Add the chopped onions, then the bouquet garni, and season with salt and pepper. Add the beer and sugar. Spread gingerbread slices with mustard and dice, then add to casserole and stir.

Beer is a versatile cooking medium, imparting a pleasantly bitter complexity to slow-cooked meat dishes and stews. The Flemish dish Carbonnade - beef cooked in ale - is a classic, as is beef ...