Spanish Beef Stew with Mushrooms and Sherry (2024)

Adapted byCourtney Hill

4 to 6 Servings

2½ hours40 minutes active

Made This Recipe? Write a Review.

Thank you for submitting your review! A member of our team is confirming the review meets our site's Community Guidelines. It will be posted on the site shortly.

A corner of the Andalusia region in southern Spain is home to sherry, the unique fortified wine that is produced in an area known as the Sherry Triangle. The city of Jerez de la Frontera—commonly shortened to Jerez—is one of the points of that triangle, and also the location of Mantúa restaurant, where chef Israel Ramos taught us his recipe for guiso de ternera, or beef stew. With tender, succulent pieces of beef, silky, supple mushrooms and a braising liquid rich with both sherry wine and sherry vinegar, the stew was familiar and comforting, yet deliciously different thanks to the wine’s tangy, nutty notes and the aged woodsiness and mellow acidity of the vinegar. We adapted Ramos’ recipe, adding turnip along with the carrots and cinnamon to complement the wine. There are many varieties of sherry, each with unique characteristics, but for this recipe simply seek a fino or manzanilla sherry—both are dry, bright and light, and therefore excellent counterpoints for the richness of the beef and mushrooms. If you wish to make a stew with deeper, weightier flavors, try amontillado or palo cortado, darker and more full-bodied types of sherry. As for the sherry vinegar, if you can spare the expense, opt for gran reserva which is aged for at least 10 years and has a smooth, complex flavor, balanced acidity and mahogany hue. If that’s not an option, reserva or any aged sherry vinegar, though less nuanced than gran reserva, will work perfectly well.

4 to 6

Servings

Tip

Don’t use sherry cooking wine or domestically produced “dry sherry.” To get the right complexity and balance of richness and acidity, look for fino or manzanilla sherry produced in Spain. Also, avoid sweet sherry for the obvious reasons.

2½ hours

40 minutes active

Ingredients

2
tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2
pounds boneless beef chuck roast, trimmed of excess fat and cut into 1- to 1½-inch pieces

Directions

01
In a large Dutch oven over medium-high, heat the oil until shimmering. Add the beef and garlic, then cook, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a medium bowl and set aside; reserve the fat in the pot.

Pardon the interruption

You need to be a Milk Street Digital Member to see the fullrecipe

JOIN MILK STREET DIGITAL & PRINT
12 WEEKS FOR JUST $1

and get access to all of our recipes and articles online, as well as in print.

View other subscription options here

Already a member? Login

Reviews

Joanna W.

July 29, 2023

Delicious

Not heavy, the sherry cuts the heft of the beef and gives a delightful tang

Donna S.

February 10, 2023

Delicious

Was a little skeptical of the sherry...I'm usually not a fan but I bought a new bottle of Fino (sherry bottles kept for longer than I should have may have contributed to my dislike in the past...) and only used 1 lb of meat and increased the vegetables (added a large parsnip and doubled the mushrooms). It cooked down beautifully and the flavors were superb. Served over pappardelle with a side of roasted broccoli and an organic red!

Keith M.

July 13, 2022

Good Stew - Especially if you love Paprika

This was a good easy stew to make. Not too complicated and tasted great. Has a distinct sweet paprika taste and the sherry vinegar gives it a good balance with the sweet paprika. I didn't wait long enough for the meat to stew so I would recommend going the full time of 1.5 hours to make the meat more tender. Maybe put the meat in first and stew it 30 min then add the vegetables (carrots etc) after the 30 min so they don't get too soft. Loved how there are not too many steps and came out great...I could see also serving over noodles or rice like a Hungarian goulash.