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Beef Stew With Mushrooms And Double Chocolate Stout

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Beef Stew With Mushrooms And Double Chocolate Stout

There is nothing to beat a big, steaming casserole of meaty beef and mushroom stew on a chilly evening. When it's good, it is wonderful and repays the hours of slow simmering. Serve with buttery mash – lots of it – and carrots.

Preparation time:
45 minutes
Cooking time:
120 minutes to 195 minutes
Total time:
2 hours 45 minutes to 4 hours 60 minutes 60 minutes 60 minutes 60 minutes
Serves:
 6

Ingredients

  • 1kg shin of beef or stewing steak, trimmed and cubed
  • 2 tbsp plain flour, seasoned
  • 3 tbsp sunflower oil
  • 4 rindless back bacon rashers, cut into short strips
  • 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 bouquet garni of 2 sprigs parsley, 1 bay leaf, 2 sprigs thyme
  • 400ml double Chocolate Stout or guinness
  • 2 tbsp tomato purée
  • ½ tbsp caster or granulated sugar
  • 250g button mushrooms, wiped and halved
  • 25g butter

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 150°C, gas mark 2. Toss the cubes of beef in the flour. Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over a moderate heat. Add one third of the beef and brown on all sides. Take the first batch out, and place in a casserole. Repeat with half the remaining beef, and then the last lot, adding more oil when necessary. Fry the bacon and onions gently in the pan, until the onions are tender and translucent. Tip them over the meat in the casserole. Tuck in the bouquet garni and season the contents with salt and pepper.
  2. Return the frying pan to the heat and add the beer. Bring up to the boil, scraping up the tasty brown residues stuck to the base of the frying pan. Stir in the tomato purée and sugar, then pour the mixture over the contents of the casserole. Add enough boiling water to cover the meat. Stir, cover and transfer to the oven. Leave the casserole to cook for 2–3 hours, stirring occasionally, until the meat is very tender.
  3. Fry the mushrooms in butter until lightly browned and tender. Stir into the casserole once the beef is done, then return to the oven, without the lid, for a further 15 minutes. Discard the bouqet garni before serving. Serve immediately, or if you’ve prepared the stew for serving later on, reheat the cooled stew thoroughly on the hob, allowing it to bubble for a good 4–5 minutes (adding a little extra water if necessary) before serving.

Drinks recommendation

Drinking anything other than beer would seem odd with this combination of flavours. Try any rich wintry ale, although you might be happiest with a creamy pint of stout.

Comments and images

Average user rating 4 stars out of 5

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Bungly

Bungly 28 November 2009 17:16

I used Guiness and it was absolutley gorgeous! I will defintely make this again. Highly recommended.

MazBatt

MazBatt 23 November 2008 14:02

This was an easy recipe to produce and the result was very tasty. Rich gravy which was excellent for breaking a baked potato in to (this cooked in the oven at the same time as the stew) I put the stew in the oven before walking the dogs and when we returned cold and rain soaked it was fantastic coming in to the house to the aroma of the beef and beer. (I didn't use Chocolate Stout as I only had Speckled Hen real ale in the cupboard - but it worked beautifully.) I've saved the recipe to my Scrapbook to use again later!

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4 stars out of 5

Average user rating Based on 23 ratings

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Nutritional Info

Typical values per serving:
Energy 462.0kcal
Sugars 7.4g
Fat 22.1g
Saturated Fat 7.2g
Salt 1.3g

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This recipe was first published on Waitrose.com in November 2006