Crockpot Stew with Beef, Forbidden Rice and Oyster Mushrooms Recipe

Crockpot Stew: Plug it, and forget it!

To make a crockpot stew is to rest assured dinner will be fantastic, at the cost of very low maintenance:

This crockpot stew, like every crockpot stew, may look deceptively rustic and monochromatic, but the smells that waft through the kitchen all night (or all day) can’t lie: It tastes just as heavenly as it smells. Perfect for Shabbos lunch too: luxurious new-age cholent with none of the beans nuisance? Environmentally safe, as my son calls it with a wink? I’m there!

I do love beef cheeks for a long cooking dish like crockpot stew, as it is ideally lean and gelatinous, and produce a voluptuously silky sauce. I only ask that you add no salt, as beef cheeks can err on the salty side, and contain enough salt to amply season the whole dish.

It has become a real pleasure to cook with chestnuts!

now that they are so widely available in their peeled, roasted and vacuum-packed form; try Gefen Brand Chestnuts, easy to locate in supermarkets and health food stores.

This crockpot stew was so outstanding exactly as it was that I for once ask you to leave every ingredient as listed, before you go ahead and tweak it on another day: this lineup just can’t be topped, and forbidden rice is easy to find in health food stores and online.

Ingredients

• 4 pounds beef cheeks, thoroughly rinsed, left whole
• 2 cups forbidden rice (also called black rice)
• 1 1/2 pounds oyster mushrooms, diced
• 1 cup peeled vacuum-packed roasted chestnuts
• Optional: 2 dozen tiny new potatoes
• 1 large red onion, diced
• 1 bottle dry red wine
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 6-8 sprigs thyme
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 2 good pinches saffron

Instructions