Twisted beef stew recipe

I'm thinking of one of my fun aunties...I was inspired to cook a very hearty and healthy meal, as there are some big kids over here for dinner.  And there are small kids too, who have new dental gear in, so this meal is very well cooked, already in pieces, and sooooo tender.

I've been rediscovering my slow cooker, and this takes a little of the learning with the beef soups I've made and combines it with a newly forming understanding of the cuts of meat here...and together with some fresh rosemary and the secret "depth" ingredient of a mini-jug of all natural (i.e. not Welch's) grape juice makes for an easy dinner.  The best part was the look of "ok, that's food" that turned into "Wow, I was not expecting it to be delicious" because my biggest kiddo's friends have never had this Canadian staple.  It's really humble-looking- and so deceptively delicious.

About 1.5 pounds of very lean beef for roasting, cut into bit sizes.
5 giant carrots or their equivalents in small carrots, peeled and sliced into lengths
10 medium potatoes, scrubbed 'til you can't even believe they grew in dirt, into lengthwise eighths (because that size matches the cooking time for carrots cut into lengths)
310 ml of pure grape juice (to give the deeper flavours you might get from red wine, but I can't drink red wine, so this is that)
8-10 shallots, peeled and halved through the root to hold them together.
5, 10, 15 cloves of garlic-whichever seems best to you!

(Tissue to recover from the tears you'll cry over the slicing. Discard. Continue slicing when your vision returns, and you can see straight once more.  At least I hope the shallots are that powerful.)

Few sprigs of fresh rosemary, but not much
Many sprinkles of Montreal Steak Spice, or some other peppered spice
20 grinding twists of black peppercorns
2 cubes of bouillon (onion or beef)
Boiling water (important, because it takes 17000 hours to heat water in a slow cooker)

Layer all of the prepared ingredients into the cooker: meat, veggies, herbs and spices.  In a large mixing bowl, add the boiling water to the bouillon cubes, stir to dissolve, add grape juice, and I'll reiterate my original caution--not Welch's-too sweet and just not good! Pour over ingredients in slow cooker, adding extra boiling water to almost cover the lot.  The reason I like to boil the water first is that I love the beef when it's nearly falling apart...and the heat helps get that whole tenderization happening.  Mixing the bouillon first helps uniformly distribute the flavour, as there's no stirring in this one!

If you love gravy, add some flour mixed with cold water for the last 15 minutes of cooking.  Serve with French bread to soak in all the liquids, or rye toast, or arepas, or biscuits, or cornbread...and salad, or thinly sliced English cucumber - to get that whole French-English balance happening - somehow seems more Canadian this way.

Cheers and chao!