Beef with Mackeson's (stout) in slow cooker

[MyCatLovesMeSometimes]

I've only ever tried making curry in slow cooker as DH isn't keen on it (apart from Chicken and chorizo stew which DH hated).

However as we're all late back tomorrow night I'm going to try making beef stew with a can of Mackesons (left over from making Christmas pudding as we don't like stout). It's only a small can 330ml would people normally add stock as well?

I've got stew veg celery, carrot, onion, garlic - I've also got a small butternut squash and turnip in which need using though I was only going to use one probably the squash as not sure about the turnip.

Anybody make anything similar or got any tips about how to make this really tasty so DH will convert to the slow cooker please? I was planning on making up some dumplings tonight and putting in fridge to cook tomorrow as well.

You need to add plenty of flavour to the pot contents before stewing. Choose beef with good marbling as it will be tastier. Flour the beef with plenty of seasoning and fry the pieces in batches until they are a good mahogany colour. Do the same with the vegetables so that they are a little caramelised on the edges. If you have some lardons of bacon fry those off as well. Then add the stout to the frying pan and scrape up all the bits and pieces of cooked flour etc because that's where the flavour is. Slow cookers don't need much liquid because they never get hot enough for anything to evaporate. Finally, tuck in some some bay leaves, add a dash of Worcester Sauce and a teaspoon of mustard never hurts.

Flouring the beef will also help thicken up the stew. Sauces cooked in slow cookers can be runny because none of the steam evaporates (it's not to do with the temp, it's that the steam hits the lid and turns to water and drips back in). A good way to absorb the steam is to put a tea towel under the lid and wrap it up and over the outside.

Thanks for the advice, it's really helpful.

The beef should be good as its from the local butcher (it's frozen in one mass at the moment though!

No bacon unfortunately (i did get some but it got made into bacon sandwiches at weekend as it's also from the butcher and was gorgeous).