I realise that I have jumped headfirst into wintery recipes, but since that’s what the weather seems to have done, I thought I’d better follow suit. Sorry to those of you who live in places that are still excruciatingly hot (of which I am jealous, please adopt me) because I’m sure you’re not ready for a stew recipe, but I’m sure you’ll appreciate it eventually. Anyway – mushroom and walnut stew with cheesy cobbler topping. It’s essentially a mushroom cobbler, but that doesn’t sound nearly as exciting.

I can’t believe how good this was. It had exactly the richness and heartiness that I was hoping for (it has wine in it! Wine!). And the cheesy cobbler topping was perfectly fluffy and scone-like, and the perfect thing to go with the thick stew.

This recipe does take a little while to make, but most stews do, and it’s worth it for the depth of flavour that you get at the end. You can easily scale it up if you’re cooking for a whole family or if you want leftovers (I kind of wish I’d done that, I’d love to have a few portions of this for the freezer for the next time I want a quick dinner… or breakfast… or like, any time. Basically right now).

I’m looking forward to using this same cheesy cobbler topping on other stews in the future. I’m also fantasising about having this stew alongside mashed potato – you can mix and match whatever you like. By the way it’d actually be quicker to make the stew with mash or something similar, because you can skip the whole ‘baking’ part and serve it up straight from the hob – the only reason it needs to be baked is to cook the cobbler topping. Oh, and it also creates awesome crispy bits around the edge of the pan which are amazing.

I very much recommend you make this next time you’re tempted to turn the heating on. It’s a lot tastier than a hot water bottle.