowl with cold water, drop the leeks in as you're slicing them. This will allow them to soak and the dirt will settle in the bottom of the bowl. You may have to rub the dirt off of some parts of the leeks. This is the best way to clean leeks because if you do it under running water, it takes a lot longer but also wastes a lot of water.
• I slice the leeks the same way I do a green onion (only bigger) and then lay them down flat and slice in half.
• I whisk the cornstarch in about 1-2 cups of chicken broth, that way you don't need to use a huge bowl for all of the chicken broth.
• Temper the heavy cream so it doesn't curdle (it will still taste the same but I don't like the texture when this happens). You can use the same bowl you used to whisk the cornstarch and chicken broth. Take about 1 or 2 cups of the soup and place into the bowl. Add 1 cup of the heavy cream mix and pour back into your stockpot. Repeat.
• During step 3, half way through the 30 minute simmer, I take my potato masher and lightly mash some of the potatoes at the bottom of my stock pot. This makes the soup a little thicker but be careful don't mash all of the potatoes, you want to leave chunks of potato in the soup to give it texture.

Modified from allrecipes.com.

Potato Leek Soup © 2009-2011 the little kitchen. All rights reserved.