I’ve been hankering for beef stew (the ultimate comfort food!) and so I made it!
This recipe calls for the use of alcohol: Guinness and red wine. If you do not have one of the other (or both), feel free to omit and add more beef stock. Unlike humanity, beef stew is a very forgiving dish!
Ingredients:
– 600g to 1kg beef, cut into bite size. I normally get topside as it’s easily available to me
– some flour for dusting the beef before frying
– Plenty of salt and ground black pepper
– 1/4 cup (60 ml) olive oil.
– 2 onions, chopped
– 3 carrots, cut chunky
– 7 garlic cloves, chopped
– 2 medium sized potatoes, preferably waxy types
– 3 tbsp tomato paste
– 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
– 1 tbsp dried thyme
– 3 to 6 bay leaves
– 1 litre beef stock (preferably salt reduced)
– 1 cup (240ml) red wine
– 2 bottles of Guinness, 325ml each
– Fresh English parsley
– Sense of adventure
Pat beef dry. Season beef pieces with salt and pepper, then lightly coat/dust with flour.
Heat oil in a pot. Add beef to brown for a couple of minutes. Remove and put aside.
In the same pot, add onions, garlic, carrots and potatoes. Saute for 10 mins.
Add tomato paste, make sure to coat the ingredients in the pot with it. After a couple of minutes, add the beef + thyme + Worcestershire sauce + bay leaves.
For this particular time, I used two pots as I didn’t have a big enough pot to hold everything. I do now.
Add beef stock + wine + Guinness. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low. Simmer uncovered for 2 hours.
Remember to remove the scum that floats to the top later on.
Serve with bread and butter. Or croissant. Or rice if you are Asian. Or penguin, if you’re so inclined that way.
I’d normally cook this huge pot and freeze the rest into individual portions. When I take one out and reheat, I normally add some water as the stew would be rather thick. Instant meal, sorted!
