This is a rich casserole perfect for those winter January days.  It can be served as a standalone casserole or made into a pie with either puff pastry on the top or served by the side.  You can make it with or without the kidney but I personally think it adds to the richness of the dish.  I love the dark ale in this recipe as it gives a lovely rich gravy.

It can be made into a pie or just served with some puff pastry on the side.

Ingredients

1 kg braising steak cut into chunks

2 kidneys

4 beef sausages

4 tbsp seasoned flour

4 tbsp olive oil

2 large onions chopped

4 large carrots peeled and cut into large chunks

500 dark ale – I used Dark Island

2 stock cubes dissolved in 400g boiling water

2 tbsp Lea & Perrins

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180 degrees
2. Put the seasoned flour in a plastic bags and add the steak chunks to coat in the flour
3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in an oven based casserole and brown half the steak, remove and set aside then repeat with the remainder of the steak
4. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in the pan and brown the kidney on all sides – remove and set aside, then adding the final tbsp. of oil, brown the sausages in the pan
5. Cut the kidney into small bite size pieces and the sausages into four
6. Heat the remainder of the oil in the pan and fry the onions along with the carrots on a low heat for approx. 5 minutes
7. Then tip the braised steak, kidney and sausages into the pan, mix well and add the dark ale, stock cubes and water
8. Add the Lea & Perrins, season and bring to a slow simmer for 10 minutes
9. Cover with a lid and place in the oven for around 2 hours until the beef in mouth-wateringly tender