Beef & Guinness Stew

I have had the last week off, before I start my new job on Monday.  It got away from me too quickly, mainly because I had to do so much paperwork to get a special licence for my new job.  So unfortunately, not as relaxing as I would've liked.

However, by Thursday afternoon it was a little less hectic so I decided to make Beef & Guinness stew for dinner, in honour of St Patrick's Day.  I have made this a few times before, but tweaked it a bit this time & decided to cook it slowly in the oven instead of on the stovetop.  My husband had seconds and said, "That was BEE-YOO-tiful", so I consider that a success!  I have frozen the rest for another night.  Here is my recipe:

Beef & Guinness Stew

Ingredients

2 tablespoons plain flour seasoned with salt & pepper

800-900g cheaper cut of beef, trimmed, cut into 3cm pieces

olive oil

2 sticks celery, chopped

1 brown onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced or finely chopped

1 carrot, peeled, chopped

10 small mushrooms, sliced

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup Guinness (Extra Stout, not Draught - more info below)

2 cups beef stock

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

2 bay leaves

couple of sprigs of thyme

1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped

Method
Season the flour with salt & pepper & lightly coat the beef chunks.  I do this by putting it all in a large zip-lock bag, zipping it & shaking around until meat is coated.  But you can do it however you like.

Do all your chopping, slicing, mincing etc.

Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a large heavy-bottomed casserole dish.  I used my le chasseur pot, which I am in LOVE with.  Brown the meat in batches - you don't want to overcrowd the pot.  It took me about 4 batches.  Put meat aside on a plate.
 

Add a little more oil to the pot, if needed & cook the onion, celery & carrot for a few minutes, over medium heat.  Try to scrape off the crusty bits left by browning the meat - this is called "fond" in chef-land.  See, don't say I never teach you anything!  Add the garlic & continue to cook the veggies until softened.  Add the mushrooms - they don't really need to be pre-softened like onions, etc - so add them whenever you like. 

Add tomato paste & cook this off for a couple of minutes.  This avoids that tinny, metallic taste tomato paste can have.

Slowly pour in Guinness.  This is the correct Guinness to use - I can only really find it in longneck version.  It's much better than the draught stuff in cans, which makes the stew a bit bland and froths up too much.  And, because it's a longneck, after using a cup in the stew, there is a pint leftover to drink!  (husband had this - I prefer wine)



Add stock, thyme & worcestershire sauce.  Bring it all to the boil.

Add meat & any juices back to the pot, stir it all through.  Lid on & then in the oven at a low temp (about 140C) for 2 hours.

You can just leave it to do its thing, or check on it halfway through & give it a stir, skim off some fat etc.
When you think it's ready, remove from oven, skim excess fat, remove the bay leaves and add chopped parsley & a bit of salt & pepper.



Without flash


Serve with mashed potatoes & peas.  Yummo!  (I forgot to take any photos of it all served up - ooops)




With flash