I am celebrating the latest reincarnation of The Recipe Blog with my Grandmother´s recipe for beef stew – a wonderfully warming and hearty stew, perfect for the cold winters of Yorkshire!

Ingredients
1 lb shin beef – diced
Seasoned flour – plain flour, salt and white pepper
2 tbsp beef dripping
2 large onions, quartered
2 large carrots and a half of a turnip, peeled and diced
1 bottle of Newcastle brown ale
10 fl oz beef stock – add more if required
10 fl oz light vegetable stock or water
2 lb potatoes – peeled cooked and diced

Method
Place the seasoned flour into a plastic bag, add the meat and shake to coat, retain flour

Add the beef dripping to a large ovenproof casserole, melt then add the onion quarters and cook until lightly browned, remove and put to one side

Add the beef and brown all over, remove beef from pan, pour dripping into a bowl and put to one side

Return the beef to the pan, adding the onions, vegetables, ale, stocks and potatoes

Bring up the boil, cover and transfer to a preheated oven, cook for 90 minutes

Mix the flour with the dripping and add to a little of the stock, pour into the pan while stirring, return stew to the oven for 30 minutes

Serve with Yorkshire Pudding or Dumplings

Handy tips

A handy tip for thickening stews or gravies in our family is to use Yorkshire Pudding Batter. Traditionally we rarely had a stew that was not served with Yorkshire Pudding in our family. In place of mixing the flour with dripping my grandmother used to make the Yorkshire Pudding batter, and ladle a little into the stew (about half a soup ladle). Then continue cooking the stew. It really added something!

The Beauty of a traditional stew is you can add any veggies that strike your fancy.

Ingredients::

16 oz – chuck steak in large cubesSeasoned flour
1 onion – thinly sliced
1 garlic clove – crushed
5 fl oz strong ale
5 fl oz beef stock
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp of sherry vinegar
Grain mustard
1 bouquet garni
Butter and Olive oil
1 stale French stick – 2 days old

Method::
Heat the oil in a casserole dish, add the onions and garlic and sweat off until translucent

Put a frying pan with equal amounts of butter and oil over a medium heat, when hot add the steak coated in seasoned flour to the pan and brown in batches, add to the casserole dish

Add a little more oil to the frying pan and sprinkle in a teaspoon of the seasoned flour while stirring

Gradually add the beer while continuing to stir with a wooden spoon – scraping the bottom of the pan to loosen the juices

Add the stock, sugar, sherry vinegar and mustard and bring to the boil

Pour into the casserole dish

Add the bouquet garni and cook in a medium oven for two hours

Cut the bread into slices and spread with the grain or Dijon mustard, place over the casserole and return to the oven to crisp up the bread