What's for supper? Chinese-flavoured beef stew

Last night's entree was a real cleaning-out-the-fridge stew, and it turned out much better than you'd think.  In the slow cooker, I put:

Stewing beef cubes, somewhat thawed
The remaining third of a jar of hoisin sauce, shaken up with just enough water to clean the jar
One sweet potato, cut into pieces about the size of a baby carrot
One carrot, cut into pieces the same size
One onion, sliced thin.

I let it all cook on high for about six hours, because the beef was still partly frozen.  Right near the end I added frozen broccoli, right out of the bag--it cooked quickly but didn't get too mushy.  I also added a bit of cornstarch to thicken it slightly.

We had the stew with Basmati rice,  and put out oranges and graham crackers for dessert.