Easy Beef Stew

Slow Cookers are awesome. I got mine when I was at university, and apart from a couple of years when it lived with my dad (and didn't get used), it has been an important feature in my life. Not only is it the easiest kind of cooking in the world, but it also turns the stringiest old bits of meat into tender pieces of deliciousness.

Yesterday evening I cut up a few potatoes, some red onion and garlic, and some braising steak; and threw it all into the pot with some carrots and parsnips out of the freezer, a tin of tomatoes and a splodge of tomato puree, and my usual handful of seasoning: pepper, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, and a teaspoon of paprika. I think it is edes (sweet) paprika. I got it in Hungary, so it is rather old.

Pete switched it on at lunchtime, and although the potatoes were somewhat al dente, the stew as a whole was just what we needed on a rainy february night after a full day of work - in the office - and on his part, a full day of childcare. Oh, and we're having some very nice red wine with it.

Bernard had the aubergine and potato mush for tea again, and ate the lot, followed by yoghurt with prune, pear and apricot puree, and then a bath. Tomorrow he will be trying the Easy Beef Stew. On Saturday we are lunching with vegans, so it's best that he gets tanked up on red meat in advance...