Beef & Guinness Stew

Ingredients

• 800 g diced beef chuck or braising steak, cut into 4cm pieces
• 500 ml beef stock
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 2 parsnips, peeled and cut into large chunks
• 200 g pearl onions or shallots, peeled
• 2 tbsp tomato purée
• salt and black pepper
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• 1 large onion, diced
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 3 tbsp vegetable oil
• 440 ml Guinness stout
• 3 bay leaves
• Fresh parsley, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C / 140°C fan / Gas 3. Pat the beef chunks bone-dry on kitchen paper and season generously with salt and pepper — water means steam, and steam means no browning. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large cast-iron casserole over a high heat until it shimmers.
2. Brown the beef in three batches, 3–4 minutes per side, until each piece is deeply mahogany on every face. Don't crowd the pan — all at once and the pan cools, water leaches out, and you've stewed the meat instead of searing it. Transfer each batch to a plate as you go, leaving the dark stuck bits behind in the pan. That fond is half your flavour.
3. Add the last tablespoon of oil and drop the heat to medium. Cook the diced onion for 6–7 minutes, stirring through the fond, until softened and translucent. Stir in the crushed garlic and cook just until fragrant — 30 seconds, no more. Burnt garlic turns the whole stew bitter.
4. Add the tomato purée and thyme and cook for 2 minutes, stirring, until the purée darkens a shade and smells sweet rather than raw. Scatter over the flour and stir for another 2 minutes to cook out the chalky taste.
5. Pour in the Guinness slowly, scraping the base of the casserole vigorously with a wooden spoon as it foams up — every brown speck lifting off the bottom is going into the gravy. Tip in the rinsed red lentils and the beef stock and stir to combine.
6. Return the browned beef and every drop of resting juice to the casserole. Drop in the bay leaves and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover tightly and transfer to the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes.
7. Add the carrots, parsnips and pearl onions, pushing them down into the liquid. Replace the lid and cook for a further 45–60 minutes, until the vegetables are tender and the beef pulls apart at the nudge of a spoon.
8. Fish out the bay leaves and thyme stems. If the sauce is thinner than you'd like, set the casserole over a medium heat on the hob and simmer uncovered for 10–15 minutes, stirring now and then, until glossy and clinging to the meat. Taste, season, taste again — adjust salt and pepper now, not at the table.
9. Spoon the stew over a generous mound of mashed potato or colcannon, then scatter the chopped parsley over the top in a bright green flurry just before it hits the table.