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I was digging through my freezer on Sunday, looking for some chicken and realised that I've got a fair amount of frozen casserole steak. I'm off this coming Friday and figured I could maybe get it all defrosted to make a nice stew / casserole in the slow cooker.

Problem is that whenever I've cooked that kind of meat in the slow cooker in the past it's come out tasting either horrid or as tough as old boots. The taste thing I think was because I'd added cauliflower and it just was wrong; but what am I doing wrong when it comes to the tenderness of the meat; am I leaving it in for too long / too high. I usually would leave it on high for about 2 hours and then low for about another 4 or so if not longer; usually because it's tough when I taste it and then leave it thinking it'll get more tender?

So if anyone has a fairly fool proof recipe please can you let me know what you do. I love a good stew and am determined to get one right

Meriad the first few casseroles I did weren't very impressive, then I realised they'd been cooking for too long.
Now as you know, some of us pre-fry the meat, onions, etc, and some don't.

I do, because it's how I would do a casserole in the oven as well, and I believe you get extra flavour from that initial frying, so that's the method I'll describe
First put a tablespoon or so of plain flour in a bowl or plastic bag, and add salt & pepper plus if you like a teaspoon of mixed herbs, or a small spoonful of English mustard powder, or a teaspoon of ground ginger. Adding them now gets the flavour straight into the meat at the beginning.

Heat some oil to fairly hot, then start browning the meat in batches; don't add too much at once or it will sort of boil instead. Let it sit on the first side for a good few minutes before turning; it should be nicely brown, even a bit crusty. Have your s/cooker pot ready and transfer the pieces to that as they're browned.
Turn the heat down a little, and fry some onion, carrots and celery if you have it. I tend to thinly slice or chop some onion and some leave in bigger wedges. Carrots in fairly thick slices, celery thinner. Garlic can be added now too, but not too early or it will burn.
Stir them well, scraping up all the lovely brown bits in the pan. Once browned a bit, pour in some red wine, or beer, stir it in really well, then add 1 or 2 beef oxo cubes and boiling water. I can't say how much, but when it goes into the s/cooker, it wants to just cover the meat etc. A bit of tomato puree is good, and/or some Dijon or wholegrain mustard (depending on what you've added to the meat).
Add the meat back in, then as soon as it's boiling tip it all into the s/cooker. If you do this, you don't need the cooker on high at all, and even for shin of beef the most I've found it needs is 7 hours on low, but I usually allow for about 6.

Taste it after about 3 or 4 hours, before that you won't get the proper flavour.
If you want mushrooms in it they can go in whole, or halved, at the same time as the liquid. Or, actually nicer, is to later briefly sauté whole shallots and mushrooms, then add them about 2 hours before the end.
Hope that helps
And hopefully I'll be here on Friday for a live cookalong

If you don't want to do the pre-frying etc then I would start it on high for probably the first hour but no more.

Thanks so much Di - I think I'm going to give it a try with the pre-frying.....

I want you to like it meriad, and it's not much more trouble, just a frying pan to wash up

Really funny last week or whenever it was in Sainsburys, I was chatting to a lovely elderly couple who had decided to get a slow cooker, but were surprised how expensive they were, even on offer. I told them mine came from Tesco for a tenner and is fine, so they were going there on their way home.
But they were asking me how I did mine and I was telling them as above (yes we had quite a chat, I heard all about their daughter!) and another woman overheard and said she never pre-fried anything
This older lady said ooh, I couldn't do that, put it all in raw, I wouldn't do that in the proper oven
At least with Marmite it's a straight love it or hate it

I am another pre-fryer and use the same method as Di for building the casserole.The only slight difference is that I do not add carrots at the start as I find their flavour can be overpowering. I would also say that just covering the meat with fluid means, for me, that some of the meat chunks should be poking through the surface like icebergs.

Adding quartered and blanched baby/new potatoes towards the end - an hour or so - is also not a bad idea.

I always brown my meat too and also just cover it.

I must think about dusting my slow cooker off soon - the weather is set to change soon I think.

I have a loads of chicken drumsticks in the freezer - any ideas for slow cooking them.

How about adapting one-pot recipes for Coq-au-vin, Chasseur or Bouillabaisse? Then, of course, there is a whole range of curry dishes........

thanks all - getting quite excited now. Frank - I get what you're saying about the carrots, because it's them and the cauli that I have in my mind as the culprits for the horrid tasting casseroles I've made in the past... but I definitely want them in (the carrots that is) so will try the adding them a bit later.

Di, I really want this to work . I love stews and am really looking forward to having a decent one so fingers crossed

Overcooking the carrots definitely adds to that school dinner taste

Now I either keep them in bigger bits, or add them later

Completely ignoring the cauliflower

Diflower wrote:Completely ignoring the cauliflower

trust me VERY wise move!