Beef stew will be tastier and richer when you add 1 simple ingredient butcher loves using

A traditional beef stew recipe is an essential skill for every home cook to possess. When prepared as a stew, the beef becomes exceptionally soft and tender, melting effortlessly in the mouth. Having always followed Sarah Rossi's beef stew recipe from her Tamming Twins food blog, I've recently discovered that adding one extra ingredient a butcher recommended adds so much more flavour to the meat, veg and gravy.

The team at Campbells Meat, a family-run Scottish online butcher with a team of specialist butchers and chefs, claimed that beef stew requires a splash of something sharp for it to be "transformative". They recommended adding a little red wine or balsamic vinegar to help break down the meat's fibres to make it far more tender while adding a gentle brightness to cut through the richness. I opted for some red wine, and the added flavour it gave the stew was incredible.

To make the beef stew as effortless as possible, I used Swan's 3.5L Nordic Slow Cooker. Retailing for £34.99, you can't really beat the Swan Slow Cooker when it comes to design; available in three colours in this stylish range and with seven colours available in their retro aesthetic.

I was pleased to find it wasn't all substance over style, however. During testing, it was easy to use. It just needs plugging in and the dial adjusting to your chosen setting, and the results were delicious - it produced a tasty beef stew that gave melt-in-the-mouth results.

The downsides? Despite its impressive looks, this is a fairly basic model - it doesn't have a timer, and the ceramic pot isn't hob safe, so you will need to brown meat in a separate pan first.

That said, this slow cooker still offers fantastic value for money. At less than £35, it's budget-friendly, and it has all the features I'd expect of a slow cooker at this price point, with a super classy look sure to complement any home.

If you're looking for a slow cooker with a similar price that has a timer, you could opt for Lakeland's 3.5L Digital Slow Cooker that is currently on offer for £49.99, down from £59.99.

Alternatively, if you're not fussed about a timer, Dunelm's Chalkboard Slow Cooker retails for just £17.60, currently down from £22.

Ingredients

• 750g of braising beef, cut into other large chunks and fat removed
• Two tablespoons of plain flour
• Two tablespoons of olive oil
• 100ml red wine
• One onion, chopped
• Two carrots, diced
• Two sticks of celery, diced
• One tablespoon of tomato puree
• Three sticks of rosemary
• 400ml of beef stock

Method

I started by chopping up my vegetables before coating the diced beef in the flour. Once coated, I heated one tablespoon of oil in a large, non-stick frying pan and fried the beef chunks in batches to make sure not to crowd the pan, until browned all over. This adds a lovely, deep colour to the final stew.

I then scooped the beef out of the pan and into the slow cooker, and repeated with the remaining beef and oil.

After all the meat had browned, I poured the red wine into the frying pan so it could absorb the flavour and the crusty bits from the base of the pan.

I then tipped the wine into the slow cooker along with the chopped onion, carrots, celery, tomato puree, rosemary and beef stock and stirred it.

The last step was to put the lid on, set the slow cooker to low and leave it cooking for eight hours. If you want the stew done in four hours, set the slow cooker to high.

For those who don't have a slow cooker, they can cook the stew in their oven on 160C/140C fan/gas 3. Cover the casserole dish with a lid and cook the stew in the oven for two hours and 30 minutes or up to three hours, until the beef is very tender.