Slow Cooker Pot Roast Beef with Lashings of Luscious Gravy

Cooked for 8 hours in a rich red wine gravy, loaded with vegetables, this fall apart beef, will melt in your mouth, excite your tastebuds with its depth of flavour and delight your lazy side!

Course Dinner, Supper

Cuisine British

Keyword beef, gravy, pot roast, slow cooker

Prep Time 20 minutes

Cook Time 8 hours

Ingredients

1.5kg joint of beef suitable for slow cooking such as topside, brisket, silverside, chuck
2 tablespoons olive oil
150g/ 1 medium onion, peeled and roughly chopped
150g/ 2 – 3 carrots, trimmed, peeled, if necessary, and roughly chopped
100g/2 – 3 sticks of celery, trimmed, washed and roughly chopped
16g/4 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped
400ml red wine
40g/4 tablespoons plain/all-purpose flour
500ml beef stock
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons brown sugar
4 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 fresh bay leaves or 2 dried bay leaves
30g/2 tablespoons tomato puree
1 teaspoon fine salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Optional -

floury potatoes, such as Maris Piper or King Edwards, peeled and chopped into medium sized cubes - I used around 400g

Instructions

You need to start making this around 8 – 8½ hours before you want to eat it.

Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.
Season the joint of beef well with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Heat half the oil in a cast iron skillet or frying pan, over a high heat. Brown the beef on all sides. This should only take 2 – 3 minutes per side. Set aside.
Whilst the beef is browning, prepare the vegetables. You can either finely chop them by hand, or, if you have a food processor, roughly chop and blitz them, all together, until finely chopped.
Once the beef is browned and removed from the pan, add the remaining oil and the chopped vegetables and cook for 5 minutes over a moderate heat until soft and lightly caramelised. Scrape up any sticky bits, left over from the beef, on the bottom of the pan.
Add the wine and reduce, continuing to scrape up any remaining sticky bits on the bottom of the pan.
When the wine has nearly evaporated, add the flour. Stir continuously, and continue to cook, for 2 minutes.
Now add the stock, Worcestershire Sauce, sugar, thyme, bay leaves, tomato puree and remaining salt and pepper. Bring to a gentle simmer, stirring and cook until thickened – another 2 – 3 minutes.
Ladle around ⅓ of the sauce into the slow cooker and then add the joint of beef.
Pour in the remaining sauce.
Cover with a lid and turn the slow cooker on low. Cook for 8 hours – up to 10 hours will not hurt though, if that is more convenient.
2 – 3 hours before the end of cooking: if adding potatoes, peel and chop them into medium sized chunks. Add to the slow cooker, ensuring they are covered in the gravy, 2 – 3 hours before you want to serve the meal. This is also a good time to taste and adjust the seasoning, if necessary.
Finishing the gravy: when the beef is cooked, remove it from the slow cooker.
Spoon out much of the gravy into a saucepan. (Leave the potatoes in the slow cooker.) Bring the gravy to a rapid boil to reduce. When you are happy, add the remaining gravy and potatoes.
Serve: serve the beef in chunks with the luscious gravy, vegetables of your choice and, of course, the Yorkshire Puddings.

Recipe Notes

Equipment:

kitchen scales and measuring spoons
chopping board and knife
food processor, if necessary
slow cooker
saucepan

To cook in the oven:

You can also cook this in the oven. I like to use a cast iron casserole dish. Preheat your oven to Fan Oven 130°C /150°C/300°F/Gas 2. Prepare as above until the end of point 10, transferring everything to your casserole dish rather than a slow cooker. Cook in the preheated oven for 3½ hours. If using potatoes, add for the final hour of cooking.