Guinness Beef Stew

I am trying to get ahead of the game for once and share a holiday recipe before said holiday, when it is most relevant. Here is one for St. Patrick’s Day.


In my normal fashion I didn’t write anything down. I just put the stew in the oven so I am typing before I forget

1lb stew beef

3carrots

1parsnip

1 onion

2-3 stalks celery

Tomato paste

3 cups chicken broth

4 tbsp flour

3cloves garlic

Thyme & bay leaf

Season the beef pieces with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Add a few glugs of olive oil to a Dutch oven and brown all sides. 

Remove meat from pan and set aside.This is the good stuff, leave it in the pan, it is the flavour. 

Add 200g chopped meaty bacon ( I used a maple wood smoked).  Add chopped onion and minced garlic and cook until softened. 


Once softened sprinkle with 3-4 tbsp flour and stir around to coat everything and add 1 can of Guinness.

 

When we are done with Guinness, the leftover foam always gets put into a small bowl for Max, he loves it! After he laps it down he runs off to his bed to roll around.


Back to the cooking.  

Add carrot and parsnip, celery, chicken stock and 4 tbsp tomato paste. Stir again to mix and dissolve the paste.

Add the meat back to the pot along with any accumulated juices

Add 2 bay leaves and a tsp of dried thyme.

I think I added about 1/2 tsp salt and a generous 1/8tsp pepper. Cover and cook in 325F oven for 2 1/2 hrs.

Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Probably best to let people add their preferred amount at the table.


Serve with bread or crusty rolls for soaking up the gravy.


😊 

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Bob Hopkins Firehouse Oven Stew

This was Evie’s request for supper today. This stew has stewing beef, which Evie calls steak, all beef to her is steak and she loves steak. Unless it is ground beef that is hamburger, or hangerburger as she called it until recently.

This recipe came from my uncle, a retired paramedic, who made this stew in the firehouse where he worked. I think Evie likes this because she thinks it is cool because it is what they ate at the firehouse. The original recipe that I have written down just calls it oven stew, but we changed it to include the firehouse, Evie eats it much better that way.

This stew is very easy and quick to put together, but it is slow food, cooks for 3-4 hours in the oven. Basically you put it in the oven and forget about it until it is done. You can check on it and stir it once or twice if you feel like it, but don’t have to.

I am not sure if my pictures will show properly, I always has trouble inserting them and they preview differently than when they post…..so I don’t know what you are going to see here, if it is too messed up I will repost.

Take 1-1/2 lbs stewing beef and cut into small chunks
1 large onion, chopped
2 carrots, slices (I use 3)
1-2 potatoes, chunked

7 &1/2oz can tomato sauce
½ cup beef broth
¾ tsp salt and 1/8 tsp pepper
I add a few splashes of Worchestershire sauce too.

Combine all ingredients in a roaster or casserole dish.

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Cover and cook at 300F for 3-4 hours until tender. Makes 4 large servings or 5 smaller ones. We serve with crusty bread or rolls.

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This was quite thrifty for us to make because we had the meat in the freezer and had everything else in the fridge and cupboard. Everything other than the meat is quite cheap to buy, but usually stuff you would have in the kitchen.

Stew was good today because it was freezing outside, again. We went for a short bike ride to the lake and walked along the edge. The lake has been drained quite low and we could walk on the ground that is normally under 3-4 feet of water. It will be full again soon and we will be there to see the ducks, geese and loons. We did have an exciting find, a rock that had plant fossils in it!

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