Slow-cooked beef stew

2 sticks of celery (sf)
4 large onions (sf)
5-7 mushrooms (about half a supermarket box) (sf)
3 carrots (sf)
1 potato (f)
1/4 tsp of umami powder (optional) (f)
1 tbsp bovril (f)
2 beef stock cubes (f)
400g of lean steak (f)

1/4 tsp of Xanthan gum (f...?)

Warm up the slow cooker (turn it on and add half a kettle of boiling water). Add the crumbled stock cubes, bovril, and optional umami powder (or thai fish sauce) for extra flavour! (you can also add any other flavourings)
Chop the celery and onion into small pieces and add to a non-stick frying pan. Add about half a cup of water, and turn on the heat.  Cook the onion /celery for a few minutes, stirring occasionally until soft.
Chop up the mushrooms and slice the carrots and add to the pan. Chop the potato into small cubes and toss in. If it dries out, add another splash or two of water, and give it a good stir. Heat through completely and then add to the slow cooker. Any brown stuff that has stuck to the bottom of the pan - this is called 'fond' and contains lots of flavour - add a splash of hot water, and try and dissolve / scrape off this lovely stuff with a wooden spoon, and tip into the slow cooker.
Chop up the lean meat into small cubes.
With the clean(ish) pan, heat it up till quite hot (boil off any water so it's dry) and throw in the meat. Don't stir! try and avoid the temptation! you want to crisp up the meat touching the pan to get some lovely crusty bits. Cook on high for a couple of minutes, and only when it's stuck and going a nice deep brown, scrape off the meat and into the slow cooker. Add another splash of boiling water, and scrape off any nice brown crusty bits with the wooden spoon. You may have to repeat if it's well stuck on.
Don't worry if the top of the meat is red. You don't have to 'seal' the meat - it's going to be cooking for hours anyway - we are just trying to develop lots of flavour using the maillard reaction (the crispy brown bits).

Add all the flavour to the slow cooker, and top up with water to make sure everything is covered. Put the lid back on the slow cooker and leave it for several hours. I usually make it late evening (after the kids used to be in bed), and leave overnight - give it a quick stir in the morning - and then go to work.

After 18 hours or so, any stringy bits in the meat (connective tissue) has changed into gelatin, and the meat should be practically falling apart. It will smell gorgeous - and the gravy will be a dark brown colour and may have thickened. The vegetables will have softened through - they may have mostly dissapeared. The potato will probably have disintegrated and will be thickening the gravy.

I missed the potato the first time and the gravy was a bit thin. However, 1/4 tsp of xanthian gum thickened the gravy perfectly!

I'd suggest cooking some extra veg - maybe throw on some frozen peas and carrots - they will go great in your bowl to provide a bit of texture. This also works really well as a family meal - you'll get no complaints from any 'non-dieters' - simply ladle out a big bowl and give them a couple of bread rolls to mop up the unctuous gravy. You can either use a hexB or syn some bread - we actually boiled some rice for a free side dish.

Pics to follow (sorry - disappeared too quickly! I'll take some next time)