Beef and Beer Stew

fishcurry

Ingredients

  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1kg of shin/braising steak cut into chunks
  • 2 sticks of Celery
  • 2 Carrots
  • 3 Cloves Garlic
  • 2 large Onions
  • 2 heaped tbsp Tomato Powder
  • 1 tbsp Plain Gluten-Free Flour
  • 200ml Beef stock (we used one Kallo Very Low Salt Beef Stock Cube)
  • ½ litre of gluten free pale ale or bitter
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • Pinch of salt and Ground Black Pepper
  • A couple of pinches of dried Thyme

Method

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 160°C or Gas Mark 2.
  2. Heat half the oil in a large hob-to-oven casserole dish or alternatively use a deep non-stick frying pan. In order to allow the beef to brown properly you will need to add the beef in batches so that there is a just a single layer cooking at a time. Have a clean bowl handy in which to transfer each batch of cooked meat. Make sure you keep the heat hot throughout as you don't want the meat to boil. Optional: To help the browning process you can also add a few small knobs of butter whilst frying.
  3. Once each batch is nicely browned keep the bowl to one side. Reduce the heat in the pan. Roughly chop the celery, carrots and onions and add into the casserole dish/frying pan with the remainder of the oil. Stir.
  4. Slice the garlic cloves and add to the pan. Stir, allowing all the vegtables to brown slightly, whilst scraping up the brown bits from the base of the pan.
  5. Turn off the heat. Sprinkle the Tomato Powder and Gluten-Free Plain Flour over the vegetables. Season with salt and pepper and turn the vegetables to coat them thoroughly with the dry mix.
  6. Return the meat to your frying pan*/casserole dish and pour over the ale, then the beef stock. Stir and bring to a simmer. Cover with a lid and continue to simmer for 10-15 minutes. (*You may need to transfer the vegetable mix into a deep saucepan as the meat and liquids probably won't all fit into a normal sautee frying pan!)
  7. Note: if you have been using a frying pan up until this point (we didn't have a hob -to-oven casserole dish!) transfer the mixutre into your casserole dish. Add the bay leaves and the thyme and put the lid on. Place in the middle of the oven for 2½ - 3 hours. Check halfway through. You will be adding the dumplings towards the end of the cooking time.
  8. for 2 hours.

You can serve this with Gluten Free Dumplings Czech Style or with plain Dumplings