Ingredients:
- 2 lbs stew meat – look for nicely marbled beef chunks
- salt and pepper
- 2 Tbsp oil
- 10 C water
- 3 mounded Tbsp good quality beef base – I use Better than Bouillon Brand Beef Base
- 3 stalks celery – chopped
- 2 onions – chopped
- 5 cloves garlic – minced
- 1 large potato – peeled and shredded
- 3 large carrots – peeled and shredded
- 1 C quick pearl barley – rinsed
- 1 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
Directions:
- Place a slow cooker liner bag in your crockpot (*see Notes below)
- Generously salt and pepper the beef
- In a large pan, heat the oil over medium-high heat
- When the oil is very hot, add 1/3 of the meat, as you will do this in 3 batches – if you add it all at once it will steam the meat instead of browning it
- Brown for about 2 minutes per side
- After each batch, transfer meat to the crockpot
- Add 2 C water to the pot you browned the meat in – NOT the crockpot
- Bring to a boil
- Stir up all the browned bits
- Add it, along with the remaining 8 C of water to the crock pot
- Add beef base, celery, onions and garlic and stir
- Cook on low for 6 hours
- Add potatoes and carrots
- Continue to cook on low for another hour
- Add the barley and worcestershire sauce
- Continue to cook on low for another hour, or until the barley is tender
Notes:
- For easy clean up, I always use a slow cooker liner bag – make sure if you use a slow cooker liner bag, that you buy the specific liner bag that is made for Slow Cookers, DO NOT use anything else or it will melt and ruin your food!