recipe-book

Beef in River Cottage Stinger Beer
River Cottage HQ Head Chef, Gill Meller, has adapted Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s recipe, Beef in Stout,
from The River Cottage Meat Book
Serves 8-10
Ingredients
1.5kg chuck or stewing beef or shin
(boneless weight), trimmed & cut
into generous chunks
250g pancetta or thick streaky
bacon cut into slightly smaller
cubes than the beef
50g butter or dripping, plus a little
butter for cooking the mushrooms
500g baby onions, peeled but
left whole
up to 50g plain flour, seasoned
with salt and pepper
500ml beef stock
500ml River Cottage Stinger Beer
2 bay leaves
a sprig of thyme
a few stalks of parsley
250g button mushrooms
250g flat open-cup mushrooms,
sliced about 5mm thick
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
1. Heat the butter or dripping in a large frying pan and brown the pancetta or streaky
bacon until the fat runs. Transfer to a large casserole or saucepan. In the same fat
in the same frying pan, gently fry the baby onions, shaking occasionally, until they
are lightly browned all over. Transfer to the casserole. Toss the beef in the seasoned
flour, shaking off the excess, and brown it in the same pan, in batches, transferring
it to the casserole when it is nicely coloured.
2. Now pour some of the Stinger Beer into the pan to deglaze it, scraping any residue
from the base of the pan with a wooden spatula and tipping it all into the casserole.
Pour in the beef stock and the rest of the Stinger Beer, adding a little water only
if needed to cover the meat. Add the herbs, tied into a bouquet garni, and season
with salt and pepper. Bring to the boil, then set to simmer very gently, with the lid
on but slightly ajar.
3. Cook the stew for about 2 hours for chuck or stewing steak, more like 3 hours
for shin, until the meat is completely tender. Add a little hot water if the meat is
starting to get exposed and dry out. The mushrooms go in about 1 hour before the
end. Sweat them gently in a little butter till the juices have run out of them and they
have ‘tightened’. Add, along with the juices, to the casserole – the juices will help
prevent the stew drying out.
4. Serve with creamy mashed potatoes!
Gill Meller, www.rivercottage.net
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