Malta Beef Stew

My daughter loves this.  A savoury slow cooker stew with potatoes, carrots, celery and herbs. I used a pressure cooker to shorten the cooking process or else you’ll need to cook it for about 1 hour or so to soften the meat. If you wish to have a thicker stew then add more corn starch. We like our stew very thick. We also like it beefy so I always add a little more beef. For beef I always use chuck steaks and for lamb I like shoulder chops.

You can use beef broth over beef stock cube and water.   I love the flavor the herbs give to it. The browning process also really put some great flavor on that meat and the yummy bits stuck to the bottom of the pan easily came off during the deglazing with the liquids.

Malta Beef Stew

Ingredients

600g beef – cut into 1-inch cube

1 yellow onion - cut into wedges

4 cloves garlic - crushed

4 sticks celery – chopped into bite-sized pieces

2 carrots - chopped into bite-sized pieces

3 potatoes – peeled and diced

1 can (about 320ml) Malta Malt Drink

2L water

1 beef stock cube

1 tsp dried thyme

½ tsp dried rosemary

2 bay leaves

½ tsp coarsely ground Black pepper

Parsley - chopped

1 tbsp corn starch 

Directions

Season the beef with salt, pepper and coat with a little flour. This helps to dry the surface of the meat and helps better browning.

In batches, brown the beef in a thick-based pan with some olive oil. Transfer the meat into a bowl. Set aside.

Add a little more olive oil into the pan. Sauté the onion and garlic for a minute to soften the onion.

Add the celery and carrots then stir to combine. Cook this for about 2-3 minutes.

Pour the Malta Malt Drink into the stew. Gently scrape the bottom of the pan with a spatula, to release the black bits.

Transfer to a pressure cooker. Pour the water into the cooker and add the beef stock cube. Return the beef into the stew.

Add rosemary, thyme, bay leaves, ground black pepper and potatoes then bring to a boil.

Put on the cover and allow this to cook for about 30 minutes.

Dissolve cornstarch in 3 tbsp cold water and stir into the stew to thicken the gravy. Top with chopped parsley and serve.