Flemish Beef Stew (Crock Pot)

I am flemish and have made this stew many times. I'm sorry: but we do not put carrots or mushrooms in our stew. For 2 LB of meat, the Ingredients are: 1 cup Dijon mustard Salt and pepper 2 pounds boneless beef chuck, cut in 1 1/2 inch pieces a few table spoons of flour 2 tablespoons butter and olive oil 3 medium onions, sliced 2 garlic clove, crushed 2-3 bay leaves 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme 1.5 bottle (18 oz.) dark beer water if needed lightly flower each piece of meat, then rub mustard on all sides of meat cubes. Season with salt and pepper. Melt half the butter and oil in a skillet and fry the onions until tender; do not brown. Remove the onions. Using the same skillet, sear the meat on all sides in remaining oil and butter in batches if needed. Transfer all ingredients into a large pot of crockpot. Add the onions and herbs, stir, carefully pour the beer over. Depending on the size of your pot, you may want to add the beer in bathes, because it may foam up for the first 5 minutes. Cook covered, over low heat for 3 hours in a regular pot of 8 hours in a slow cooker until the meat is tender, adding more beer or water if necessary. Remove bay leaves. If the sauce needs to be thickened use corn starch, water and a bit of the sauce before adding it to the main mixture and cook it for another 5-10 minutes to make sure there are no lumps or flour taste. Serve with fresh slices of baguette, Belgian fries, or boiled potatoes. You can serve it with any vegetable, but in Flanders, it is often served with apple sauce, red cabbage with apples, or green beans. We do not put as much cinnamon or sugar in apple sauce, so it is less sweet. We also use the sauce from the meat to pour it over french fries. It is similar to frites sauce in Quebec, but much richer in flavor than a simple gravy. And yes: we then add mayonaise or ketchup to the fries to make a disgusting looking, but heavenly fast food dish. Notes: 1) The original post is correct: do not use stout. If you cannot find a brown Belgian beer, such as a dark Leffe, then I found that a jug of Mississippi mud beer does the trick just fine. 2) Do not skimp on mustard. Use a good dijon. Using yellow mustard will not give you the depth of flavor this dish normally gives. 3) I did try to make this with carrots and mushrooms one time. The carrots with the quality mustard and good beer tasted rancid and had a very mealy texture. The mushrooms tasted like they came from a can: rubbery. I do serve the stew with mushrooms, but I simply sauté them with some butter and parsley and serve them on the side.

This was excellent! Loved the rich flavor, even though I used a lager rather than a dark beer.

I was going to post this for the ZWT 2010 and here it is. I LOVE this stew, so easy and tasty. Even tho I know it makes it more authentic, I don't care for caraway seeds, so always leave them out. Thanks for posting, Bev.

Outstanding!!!