Home Cooking Column - By Barbara Collins

Beef loves to be cooked in beer, and this traditional Flemish recipe is a corker.  I use craft brews. In this one, I put Barney’s Brew from Hilden in Lisburn, which you can get all over Ireland.  Beef rump is a relatively cheap cut, which like all of them, likes to be cooked low and slow. Serve with crusty bread and butter or lots of potatoes.

Ingredients

30 grams butter
3 tablespoons oil
1 kilogram beef rump (lean, cubed)
4 onions (chopped)
1 clove garlic (crushed)
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon plain flour
500 ml beer (bitter or stout)
2 bay leaves
4 sprigs thyme

Method

Preheat oven to 150C (Fan 130C) ). Melt the butter in a large pan with a tablespoon of oil. This means the butter won’t burn. Brown the meat in batches over a high heat, then lift out onto a plate. Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and add the onion. Cook over moderate heat for 10 minutes, then add the garlic and sugar and cook for another 5 minutes, adding more oil if necessary. Lift out the onion onto a second plate/bowl. 

Reduce the heat to low and pour in any juices that have drained from the browned meat, then stir in the flour. Remove from the heat and stir in the beer, a little at a time (it tends to foam up). Return to the heat and let the mixture gently simmer and thicken. Season with salt and pepper. Layer the meat and onion in a casserole dish, tucking the bay leaves and sprigs of thyme between the layers and seasoning with salt and pepper as you go. 

Pour the liquid over the meat, cover and cook in the oven for 2.5-3 hours or until the meat is tender. 

Tip

This freezes really well

Contact Barbara @thegoodchinaset or on collib40@googlemail.com.

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