Slow Cooker Beef Bourguignon

I love cooking my steak and ale casserole in my slow cooker, but the other day I cooked a Beef Bourguignon for a change, and it was really tasty. It was a rich sauce, so you couldn't eat too big a portion, but it is something I will definitely cook again.

Here is how I made it

Serves 4 people

You will need:

1 1/2 lbs beef stewing steak

6 rashers of unsmoked back bacon (fat removed and cut into small pieces)

1 large onion, chopped

2 large or 3 medium sized carrots, peeled and chopped

3 cloves of garlic crushed

1/4 pint of red wine ( I used an individual sized bottle)

3/4 beef stock

1 tbsp tomato purée

1 tsp each of rosemary and thyme

4 tbsp flour

Black pepper

Olive oil

(and chopped mushrooms except my OH detests them so sadly I cannot include them but the recipe is meant to contain them so add them if you wish, about 250g chopped it to quarters)

Then you need to:

Coat the beef in the flour

Heat a glug of oil in a deep saucepan and gently brown the beef for a couple of minutes.

Remove from the pan and empty onto plate.

Return pan to the stove and add another glug of oil and fry the bacon for a couple of minutes and then add the onion, garlic and carrots and continue cooking for a further 2-3 minutes.

Return the beef and add the wine and beef stock, tomato purée, herbs and some black pepper (about 1/2 tsp) and bring to the boil while stirring.

Allow the sauce to boil for about 2 minutes and then remove from the heat

Switch your slow cooker onto the low setting and pour the mix in and cover with the lid.

Cook on low for at least 8 hours

When cooked, serve with your potato of choice and extra vegetables

Mmmmm!!

**My sauce is a little thicker than normal, because again my OH doesn't like runny sauces (!) but the recipe quantities stated at the top of this post are correct, I added less water to the stock to make mine thicker.