Azorean Spiced Beef Stew

As I was perusing crockpot365.blogspot.com I found this recipe. It along with a few others convinced me that I was better off buying Stephanie O'Dea's book "Make It Fast, Cook It Slow". I'd rather make notes in her cookbook than copy and paste off her blog.

Azorean Spiced Beef Stew

1 lb beef stew meat
3 cups beef stock
2 potatoes, chopped in 1-inch chunks
1 cup cherry tomatoes cut in quarters or 2 large chopped tomatoes
1 cup baby carrots
3 green onions, chopped
5-6 garlic cloves, smashed and chopped
1-2 tbsp kosher salt (start with 1, then salt to taste)
1/2 tbsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cumin
1 bay leaf
2 cinnamon sticks

Use a 6-quart slow cooker. Put the meat into your stoneware; frozen is fine. Add the stock. Add the tomatoes, potatoes, carrots, green onions and garlic. Stir in the salt, red pepper flakes, allspice and cumin. Float the bay leaf on top and add the cinnamon sticks. Cover and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours or on HIGH for about 6 hours.


We ended up using steak, although when I pulled the meat out of the freezer I wasn't sure what it was. Feel free to use whatever you'd like to get rid of from your freezer. I skipped the tomatoes and added extra potatoes, carrots and garlic. I also added about 4 cups of stock. When I make it again I'll probably use 5 cups. I will also use only 1 cinnamon stick. The flavor was good (just barely cinnamon-y), but I wasn't crazy about the strong cinnamon scent while it was cooking. All in all, I really liked how this came out and will make it again!