Beef & Ale Stew

Ingredients

• 600ml hot beef stock
• 30g plain flour, for dusting
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 200g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
• 1 tbsp tomato purée
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
• 1 large onion, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 bay leaf
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
• 800g braising steak, cut into 3cm cubes
• 330ml brown ale
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 crusty loaf, to serve (optional)
• 1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley (optional)

Method

1. Pat the beef cubes thoroughly dry with kitchen paper — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Season generously with salt and pepper, then toss in the flour to give a fine, even dusting.
2. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a large heavy-based pan over a medium-high heat until it shimmers. Brown the beef in two or three batches — don't crowd the pan. All at once and the cubes steam in their own juices instead of building that deep, savoury crust the whole stew leans on. Each batch wants 3–4 minutes a side, until properly mahogany. Transfer to a plate.
3. Drop the heat to medium, add the remaining oil, and soften the onion and carrots for 6–8 minutes until translucent and catching gold at the edges. Stir in the crushed garlic and cook for 30 seconds, just until fragrant — don't burn it, or the whole pot turns bitter.
4. Stir in the tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce, coating the vegetables in the rust-coloured paste, and let it cook out for a minute until it darkens a shade. Pour in the brown ale and scrape the base hard with a wooden spoon — those stuck bits ARE the flavour, and the ale is here to lift them.
5. Return the beef and any resting juices to the pan. Add the hot beef stock, the rinsed lentils, the bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a gentle simmer, cover, and cook on the lowest hob setting for about 2¼ hours (or in the oven at 160°C fan for 2 hours), until the beef pulls apart under the back of a spoon and the gravy has gone glossy and dark.
6. Meanwhile, sauté the mushrooms in a separate frying pan with a splash of oil over a high heat for 4–5 minutes — single layer, don't stir too soon — until they're deeply golden and squeaky. Crowded mushrooms steam grey; spaced ones colour properly. Add them to the stew for the final 10 minutes so they keep their bite.
7. Fish out the bay leaf and thyme stems. If the gravy is loose, simmer uncovered for a few minutes until it clings to the back of a spoon. Taste, season, taste again — adjust the salt and pepper now, not at the table. The lentils and the long braise mute the seasoning, so it almost always wants another pinch.
8. Ladle into warm bowls, scatter the chopped parsley over the top, and serve with torn hunks of the crusty loaf for dragging through the dark, glossy gravy.