one spot two spot three spot, DROP!

(serves 6-8)...

Beef Casserole/Crockpot

6 dried Chinese mushrooms, sliced
1/3 C boiling water
1-1.5kg gravy beef, cubed
12 sml (pickling) onions, trimmed and peeled whole
6 rashers of bacon, trimmed of fat and chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tin chopped tomatoes
t tbsp sugar
1/4 C balsamic vinegar
1 C red wine
1/2 C hot water with 1 beef stock cube dissolved
salt & pepper
2 bay leaves
3 tbsp cornflour
2 tbsp water

Put the mushrooms in a bowl and pour over boiling water; leave to reconstitute wguke tiy fer everything else ready (about 10-15 minutes). Add all remaining ingredients (except cornflour and water) in order listed with mushrooms and their liquid after garlic, before tomatoes.

In crockpot: on auto for 8-10 hours - as slow as possible for as long as possible (so at a guess: 160˚C for around 4 hourse... tweak forwards or backwards from there).

Mix cornflour with water and add at the end, turning crockpot to high or returning casserole to oven at 200˚C for 10 minutes to allow cornflour to 'crack'.

Although thickened it will probably still be quite soupy - great for serving in bowls with slabs of crusty bread or in a high sided bowl served over mashed potatoes and steamed greens.