Go ahead and make sure you have all your ingredients and utensils. This recipe calls for a large stock pot, tongs to handle and turn meat, a cutting board or two, a knife and a crock pot.
Lets start by seasoning the meat. Season it with salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder,crushed red pepper, smoked paprika, celery salt, nutmeg, rosemary, thyme, oregano and parsley.
Next go ahead and prepare your vegetables by chopping and slicing them in your preffered sizes. I like finely diced onion, whole baby carrots, minced or thinly sliced garlic and whole peeled cloves, celery (sliced thin and large chunks,) large potato quarters, sliced and quartered mushrooms. Set them all aside when you have them readied. Make your beef stock now and set that aside too if you arent using a liquid stock. Prepare a sachet for your herbs or simply take one stalk of your thyme and use is as twine to tie your herbs together.
Lets turn on the heat on that stock pot to high. Add a little olive oil when the pot gets warm and wait for the oil to become hot.
Add the rump to your pot and let it sear, turning every 3-4 minutes to ensure a nice even sear. This will lock in the seasonings and juices during the slow cook to come. After you have completely seared the meat remove the rump from the pot. Do not over cook your roast, it should only take about 8-12 minutes depending on your stove top. Do not remove the pot from heat or discard stuck on stuff or any juice.
Add a little red wine to the pot, just a splash or 3 really and take a utensil and scrape the remains of the beef off the bottom of your pot. This will make a lovely beef base for your roast. Dont burn yourself on the steam! XD Now go ahead and add those onions making sure to toss them around a bit to coat them in the wine and base. Let the onions cook down until slightly translucent and then add the minced and whole garlic.
Add the remaining vegatables to your pot and then all of the dry herbs and spices. (Do not add the bay leaf yet) Toss them around to coat them evenly. If you are using fresh herbs add them on the next step rather than this one. This will make it easier to remove them from your stew. Nobody likes eating stems ;)
Ok so now that we have our veggies partially cooked down its time to place the rump back in and add your beef stock. Placing your herbs (still no bay leaves) gently on top for easy removal. Reduce heat to a low simmer for about 10-15 minutes stirring once or twice.
Pull out your herbs and place everything into your crock pot. I use the same herbs once again laying them on top for easy removal. Add the bay leaves now. Turn your crockpot on a low for 6, 12 or even 24 hours. No stirring needed. Set it and forget it. =D
Remove the bay leaves and herb bundle before consumption.
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