Slow Cooker Beef Braise with Redcurrant Port Sauce

This slow cooked Irish beef recipe from Karen Burns-Booth is everything you’d want from a warming comfort food dish. Port and redcurrant sauce gives a sweet yet intense finish, which matches beautifully with the meltingly tender chuck steak. Though this dish benefits from being made in a slow cooker, Karen also offers instructions for a conventional oven so no one has to miss out.

Braised chuck steak

  • 750g of Irish beef chuck steak, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 5cm chunks
  • 2 large onions, peeled and diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced
  • 4 tbsp of ruby port, or tawny port
  • 6 tbsp of redcurrant jelly
  • 150ml of beef stock
  • salt
  • pepper

Dumplings

  • 225g of self-raising flour
  • 110g of shredded vegetable suet, or grated frozen butter
  • salt
  • pepper

To serve

  • redcurrant jelly
  • mixed vegetables, steamed
  • mashed potatoes, or champ

Braised chuck steak

  • 750g of Irish beef chuck steak, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 5cm chunks
  • 2 large onions, peeled and diced
  • 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely diced
  • 4 tbsp of ruby port, or tawny port
  • 6 tbsp of redcurrant jelly
  • 150ml of beef stock
  • salt
  • pepper

Dumplings

  • 225g of self-raising flour
  • 110g of shredded vegetable suet, or grated frozen butter
  • salt
  • pepper

To serve

  • redcurrant jelly
  • mixed vegetables, steamed
  • mashed potatoes, or champ
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Step 1

Turn your slow cooker on to the high setting, or preheat oven to 150¬?C/gas mark 2

Step 2

Place all of the ingredients, except the dumpling mixture, into the slow cooker and cook for 6–8 hours. To cook in a conventional oven, place the ingredients in a roasting tin or casserole dish, cover with tin foil (or place a lid on a casserole dish) and cook for 4 hours

Step 3

1 hour before the end of the cooking time, make the dumplings by mixing the suet into the flour. Season and mix to a soft dough with gradual additions of water

Step 4

Shape the dumplings into 6–8 balls, drop on top of the casserole in the slow cooker, replace the lid and cook for a further hour until it is ready to serve. In cooking in a conventional oven, add the dumplings to the dish 45 minutes before the end of cooking.

Step 5

Serve immediately with your choice of seasonal greens and some mashed potato or champ.

copy text

Step 1

Turn your slow cooker on to the high setting, or preheat oven to 150¬?C/gas mark 2

Step 2

Place all of the ingredients, except the dumpling mixture, into the slow cooker and cook for 6–8 hours. To cook in a conventional oven, place the ingredients in a roasting tin or casserole dish, cover with tin foil (or place a lid on a casserole dish) and cook for 4 hours

Step 3

1 hour before the end of the cooking time, make the dumplings by mixing the suet into the flour. Season and mix to a soft dough with gradual additions of water

Step 4

Shape the dumplings into 6–8 balls, drop on top of the casserole in the slow cooker, replace the lid and cook for a further hour until it is ready to serve. In cooking in a conventional oven, add the dumplings to the dish 45 minutes before the end of cooking.

Step 5

Serve immediately with your choice of seasonal greens and some mashed potato or champ.