Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 1kg of diced beef, cut into ¾ inch cubes
• 400g button mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tablespoon tomato paste
• 1 small stick of black pudding
• 2 teaspoons fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 2 large carrot, diced
• 2 stalk celery, diced
• 300ml red wine
• 1lt beef stock/ or water with 2 beef stock cubes
• 1 large bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 200g barley
• 70g of flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 100g Plain flour

Method

• Pat the Diced beef dry with a paper towel and season with salt and coat in flour this will help thicken the mixture.
• Heat one tablespoon of the oil in a large pan medium-high heat and sear the beef cubes on all sides, working in batches to not overcrowd. Use a slotted spoon to remove the beef and set aside.
• Heat the remaining tablespoons of olive oil and add the onion, barley, carrot, and celery to the pan. Cook for 5 minutes. Add the mushrooms, Black pudding, garlic, and thyme and cook for another minute or so. Return the beef to the pot and add the wine, beef broth, tomato paste, bay leaf, salt and stir to combine. Then leave on a med to high heat just above simmering point.
• The longer the stew cooks the more tender the beef and flavourful the stew will be, I reckon about an hour to an hour and a half will do you just test the meat to be sure it’s tender. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add the fresh parsley.
• Now at this stage there is 3 things you can do
• Eat right away as a stew
• Place the mix in to a deep dish and let it chill and top with the topping of your choice whether its potato, puff pastry or shortcrust. The trick is to let it cool to take the weight of you topping.
• Place in to a pie dish and let it go cold and freeze for later use