Love Stew

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So it’s that elusive day when women tired of their man not putting a ring on it can get down on bended knee and pop the question. With this recipe you won’t have to.

Ask yourselves – what are the three things men like more than anything? Yes; meat, beer and blow jobs (the other reason you might be on bended knee).

Now, the third is up to you, dear readers, but let me take care of the first two. The recipe’s very adaptable so have a play with it and keep sampling all the way through to check on taste.

Love Stew (serves  4 – because you’ll want leftovers, prep time: 20mins, cooking time 1hr 45mins aprox)

Ingredients:

Large onion, roughly chopped

300g diced beef (shin is best but any stewing steak will do)

Mushrooms (any are fine but I like button or chestnut)

330ml Beer / Ale (I like Leffe or London Pride depending how heavy I want the flavour but whatever hoppy deliciousness you prefer is fine – just don’t use fruit beer)

Beef stock (best homemade but i regularly cheat with shop bought liquid stick)

Worchester sauce

Carrots

Butter

Flour

Herbs & seasoning

 Method:

1.       Soften onions in butter (you can add a squeeze of marmite at this point which I think is delicious but not everyone’s a fan).

2.       Dust beef in flour, salt and pepper then sear to lock in flavour, then add beef to onions with a couple pinches of flour.

3.       Add beer, stock, Worchester sauce and salt & pepper to taste, bring to a gentle simmer and cover for an hour.

4.       Add mushrooms, carrots and herbs (I suggest thyme and parsley) then turn up the heat a fraction and leave uncovered for 45mins so the sauce can reduce. If it gets too thick add a little more stock, if too thin add a little more flour (though this can dull the flavour a little). You can pretty much leave it but I like to check on it every 15mins and give it a stir to make sure the onions aren’t sticking as I can’t afford good pans.

5.       Check the meat is tender enough (if not cover a wait 15-30mins) then serve in generous bowls with a thick slab of farmhouse bread to mop up the sauce for a hearty, rustic feel  (and of course a lovely pint).

Pretty delicious, right? What’s more cooking time perfectly co-incides with afternoon sports so you can watch the six nations together without much distraction. Ta-dah! Perfect woman. Sit back and wait for that proposal (though my track record indicates that it will be indecent rather than diamonds).

P.S. Lads, I’m currently single. Just sayin’.