Meal ideas to prepare for your new arrival: Beef (Boeuf) Bourguignon

This classic French dish has been a favourite of mine for years, something my dad used to talk about when we were kids and the best bit about it, you can just bung it into a slow cooker and let it cook whilst you get on with important things like napping, dusting, catching up on TV.

Ingredients

• 500g of stewing steak
• Pack of streaky smoked bacon rashers, roughly chopped
• 4tbsp of oil (I use Rice Bran Oil but you can use whichever oil tickles your fancy)
• 12 shallots, peeled
• 2 carrots, peeled and chopped
• 225g mushrooms, peeled and quartered
• 2 beef stock cubes
• 3 tbsp of tomato paste
• 400ml boiling water
• 300ml red wine
• 2 gloves of garlic, choppd
• salt (to taste)
• black pepper (to taste) 
• 1-2 tbsp of cornflour (more if needed to thicken)

Method

• Preheat the heating base of your slow cooker to LOW
• In a large frying pan or wok, add a splash of oil, add the streaky bacon and cook until slightly crispy – then place in the slow cooker
• Toss the beef into the flour
• Heat a splash of oil in the pan and cook the beef in small patches to colour slightly
• Add to the bacon in the slow cooker

• Lightly colour the shallots and carrots in the slow cooker in the pan and add to the slow cooker along with the mushrooms

• Mix together the boiling water, stock cubes, red wine, tomato paste and garlic then pour over the meat in the slow cooker

• Season well and let cook in the slow cooker for 5-6 hours on a LOW heat
• You can add cornflour with a little water to make a paste and then add to the dish and stir through to thicken towards the end if you please

Let it cook and serve with whatever tickles your fancy. We decided to go with garlic bread and potatoes. Lush.

Enjoy xoxo