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Thursday, March 12, 2009

Irish Beef and Guinness Stew



With St. Patrick's Day coming up in less than a week, I thought I would take a second to share the recipe for our favorite Irish Beef Stew.


Irish Beef and Guinness Stew

Ingredients:
  • 2 pounds lean beef stew meat
  • 3 tbs vegetable oil, divided
  • 2 tbs all-purpose flour
  • salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 pinch cayenne pepper
  • 2 large onions, chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 2 tbs tomato paste
  • 1 1/2 cups Guinness stout beer (or other Irish Stout)
  • 2 cups carrot, cut into chunks
  • 1 sprig fresh thyme
  • 1 tbs fresh parsley, chopped (for garnish)

Directions:

Trim the meat of any fat, cut into 2 inch cubes, and toss them in a bowl with 1 tbs of the vegetable oil. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, salt, pepper, and a pinch of cayenne. Toss the meat in the mixture to coat.

Heat the remaining oil in a deep pan over medium-high heat. Add the beef, and brown on all sides. Add the onions and crushed garlic. Stir the tomato paste into a small amount of water (to dilute); pour into the pan, stir to blend, cover and cook gently (reduce heat if necessary) for about 5 minutes.

Pour 1/2 cup of the beer into the pan, and as it begins to boil, scrape any bits of food from the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. This adds a lot of flavor to the broth. Pour in the rest of the beer, and add the carrots and thyme. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer for 2 to 3 hours, stirring occasionally. Taste and adjust seasoning before serving. Garnish with chopped parsley.

Yields: Six to Eight Servings


Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh!
St. Patrick's Day Blessing Upon You!

10 comments:

  1. Jessica,
    This sounds fabulous. Thanks to dh, we have some Irish stout in the house right now. I will hide one in the back of the fridge to use on Tuesday! Thank you for an easy recipe to make on St. Patrick's feast! :)

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  2. This looks delicious! I'm not a huge fan of corned beef, but was thinking about making something similar to this recipe for Tuesday!

    Best,
    Sarah

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  3. Jessica,
    Thank you so much for the recipe. It was delicious. I'm going to use this again!

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  4. I made this today for St. patrick's Day. It was so good. My husband loved it. Because I had to take my kids to the doctor unexpeectedly in the afternoon, it didn't get to simmer as long as I would have liked, so it was a little soupy. I added about a tbsp of cornstarch and it did the trick. Thanks for sharing such a simpel and delicious recipe.
    Here's pictures.
    http://motherlyloving.blogspot.com/2009/03/happy-saint-patricks-day.html
    I paired it with the artisan bread in five minutes that I make a lot and it was perfect.

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  5. I am so glad that some of you were able to try (and liked!) the stew!!

    I went ahead and added a photo to the post from this evening...

    I was distracted when I was making our pot of stew and added the whole can of tomato paste this time... Oops!

    Hope you all had a wonderful feast of St. Patrick!

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  6. My wife and I made this recipe too. It was delicious. Thank you.

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  7. I used Harps Lager not realizing the difference between lager and stout. Oh, the drinker that I am. Still turned out delicious! Thank you for the wonderful recipe. I tend to keep these kinds of recipes a yearly event. But, I have a feeling my husband will be asking for this more.

    Sadly, today is sunny and 71. I *almost* wish it were a bit colder so we could cuddle by the fireplace and enjoy this properly.

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  8. about the beer... the stew is safe for kids to eat ?

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    Replies

    1. Here is the link to an informative chart which gives the percentage of alcohol left after cooking for periods of time. After simmering this stew for 3 hours, less than 5% of the original 4.2% alcohol content remains in the stew from the 1 1/2 cups included. Dividing that by 6-8 (adult sized) servings, I think the tiny amount remaining is very very low and I personally don't have a problem serving it to my children the 1-3 times per year I actually make the stew.

      http://homecooking.about.com/od/alcohol/a/alcoholsub_2.htm

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