3/4cupred wine(or small 187 ml single-serving bottle)
3tbsphot sauce
2tbspBetter Than Bullion Beef Soup Base
10ouncesHunts tomato paste
2tsptri-colored pepperfresh ground
1/2cupflour
Instructions
Day 1 COOKING THE MEAT
Place beef in a 6 or 6.5 quart capacity slow cooker and cover with 3 Quarts (12 cups) spring water. Make sure the meet is fully submersed.
Cook on high slow cooker temperature (or simply the "slow cook" temperature on a NESCO oven roaster) for 4 hours.
Turn off heat and allow to cool fully before covering and refrigerating.
Day 2 COOKING THE VEGGIES AND BROTH
Using a large slotted spoon, skim fat from the top of the water and discard. (Since the fat is cold, it will be quite easy to remove at this stage.)
Pour off the broth into the slow cooker cooking well, setting cooked sirloin aside.
To the broth, stir in the red wine, hot sauce, pepper, and the Better Than Bullion Beef Soup Base.
Add carrots, celery, onions, and potatoes.
Cook on high slow cooker setting (or simply the "slow cook" setting on a NESCO roaster oven) for 2 hours. Meanwhile, trim all visible fat from the sirloin steak, then cut meat into bit-sized pieces. Cover and refrigerate the steak, for now.
After the veggies have been cooking for 2 hours, add tomato paste and stir until well combined.
To a small bowl, add flour. One T at a time, add water to the flower, stirring briskly until well combined after each addition. Continue adding water, 1 T at a time, stirring well after each addition. (Make sure water is completely integrated each time to avoid lumps.)
When the flour paste is the texture of watery applesauce, go ahead and stir it into the broth-veggie mixture in the slow cooker, making sure to stir in immediately. Along with the tomato past you added earlier, this paste will thicken up the broth a bit more. (Be careful the paste isn't too thick when you add it to the broth, or you could end up with little dumplings in your beef stew, rather than a nicely thickened gravy!)
Place cubed steak gently into the slow cooker for about 1 additional hour. Monitor carefully to make sure the veggies don't get TOO soft. Since the meat's already fully cooked at this point, you're really just warming it up.
Serve and enjoy! This recipe should yield about 18 cups of delicious beef stew.