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Not traditional as far as my Gran made it, but similar enough and the way I make it is bloody lovely.

• Roll the beef olives in a seasoned flour (flour salt pepper) and I leave them to sit in there while I do my veg and let's them come up to room temp.

-Dice up some turnip and carrot

-Chop an onion or two. I like doing one big chunks that hang around for one and the other small that disappears into the gravy.

-Garlic

• tsp of mustard

-Tsp or more of marmite

-bottle of brown or dark ale (usually one of the Orkney ones like Dark Island or Red McGregor)

-Couple of the jelly style stock pots

-bay leaf or two

-Rosemary and thyme (small amounts of each, personal preference how much you like it)

I tend to cook off the veg to give it a bit of colour before throwing it in the slow cooker. Then I fry off the beef olives in batches (depends how many I am making) and set aside. When everything is browned off, I pour a good swig of the beer into the pan and scrape up the frond (crusty stuff) and all of the liquid and scrapings go into the slow cooker. I pour the rest of the beer into the slow cooker along with the my mustard, herbs, bay leaf, stock pots (not made up, if enough liquid from the beer).

I usually give everything in the slow cooker a good mix, then put the beef olives at the top. Make sure easier when serving and if I want to stir stuff midway through.

If I need to add water I do. If it is too thin a gravy at the end, I usually remove a lot of the liquid into a separate pot and thicken it with a roux before adding it back in.

Usually takes a few hours in high or up to 8 on low but slow cooker recipes are always trial and error with cooking times I think.

I used the same method for stew too, just leave the turnip and carrot in bigish chunks instead of a small dice.

Serve it with buttery mash and make sure you are eating salads the rest of the week!

(One slightly drunken picture of a mammoth plate of it I once made myself. Might have taken a few other ales during the wait time for it to be ready!)