Can I Make Carbonnade A La Flamande in a Slow Cooker?

Our answer

Nigella's Carbonnade a La Flamande (from KITCHEN) is a slowly cooked beef stew made with dark beer. These type of recipes usually convert very well to a slow cooker. The cooking time is likely to be around 8 hours on a low setting, but we suggest that you consult your slow cooker handbook for guideline cooking times as models do vary.

The recipe starts by cooking lardons of bacon and chopped onions until the onions are soft and the lardons are slightly crisp. We would suggest that you still do this and you can do this in a frying pan before transferring them to the pot of the slow cooker. For a slow cooker it is not completely necessary to brown the meat beforehand so you can just add it to the slow cooker pot, along with the remaining ingredients, before covering and cooking. As with all stews, the slow cooker version is better if you let the stew cool, then refrigerate it (within 2 hours of making) overnight and reheat it the next day until piping hot.