guinness is good for you! beef in ale stew "

"This is a meal which can either be braised in the oven or cooked on the lowest heat on the stove. If cooking in the oven, preheat it to Gas mark 4/180C.Melt the butter and 1 tbsp oil in a large heavy-based saucepan. Brown the meat for 5-10 minutes, until lightly coloured. You will probably need to do this in batches, topping up with extra vegetable oil. (Don’t overcrowd the pan as you will end up just stewing the meat, rather than browning it). Tip the meat into a bowl and set aside while you prepare the vegetables. Make sure that you save all the meat juices as well. Add 1 tbsp of vegetable oil to the saucepan and add the onion. Fry over a low heat, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. The onions will have started to soften but won’t be truly soft yet. Add the mushrooms and garlic if using. Sprinkle with a little salt and continue to fry over a low heat for at least another 5 minutes, covering the pan with a lid. (This allows the mushrooms to exude some of their wonderful mushroomy essence). The garlic isn’t strictly traditional, I just happen to like it. Add the flour and stir well so that the flour absorbs the fat and any of the remaining mushroom liquid (if any). Return the meat to the pan, add the beer, bay leaf, fresh thyme and sugar. Stir well. Cover and cook over the lowest heat for about 2 hours or until the meat is tender. Maintain a slow, constant blip. Do not try to taste this before it has cooked for at least 1½ hours as it will taste horrible! This can also be transferred to a lidded ovenproof casserole dish at Gas mark 4 and baked for about 2½ hours in the oven. Same rules apply. Just put it in the oven and walk away for 2 hours or so!