Beef and Mushroom Stew (Warwickshire Stew)

Close up of beef and mushroom stew in a cooking pot.

5 from 1 vote

Beef and Mushroom Stew (Warwickshire Stew)

Beef and mushroom stew is an immensely cosy stick-to-your-ribs supper to make. This one-pot recipe creates fall-apart beef and it can be cooked in the oven or the slow cooker.

Prep Time20

Cook Time5

Total Time25

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: British

Servings:

Calories: 605kcal

Author: Jane Coupland

Ingredients

800 g Stewing steak braising steak
2 tablespoons Plain flour all-purpose
30 g Butter
125 ml Beef stock
125 ml Red wine
600 g New potatoes
400 g Carrots
250 g Onions 2 medium onions
4 Tomatoes
250 g Chestnut mushrooms
2 Garlic cloves
1 tablespoon Parsley chopped
¼ teaspoon Salt
¼ teaspoon Black pepper

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 150C/ 300F/ GM 2
Peel the onions and cut into quarters.
Cut the tomatoes into quarters too.
Wipe the mushrooms clean and chop them in half.
Chop the parsley finely and crush the garlic.
Trim any excess fat off the meat and cut into large chunks (if necessary).
Toss the meat in the flour.
Melt a third of the butter in a heavy-based casserole dish and brown a third of the meat over high heat to seal it.
Remove the meat from the pan and repeat twice more, using up the rest of the butter and the meat.
Once all meat has been browned and removed from the pan pour in the red wine (or the stock if you are not using red wine). Stir to deglaze the base of the pan.
Now add the stock (if using), browned meat, onions, mushrooms, tomatoes, garlic, parsley, salt and pepper to the pan. Scrape in any leftover flour. Stir, cover with a lid (or foil) and cook in the oven for 2.5 hours.
Peel and chop the carrots into thick chunks and halve the potatoes. Add these to the pan, stirring well and cook for a further 2.5 hours.
Serve in bowls with a little extra chopped parsley scattered over the top to garnish.

Notes

If you don’t own an oven-proof dish with a lid then cover the one you do have tightly with kitchen foil before placing your stew into the oven.
Browning the meat helps to build up a rich & deep flavour in the stew, so please do not skip this step (even if using a slow cooker).
When browning beef do so quickly, using high heat, and don’t crowd the pan. Instead, cook it in small batches as overcrowding in the pan reduces the heat, allows the meat to release more moisture and this leads to steam which prevents the meat from browning.
Five hours is the minimum this beef stew with mushrooms needs to cook for. At this point, test a piece of meat and if it is still a little tough cook for another hour.
Add more stock as necessary to stop the stew from becoming too dry.
Warwickshire stew is not overly saucy, but for a looser version of this beef and mushroom stew double the liquids and toss the raw ingredients in an extra tablespoon of flour.
Turn the stew into a pie (either pastry or potato topped) for a very hearty, warming and comforting supper.
Because the meat is so tender once cooked, it does break apart easily. If you want to retain chunks use a large metal spoon to stir it very, very gently before serving.

Storage instructions

This beef stew with mushrooms can be stored in the fridge for up to 48 hours. Simply reheat it on the stovetop or in the microwave until piping hot.

Alternatively, this stew can also be frozen. The potatoes and carrots take on a slightly different texture, but it is still very tasty. Defrost in the fridge for 24 hours before proceeding to reheat as instructed previously.

Nutrition