THEAKSTONS Old Peculier is not only a fine dark beer and the sponsors of the biggest crime writing festival around; it is also the flavoursome ingredient in this rich winter stew.

Other beers are available and really you can choose what you wish, but Old Peculier has the edge for me.

Shin beef works really well here. You may need to go to a proper butcher for this. Mine came from York market, Newgate market, Shambles market or whatever it is called this week.

The butcher will strip away some of the fat, leaving you with one piece of meat to cut into regular sized pieces. This is a slow cooker recipe. If you don’t have one, just cook in the oven in a casserole at around 140C for at least a couple of hours. Or get a slow cooker, because they’re great for this sort of thing.

Ingredients

1kg shin beef
Large onion
Garlic clove or two
Pack of button mushrooms
One bottle of Old Peculier
Small fresh red chilli or dash of chilli powder
Tablespoon of plain flourSalt, pepper.

Heat a splash of olive oil in a pan and fry the meat in batches, placing the browned meat in the slow cooker. Next, fry the onion in the pan, adding a little more oil if necessary. Add the garlic (sliced) and the fresh chilli or powder. Cook a little longer, then place in with the meat.

Pour some of the beer into the pan and free up the nice sticky residue, adding a tablespoon of plain flour. Heat and mix for a minute, then pour into the slow cooker, along with the rest of the beer.

Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper, and a dash of Worcestershire sauce if you like the stuff (I do).

Cook on the low setting overnight. In the morning, switch off until lunchtime, then reheat gently in a clean pan on the stove top, adding salt and pepper as needed.

Serve with mashed potatoes and the usual vegetable suspects.

Twitter: @JulianCole5