Crafts and Life

a.k.a. beef and beer stew (serves 4)

2 tbsp well seasoned plain flour
1 kg shin of beef (or good stewing beef) in chunks
75 g butter
2 tbsp vegetable oil
500 g onions, sliced
a sprig of thyme
3 bay leaves
2 x 330ml bottles of dark brown beer (such as Chimay)
250 ml beef stock
2 heaped tbsp redcurrant jelly
1 tbsp cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 180C

Pu the seasoned flour into a bowl and add the beef.  Toss the beef in the flour unil it is well coated.  In a large oven-friendly pan with a lid, brown the meat in batches in the butter and oil over a medium-high heat until just browned all over, keeping the meat on the move in the bottom of the pan.  Remove and set aside.

In teh same pan, brown the onion for a couple of minutes.  Return all the beef to the pan and turn the heat down to medium.

Add the herbs, beer and stock abd then – ooh we love this bit – deglae the pan, scraping up all those lovely sticky bits from the bottom so they melt like a flip-flop on hot sand in to the stew.  Stir in the redcurrant jelly and the vinegar.

Place the lid on the pan and cook in the oven for 2 hours or until the meat is tender and the gravy is loverly and gloopy.

Taken from "The Hairy Bikers Ride Again".