You can make stew from many parts of veined beef meat. However, it’s preferable to use the affordable beef chuck that contain a nice amount of fat and can be cut fairly coarsely, so that you can actually see the meat in your stew.
This Flemish classic is made with Westmalle Dubbel, a dark beer that gives the stew a deep and full flavor. But of course, it can also be made with another type of dark beer.
By properly caramelizing the onions in the pan, you ensure that the sharpness of the onion disappears and the sweetness emerges. This process also ensures a beautiful dark brown color and the onion balances the bitterness of the beer.
We top it off with fried mushrooms, fried bacon and pearl onions, the so-called forèstière garnish.
Other stew recipes
Also check out our other stew recipes:
Flemish Beef Stew with Dark Beer and Mushrooms
Ingredients
- 1500 grams beef chuck
- 3 large onions
- knob butter
- 4 tbsp wheat flour
- 4 bay leaves
- 5 sprigs thyme
- 75 cl Westmalle Double
- 200 grams smoked bacon strips
- 250 grams mushrooms
- 150 grams pearl onions drained
- 5 sprigs flat-leaf parsley finely chopped
- black pepper freshly ground
- salt
Instructions
- Cut the beef chuck into coarse blocks, pat dry and season generously with salt and pepper.
- Heat a knob of butter in a large stew pan and fry some of the meat until it browns well. Then add a second portion and continue adding meat each time. If you add everything at once, the pan will cool down too much and the meat will boil rather than fry. Remove the meat from the pan.
- Clean the onions and cut into cubes. Fry in the same pan in the cooking liquid from the meat and add an extra knob of butter so that it can caramelize nicely. Let the onions fry until nicely browned.
- Add the meat to the onions, stir and add the wheat flour.
- Add the herbs and deglaze with the beer. If necessary, top up with a little water if the meat is not yet covered.
- Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat or place the pan on the lowest burner and cover with a lid. Let it simmer very gently for about 3 hours. You can also cook the stew in the oven at 140 degrees.
- Remove the lid from the pan and let the liquid reduce a little further for about 15 minutes. It may become a thick, thick sauce.
- In the meantime, cut the mushrooms into quarters and fry in a knob of butter until brown, add the bacon and pearl onions and fry nicely. Season with salt and pepper and the parsley leaves. Stir the mixture into the stew and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
