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An easy meal for chilly fall nights, beef stew traditionally contains bite-size pieces of beef, potatoes, carrots and onion. Stewing involves cooking food in liquid until the meat and vegetables are tender and the liquid reduces and thickens. Beef stew is easy to make because it requires minimal monitoring and is very difficult to overcook. Two short cuts -- searing the meat and using a thickening agent -- will help develop flavor and speed up cooking time.
The slow cooker does most of the work for a beef stew recipe. It takes about 30 minutes to put the ingredients together, and no more than 12 hours for the cooker to finish the stew.
Beef stew conjures up melt-in the-mouth beef, wonderful vegetable flavors and a tasty thick sauce. Traditionally a beef stew needs to be slow-cooked: generally because the cuts of beef in a stew are less expensive cuts and need to tenderize during cooking. However, if you buy slightly more expensive cuts of beef and add some red wine, you can make a quick and easy beef stew that's just as good as a slow-cooked stew.
