Beef and Guinness Stew

A seriously tasty beef and Guinness stew

Total Time 4

Serving Size people

Preheat the oven to 160C.
Start by prepping your ingredients. Peel the shallots and cut them into chunks. Cut the mushrooms in half. Cut the tops and tails off the carrots. Cut the bacon into 1cm slices. Cut the steak into bite size chunks.
Put a large casserole dish on a medium heat. Add the bacon. Let it sizzle away, stirring often, for about five minutes, until golden. Remove them from the dish and put them aside in a bowl.
Add the butter and the steak to the casserole dish. Cook until starting to brown (you don’t need to cook it through at this point) then put in the same bowl as the bacon.
Add the shallots, mushrooms and carrots to the dish. Turn the heat down to low and cook gently for five minutes, until starting to soften.
Add the bacon and beef to the dish. Pour in the flour and give it a good stir.
Pour the Guinness in, a little at a time, stirring all the time. Add the bay leaves, rosemary and thyme and season with salt and pepper.
Put a lid on and put the casserole dish in the oven. Let it cook slowly for 3 hours, stirring every now and then.
Towards the end of the cooking time, use a heart shaped pastry cutter (or do it freehand with a blunt knife!) to cut 10 hearts in the pastry. Put them on a sheet pan, brush with the beaten egg and put in the oven for 20 minutes until golden brown.
To serve, ladle the stew into bowls and top with the pastry hearts. Enjoy!