No messing around here with frying off or browning, just dusting all with flour and into the pot it goes with the ale - all the magic happens over that long, slow and gentle cooking time. Shin of beef takes longer than our diced beef or braising steak - if you want to use those you could safely take an hour off cooking time but follow the same steps.

Ingredients - serves 4 500g shin of beef, diced 25g Doves' Farm plain flour, seasoned with salt & pepper 4 slices streaky bacon, cut into 2cm pieces 8- 12 shallots 200g chestnut mushrooms 4 medium carrots, peeled & cut into large batons 2 small bay leaves sprig of thyme 300ml Dark Ness ale (Red Rock Brewery) 4 medium potatoes 1/2 celeriac 40g Riverford Organic Dairy butter + milk

Method

1 Pre heat the oven to 140°C
Place flour in a large bowl with salt and pepper. Toss diced beef, bacon pieces, carrots, mushrooms and shallots in the seasoned flour and arrange in a casserole. Sit the bay leaves and thyme on top and pour in the ale.

2 Place the casserole over medium heat and bring the ale to a simmer then pop on a tight fitting lid before transferring to the oven. Leave to cook slowly and gently for 4 hours, stirring occasionally - this allows the meat to become beautifully tender and gelatinous. If you don’t allow sufficient time, or cook at too high a heat, it will be mighty tough and disappointing - be warned! Remove lid for final hour if there’s too much liquid.

3 Toward the end of cooking time, boil potatoes and celeriac in salted water to tender, drain and mash with plenty of butter and a splash of milk. Divide between large pasta bowls (ideal for serving, this - allowing a goodly amount of that sauce to be served without risk of splattering) and serve with plenty of stew and sauce (discarding the herbs).