Start off with a lovely piece of beef. This is a piece of chuck steak. Like I said it was too big but we put the leftovers to good use. Put some oil in a frying pan and give the meat a really good browning on all sides. Don’t be half hearted here. Use a really high heat and get it a nice dark brown on all sides. This change of colour imparts a really nice flavour. You don’t want to burn it of course but a nice dark colour is OK. Once this is done plonk it into your pre- warmed slow cooker

Quarter a couple of medium onions and soften them in the pan that you just browned the meat in. Pour in some water and a couple of carrots in great big chunks and bring to the boil. This gets all the lovely flavour out of the frying pan.

Pour the boiling liquid into the slow cooker. You need to get enough liquid to almost cover the meat. You a can add a stock cube if you want but it’s not necessary. Put the lid on it and leave for HOURS.

Now for the spuds. Peel enough potatoes for the meal and boil for just 10 minutes. Don’t cut them too small?

Drain the potatoes then either melt a little chicken or duck fat in the pan and throw in the clove of garlic

Gently stir the potatoes in the fat or oil. The idea here is to coat the potatoes in the fat but also to gently break up the surface of the potatoes. This will make the crisp outside when we cook them later.

Put the potatoes in a baking tray and cover in cling film...

At this point I went out for a 30 mile bike ride. You don’t have to do this. You can go shopping, visit the mother in law or learn to juggle. Anything you want the day is yours.

After at least 5 hours you will come back home to a kitchen that smells lovely. From this point you have an hour before you serve up. Put the oven on to 200 Celsius and put the potatoes in

Take the meat out of the slow cooker. Put it in a deep dish or a nice big plate, cover with cling film and wrap it in a couple of tea towels. This keeps the meat warm and allows it to rest before serving. Take the liquid out of the slow cooker and allow it to cool.

Now for the broccoli. Break into nice big florets pop in a pan. Put just a little water in the bottom. Just a couple of centimetres deep at most. Put the lid on and simmer for 5 minutes.

After 5 minutes take the lid off, pour some olive oil over the broccoli and turn up the heat.

You need to watch this carefully now. You want to boil almost all of the liquid off. Keep moving the pan around to make sure that the broccoli doesn’t catch or burn. When the liquid has gone turn off the heat and put it to one side.

After the potatoes have been cooking for half an hour take them out and turn them over. Add the part cooked broccoli and put back in the oven. I like to sprinkle some chilli flakes on the broccoli at the point but you don’t have too. Cook this for another 30 minutes and they should be ready to serve. If you want you can now take some rosemary leaves and toss them in olive oil. Sprinkle these on the potatoes. The will go crunchy and impart a lovely flavour onto the potatoes.

Gravy While the broccoli is cooking you can make the gravy. Take the cooking liquid and remove the carrots. Whiz the liquid in a blender or put it through a fine sieve.

If it’s a bit thin still you can thicken it with a bit of cornflour. The liquid should be cool by now so the cornflour won’t form lump. Make sure that you mix it in well. Put it into a pan and warm it up.

Now get the beef from the cling film and put it in a big dish. Using two forks tease the meat apart and try to resist eating too much of it.

Serve the meat and veg and pour over the luscious gravy. I also sliced the carrots that have been cooking with the meat and e served them as well but frankly they weren’t that nice. They had added a lovely flavour to the gravy so there wasn’t much taste left in them.

For lunch next day, why not take the meat and gravy and include it in a lovely salad?