Collect together your equipment (see Recipe Notes below) and ingredients.

Cook the onions and garlic: on the hob, heat 1 tablespoon oil and 20g butter in the cast iron casserole. Add the onions and cook over a moderately low heat until softened and lightly caramelised. Around 10 minutes. (You may need to turn the heat down as the onion cooks – the onion should only be lightly caramelised/browned)

Add the garlic and cook for a further minute, or until aromatic. Tip the onion and garlic into the slow cooker.

Prepare the beef: meanwhile, put the beef in a mixing bowl with the flour and mix thoroughly.

Melt half the remaining oil and butter in a frying pan and brown the beef a handful at a time. It is important not to cook too much meat at a time or you will end up boiling it in its own juices rather than frying it. As the meat cooks, tip it into the slow cooker, holding as much of the oil and butter back in the frying pan as possible. Add further meat to the pan to brown and add the remaining oil and butter as necessary.

When all the meat is browned, deglaze the pan with the red wine and reduce by half. Scrape up all the sticky bits at the base of the pan and pour everything into the slow cooker.

Add the beef stock, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste, thyme, bay leaves and salt and pepper. Stir well and set the slow cooker to low. Cook for 8 – 10 hours or until the meat is extremely tender and falling apart.

After a few hours of cooking, taste the sauce. If necessary, add some brown sugar, to taste.

Liquid does not reduce in a slow cooker as much as it does when cooking on the hob or in the oven. Check the casserole about half an hour before it has finished cooking. If there is too much liquid, transfer the excess into a saucepan and boil to reduce to a thick syrupy consistency. Return this to the slow cooker and stir well.