Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Mushrooms

This recipe is one I found on MyRecipes.com, and looked so stinking good I had to try it. Of course, I tweaked it to make it somewhat simpler, but the taste was still fantastic and everyone here loved it. It was called Slow-braised Beef Stew with Mushrooms, but I skipped the braising and went straight to the Stew. ;)

I put it on mashed potatoes because the photo I saw did that and I thought it looked great. I really think if you’d like it to be a stand alone stew, it would be just as good with some cooked diced potatoes and sliced carrots thrown in and served in a bowl. Yumminy!

So, let’s get cooking!

Slice the beef you’re using into strips about one inch wide.

Place in the crock pot.

If you’re using fresh sliced mushrooms, sauté in a skillet with a little butter. Set aside. I sometimes use mushrooms I’ve frozen in general recipe-sized portions.

Dice the onion finely, peel and mince the garlic, and the fresh ginger if you’re using that. I didn’t happen to have any on hand so I used dry ground ginger for this.

Wash the orange well. Using a potato peeler, peel strips of the orange peel off, then slice them thin and cut the slices to be about ½” lengths. You want about 2 tsp of it.

In a medium saucepan, place the beef broth, wine, balsamic vinegar, soy sauce, onion, garlic, ginger, thyme, and orange peel. Bring to a boil and shut off.

Pour mixture over beef in the crock pot and set it to low. Cover and cook for about 5 hours, until meat is tender.

When the meat is done, remove about ¼ c liquid from the crock pot and cool. Stir in the cornstarch.

Pull the meat from the crock pot and place in a container for now. It’s time to make the gravy, and you can either try it in the crock pot (turned up high for a few minutes), stirring the broth-cornstarch mixture in with a whisk and whisking until thickened. Or you can pour the liquid into a medium saucepan on the stove. With the heat on medium under it, whisk in the broth-cornstarch mixture until thickened.

Place the beef back in the crock pot, add the mushrooms, and pour the gravy over all, stirring to mix.

Serve over mashed potatoes, which you’ll have made earlier, towards the end of the cooking of the stew. Enjoy! ~TMMF

Slow Cooker Beef Stew with Mushrooms

4 lbs boned beef short ribs or chuck
1 Vidalia onion
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbl fresh ginger, minced
   (or 1 tsp dry ground)
1 orange
2 c beef broth
½ c dry red wine
¼ c balsamic vinegar
2 Tbl soy sauce
1 tsp dried thyme
2-3 c sliced mushrooms
4-5 Tbl cornstarch