Guinness Beef Stew

I adapted this recipe from a few sources (Miliken and Feniger's recipe at FoodNetwork.com, Kathy Maister's recipe at Startcooking.com) and love it enough that I've revived my food blog to bring it to you!

I really wanted a single-pot dish with a long, slow cooking process, so my neglected Dutch oven can get its much-needed autumn workout. Accordingly, I went for beef chuck (a tasty, not too fatty option that can stand up to long cooking), and decided to buy a full roast and trim it down into stew pieces myself. If you go that route, be prepared to buy at least a three-pound roast, since you'll lose some fat or connective tissue when you trim. Pre-packaged stew meat would be absolutely fine.

Serve this stew with a nice hearty bread--a soda bread would be great! (The bread in the photo is actually a sweet sourdough bread with a great chewy texture.) If you prefer to serve with mashed or cooked potatoes, feel free to leave the potatoes out of the stew itself.

Recipe after the jump!

Guinness Beef Stew

Prep Time:

30 min, unless you trim a full roast for the beef like I did; then, probably around an hour to 90 min.

Cooking Time:

3 hr 45 min

Ingredients

• 2 ½ pounds beef (such as beef chuck round roast, or other stewing beef) cut into 2-inch cubes
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Pinch of cayenne
• 2 large onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
• 12 fluid oz (one bottle) Guinness Extra Stout
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 cups coarsely diced carrots
• 1-2 diced potatoes (Yukon Gold preferred)
• ¾ cup pitted prunes, chopped
• Sprig of fresh thyme
• 2-3 bay leaves
• Chopped parsley, for garnish 

Hardware:

• Dutch oven
• knife for stew meat and vegetables
• heat-resistant bowl (to hold browned stew meat)

Directions

Oh, beef chuck roast, you and I will be spending some quality time together with the chef's knife.

1.  Trim the meat of any fat, silverskin, or gristle, and cut into 2-inch cubes.

2.  Toss beef with 1 tablespoon of the oil. In a small bowl, season the flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Toss meat with seasoned flour.

Don't crowd the meat too much, or it will steam and not brown.

3.  Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a Dutch oven over high heat. Add enough meat to cover the bottom of the pot, and brown the meat on all sides. Remove the first batch of browned meat, and repeat with fresh tablespoon of oil and batch of meat until all the meat is browned and removed from the pot.

4. Reduce the heat to medium-low. Add onions, crushed garlic and tomato puree to the oven, cover, and cook gently for 5 minutes.

Now we get to the good stuff. 

5. Deglaze the pot with half of the bottle (6oz / ¾ cup) of Guinness Extra Stout and half the beef broth. Bring to a boil, and scrape the bottom of the pot if necessary to dissolve the caramelized material.

Ready to simmer for 2 hours...

6. Add the browned meat back to the pot, along with the remaining Guinness and broth. Add the carrots, potato, thyme, and bay leaves. Stir to combine and adjust seasonings.

7. Cover the Dutch oven and simmer over low heat, or in a 300 degree F oven for 2 hours.

8. Remove the bay leaves from the stew and add the chopped prunes. Continue cooking for up to one hour or until the meat is tender and the prunes have dissolved.

After two hours of simmering, we add the prunes...



And an hour after that, the (thicker, glossier) stew is done! 

 9. Garnish the beef with parsley and serve.

Yes, yes, I know I forgot the parsley. 

Serves 6