A Image credit: recipetineats.com

It’s January folks and time for a comforting bowl of hearty Beef & Guinness Stew with Colcannon. This recipe makes plenty for 6 people but do increase the quantity and make extra to put by for another day if you’re feeding a gang! Any leftover Colcannon is gorgeous turned into a potato cake with poached or fried egg for tea the next day.

Beef & Guinness Stew

I think every cook should have a beef stew recipe.  This is not the type of recipe that you are going to make after a stressful day at work, but a nice one for a cold afternoon in the winter when you have some time.  Again make a bigger portion of the stew and use the leftovers for a midweek meal.

(Serves 6-8)

Ingredients:

1kg Shin Beef, trimmed & cut into large bite size pieces

2 carrots, cut into chunks

2 onions, quartered

2 sticks of celery, cut into chunks

2 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 tablespoon Tomato Puree

1 tablespoon flour

Bouquet Garni

A few black peppercorns

500ml can of Guinness

500ml Beef Stock

100g whole button mushrooms

Method:

Preheat the oven to 160˚C , 150˚C Fan, Gas mark 3

When you are ready to cook the beef, heat the oil in a large casserole over a fairly high heat. Brown the beef on all sides and then remove to a plate

Reduce the heat and add the veg with a little salt

Cover and cook for 5-10 mins or until the veg has softened

Stir the tomato puree and flour into the casserole and cook out for a minute or two

Put the beef back into the casserole and add the guinness and stock with the bouquet garni

Cover and place in the oven for 2 ½ to 3 hours hours or until the beef is so tender it is almost falling apart.

Remove the beef to a warmed pie dish to rest

In the meantime, cook the mushrooms by heating some oil in a frying pan and frying the mushrooms over a fairly high heat until golden brown. A teaspoon of brown sugar can really help with the caramelisaton of the mushrooms! Add the mushrooms to the finished stew and stir through.

If you would like to turn it into a pie, place the stew into a pie dish. Increase the temperature of your oven to 200˚C, 180˚C Fan, Gas Mark 6

Wet the rim of the pie dish with your finger and place the pastry on top. Press the edges between your thumb and forefinger to make a nice pattern and to make sure the pastry sticks to the dish. You can also cut out a nice pattern from the leftover pieces of pastry.Poke a few holes in the pastry with a fork and brush all over with the egg. Bake for 15-20 mins or until golden and puffed up.

Colcannon

Ingredients:

4/6 Rooster potatoes

½ head of Savoy Cabbage, finely sliced

2 spring onions,  finely chopped

2 tablespoons of Real butter

3 tablespoons of Milk

Salt and White Pepper

Method:

Peel and halve the potatoes and boil in cold water. In the meantime, melt the butter in a pan and add the cabbage with a couple of teaspoons of water. Cook for 2/3 minutes, stirring every now and then until softened. Set aside until the potatoes are cooked.

When the potatoes are soft, test with knife and drain well. Cover with a teatowel for a minute or two to dry out.

Mash well and add the milk, cabbage mixture, spring onions and seasoning.