Beautiful & Fragrant Beef Curry

If you don't fall madly in love with this dish, there is something very seriously wrong with you. You may have an incurable disease or maybe you're a Republican. I clipped it out of the Minneapolis Star Tribune years ago, and it's been a fav ever since.
This can be made in the oven OR the crock pot. Your house is going to smell SO GOOD!!!

FRAGRANT BEEF CURRY
2lbs beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
Veg oil
1 or 2 onions, sliced
6-8 whole cloves
4-6 garlic cloves, chopped
2 cinnamon sticks
1 bay leaf
1/4 t. dried crushed red pepper
1 (15oz) can coconut milk
1 cup strong beef broth - I keep Better Than Bouillon around always!
3 large tomatoes, quartered (or a can of diced tomatoes, drained)
3-4 T. mango chutney (I didn't have any so I used orange marmalade and some Worc. sauce. MG says to add a tsp of vinegar too for the acid)
3 T. lemon juice
2-3 T. fresh ginger, grated
1.5 T. curry powder

Heat oven to 325. Or get out your crock pot.
Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper. In a dutch oven (or a frying pan if you're going to use a crock pot) heat 2T. oil over high heat. Working in batches, add beef to pot and brown on all sides. Transfer to a plate (or into the crock pot).
Heat another T. of oil in the same pot and saute the onions until tender. Return beef to the pot (or put onions on top of beef in the crock pot). Add cloves, garlic, cinnamon, bay leaf, and red pepper and stir one minute (or dump on top of everything in the crock pot).
Stir in coconut milk, stock, tomatoes, chutney, lemon juice, ginger, and curry and bring to a boil (or dump on top of everything in the crock pot and give it a stir).
Cover the pot and transfer it to the oven. Cook for about 3 hours, stirring twice. For crock pot, cook on low about 6-8 hours.
For a thicker sauce, place pot on stove and cook over med high heat until thickened. Or crank crock pot up to high for about an hour.
Serve over rice. Makes GREAT leftovers!