Slow Cooked Beef Stew (Slow Cooked Beef Caldereta)

I finally had a chance to use my new slow cooker! It was a gift of my husband for my birthday and since then, I was thinking what is the best recipe to inaugurate my new baby in the kitchen.

So I tried googling and found quite plenty of very appetizing recipes. I decided to try it first with a beef recipe to know exactly its capacity to soften tough meat. My husband requested for Caldereta (Beef Stew). I found different recipes and procedures online but as I wanted it to taste more like our own version of Caldereta, I added some twist to the usual beef stew recipes. 

When I was reading procedures about how long it usually take to fully soften the beef meat using slow cooker, I thought it is quite long hours and too much to do. But then I realized, since I am more into multi-tasking, I could prepare lunch and dinner at the same time. Well, I could prepare lunch and prepare also the things for the slow cooker. Then just set my slow cooker after eating lunch and have a good rest. That will be just perfectly ready by dinner time :)

Well, any way, here's my version of Caldereta using slow cooker. It only took me 10 minutes to prepare everything before setting it into the slow cooker, yeah, that easy.  

Ingredients:

• 1 Kg Beef Brisket cut into 6 cubes
• 2 medium sized potatoes - cut into cubes 2"x2"
• 2 medium sized carrots - sliced about 1" thickness
• 1 medium sized green bell pepper - cut in cubes
• 1 large sized onion - cut in cubes
• 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• 3 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 small can liver spread
• 1 tablespoon margarine
• 2 1/2 cups beef broth
• salt
• pepper
• ground dried basil (optional)
• oil

Procedure:

1. Season beef with salt and pepper.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
3. Add the beef and cook until it begins to brown, about 3 minutes. Remove from skillet, set aside and drain the excess oil.
4. Lightly pan fry the potatoes and carrots. Remove from heat and set aside.
5. Heat a casserole with 1 tablespoon oil and saute garlic and onion.
6. Add the beef broth and tomato paste.
7. Mix in the liver spread and margarine.
8. Season with salt and pepper. Let it boil for a minute. Set aside.
9. Put the beef, potatoes, carrots and green bell pepper into the slow cooker.
10. Season with dried ground basil.
11. Pour in the broth mixture.
12. Cover the slow cooker and cook in high for 5 hours.
13. Serve and enjoy!