Our delicious slow cooked stew should have a flavoursome sauce and the meat should be unctuous – the beauty of adding Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout to this dish means that the alcohol compounds into the meat, improving its taste.
This distinctive type of beer was originally brewed to withstand the abuses of shipping in foul weather to Imperial Russia. It was a favourite of Russian nobility whose taste for the finest food and drink was world famous. A rich flavourful brew; deep chocolate in colour with a roasted barley nose and flavour that is a complexity of malt, hops, alcohol and yeast. Fermented in ‘stone Yorkshire squares’.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1kg / 2.2lbs stewing beef, cut into large chunks
- 1 onion, roughly chopped
- 10 carrots, cut into large chunks
- 2 tbsp plain flour
- 500ml / 16 fl oz Samuel Smith’s Imperial Stout
- 1 beef stock cube
- pinch of sugar
- 3 bay leaves
- fresh thyme
Method
- Heat oven to 160C/140C fan/gas 3.
- Heat the oil in large lidded casserole dish, brown the meat really well in batches and set aside.
- Add the onion and carrots to the dish, give them a good browning, then scatter over the flour and stir.
- Tip the meat and any juices back into the dish and give it all a good stir.
- Pour over the Imperial Stout and crumble in the stock cube.
- Season the stew with salt, pepper and a pinch of sugar.
- Stir in the herbs and bring everything to a simmer.
- Cover with a lid and place in the oven for about 2½ hrs until the meat is really tender.
- Leave the stew to settle a little, then serve with creamy mashed potatoes.