Stew is a firm family favourite, it's so simple with intense flavour. Stew is perfect for a cold winter night in front of a fire with a glass of wine. It is also great to have the next day warmed up with some crusty bread and butter.
This ancient dish can have an almost unlimited combination of ingredients, it just depends on what you want to put in it.
In my opinion stew works best with tougher, usually cheaper cuts of meat that become moist and tender on a low heat when cooked slowly.
I like to keep things straightforward with my stews... meat, veg & liquid... it really is is that simple. You can use water or stock but I personally like to use wine, ale or stout, each of these adds a totally different taste.
For this stew I went for beef with carrot, parsnip, swede and onion. I used two bottles of Fullers London Porter which is a heavy dark ale, adding a very intense flavour that only intensifies over time.
Beef & Ale Onepot Stew
Ingredients
1kg Of stewing beef
2Red onion
1/4 of a swede
3 Carrots
1 Parsnip
3 Cloves of Garlic
2 Bottles of Fullers London Porter 500ml (Or other ale)
Beef Stock
Bay Leaves
Fresh Thyme
Corn Flour
Sea Salt
Crushed black peppercorns
Prep
Chop the beef roughly into reasonably sized cubes
Chop each of the red onions into 4 quarters
Finely chop the garlic
Roughly chop the carrots, swede and parsnip
How to throw it together
1. Brown the beef in a frying pan then add the finely chopped garlic. Fry and stir for a minute or so, this will give and nice bit of extra flavour.
2. Fill the pot with all of your beef, garlic, onion, carrots, swede and parsnip.
3. Put in one and a half bottles of the London Porter (or whichever ale you prefer) then top up with half a litre of beef stock.
4. Put in the bay leaves and two or three sprigs of thyme along with 1 tsp of sea salt and 2 tsp of crushed black pepper corns.
5. Chuck it in the oven with the lid on for 2 hours occasionally giving a quick stir.
6. After the two hours add 2 heaped teaspoons of corn flour and stir in (don't worry about the lumps as these will boil away) put it back into the oven uncovered for another hour.
7. Take it out of the oven and it will hopefully be thick and ready to serve (if not put back in until it reaches your desired thickness).
Serving Suggestions - I like to serve stew with a nice thick buttery mash if its a dinner or if you are having it for lunch then it goes perfectly with a crusty french stick smeared with a good butter.