Beef & Red Wine Casserole

OH. MY. GOSH.
Seriously, I am not a massive casserole fan. I'll throw things in the slow cooker occasionally for convenience, but no meal to come out of it has ever rated highly on my tastebuds. Blame my mother; I pretty much grew up on casseroles and other boring meals of the 90s, haha.

So I found this recipe and didn't tweak it a whole lot. I mostly wanted an excuse to buy and consume a bottle of red. ;)

INGREDIENTS:
500g beef steak, diced (I can't remember the name of the cut I used, but it was cheap)
4 pieces of shortcut bacon, diced
1 small onion, finely diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tbspn plain flour (I used GF flour)
1 cup red wine - I used a lovely Cab Sav
1 cup beef stock
1 400g tin chopped tomatoes
3 carrots, sliced
salt & pepper, to season

METHOD:
Preheat a large frying pan to medium-high and add 1 tbspn olive oil. Add bacon and cook for two minutes, add onion and cook for another two minutes, then add garlic and cook for one minute. Tip mixture into slow cooker.
Toss diced beef with flour to coat, then add some more oil (just a little!) to the frying pan and add beef. Cook for a couple of minutes, or until flour is cooked and beef is lightly browned - you do not want the beef cooked completely though, just browned.
Tip beef into slow cooker, then put the wine into the frying pan to deglaze - about 30 seconds). Pour wine into cooker along with the tin of tomatoes, stock, carrots, and salt & pepper to taste.
Put slow cooker on low for 6 hours, remembering to not lift the lid at all during the cooking process!
I served the casserole with lovely mashed pumpkin & potato.
This meal is great for lunch/dinner the next day, as the flavours are even better!

Sorry, no photo. It smelled so good when it was cooking that I was ravenous by the time it was ready at dinnertime!

- L. x