How to Get Stewed

If you've ever had or made beef stew, you're probably familiar with the idea of putting red wine into the mix. Slightly less popular, but by no means inferior, is the idea of putting beer into beef stew- usually Guinness. Well, hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen, because last week I tried a recipe that called for BOTH!

The recipe:
1.25 lbs lean stew meat
2 T olive oil
6 cloves of garlic, minced
6 cups of beef stock
2 cups of red wine
1 cup of Guinness
1 T butter
4 peeled Russet potatoes
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped

In a heavy stock pot or dutch oven, heat the olive oil and then brown the meat on all sides. Once the meat is browned, add garlic and cook until golden. Add beef stock, red wine and Guinness. Lower heat and simmer uncovered for 60 minutes. In a separate pan saute the remaining vegetables with the butter for about 20 minutes until tender. Add vegetables to stock pot and continue to simmer covered for about 60 minutes or until vegetables and beef are tender.

Now, I have never been one to exactly follow a recipe. Here are the substitutions I made to the above: I used 4 cups of beef stock instead of 6, substituting more Guinness and red wine; baby carrots instead of adult carrots (had to say it, sorry); pearl onions instead of a regular onion. Under normal circumstances I use additional garlic in almost any recipe- but check that recipe out: 6 cloves of garlic!! Awesomeness...

I actually didn't use stew meat, either, since I find that it's normally too tough. I know that's the point of stew meat, but I prefer to use a finer cut. I forget what I used here, but it was something like a London Broil, and I used closer to two pounds.

This recipe produces a very rich, satisfying stew. The Guinness was really present in the flavor while the wine closed it out nicely. Unfortunately for me, I put the potatoes in too early and the whole thing came out looking like brown mush because they dissolved into the broth. Still, it was yummy even if it wasn't pretty. In the future I would also probably use unpeeled red potatoes instead of Russet and I would find a way to put mushrooms in there, too.

Served with a nice fresh sourdough bread, this recipe produced about 5-6 servings. Highly recommended.