Guinness & Beef Stew

A little Irish inspired goodness for this week. So its technically not March yet, but I have big plans the first two weekends of March and didn't want St. Patty's day to come and go without something Irish.  I feel a special kinship with St. Patty's day despite not being one ounce Irish. As a child I was told that my name came from the saying 'Erin go bragh' because I was born on the 11th, my parents thought I was going to be a boy and had no girl name picked out for me for several days. Whether that's true or one of the many lies my sister told me growing up (most notably that I was born with a tail) who knows. The story has never been definitively confirmed (scratch that Mama Bliven has confirmed this story. I was poor little baby girl Bliven for 3 days until named Erin. My father's suggestion of Shawna since baby boy Bliven was going to be Shawn Michel was shot down).  A little disclaimer, I didn't make this recipe up. Its in this month's Cooking Light magazine but thought it sound delish and wanted to make it.

For this stew you'll need canola oil, flour, beef, 3 large onions, tomato paste, beef broth, 1 bottle of guinness, golden raisins, 4 carrots, 3 parsnips, 2 turnips, 2 small potatoes, salt, pepper, bay leaf, rosemary, and about 3 hours of time.

Start by cutting your beef into bite sized cubes. I had a big hunk of boneless chuck roast in my freezer so that's what I used. I had to lop off a giant piece of fat, but otherwise this cut worked nicely. I think it was somewhere around a pound of beef.

Then, chop your onions. I used three large yellow onions. Yes, this is a lot of onion, but it cooks forever and some of it falls apart into the broth. Feel free to scale it back if you don't like onion that much.

Now, sprinkle the beef with salt and coat in flour.  The flour helps the beef brown and some of it will stick to the pot as tasty browned bits.

Heat some canola oil in a large pot. I used a coated cast iron dutch oven because you want some of the beef goodness to stick to the bottom so don't use a non-stick pot. Once the oil is hot add the beef, cook for 5 minutes, browning on all sides and removing from the pot once browned.  Don't cook the beef completely, you just want it browned.

Add a little bit more oil the pot and add all the onions.  Cook them for about 5 minutes or until they start to look tender.

Add about one tablespoon of tomato paste and stir to mix.

Add the guinness, taking a sip if you'd like, or since you usually can't buy it by the bottle and you probably had to buy at least a 6 pack, have an entire pint. Maybe even have it over ice cream. Guinness float? Yes please!

Then add the beef broth. I added around 5-6 cups. Now, scrape the bottom of the pot to remove all the tasty browned beef bits from the bottom. As the soup cooks you may end up with some brown tastiness stuck to the sides of the pot. Scrape those off too. They add wonderful flavor.

Now, put the beef back in the stew.

Lastly, add about a palm full of golden raisins and and season with salt, pepper, some minced fresh rosemary and a few bay leaves.  The raisins will plump up as this cooks. The golden ones also added a nice sweetness to the soup.

Despite the lovely beef smell, the adorable puppy was less than interested. However, we did go on an hour long hike by the Chattahoochee and he was tie-tie.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer, cover and cook for 1 hour. Yes, 1 hour.

Now is a great time to chop up the rest of the veggies. I started with the carrots. I peeled mine first because I got them at a semi-shady farmer's market and my best efforts to wash them left them still looking dirty. Peeling isn't necessary, but they do need to be chopped, however you like.

Next, I peeled and chopped the parsnips. Parsnips look a lot like white carrots, but are much more fibrous. I found it easier to peel them with a knife because when I tried the peeler it just shredded the outer layer without really peeling it off.

Then, I peeled and chopped the turnips.  I actually really like turnips. Honestly, I like root vegetables in general. Some people may think thats odd because most people think they taste like dirt. I think turnips get a bad rap, maybe its because they're a little ugly.

Lastly, I diced two small white potatoes. The Cooking Light recipe actually didn't include potatoes. How can you make an Irish stew without potatoes? That's absurd! My love of root vegetables forbade me from not adding potatoes. Set all the veggies aside.

Once I finished all that, I still had another 40 minutes of simmer time. How to spend all that time? How about checking in with CNN about the earthquake in Chile, being so thankful that Nadine is okay, and making some peanut butter and jelly muffins using the stand mixer she bought me and Brian and the cupcake tins that we may have stolen from her? Yeah, that's what I did with my time. This recipe is also Cooking Light.

After the hour of simmer time is up, uncover the stew, bring to a boil and cook for another 50 minutes. Yes another 50 minutes. At this time, you may be thinking WTF? But the beef needs time to cook, serious time, especially if you want it to be tender. I'm sure you could make this in a crock pot or pressure cooker, but I had time to waste today.

After that 50 minutes is up the stew is going to look a bit like dark brown sludge.

Add your veggies and mix them in.  The stew may look a little thick, but its stew, it should be thick. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer until veggies are cooked, about another 45 minutes. You can simmer for longer, if you're like me and have time to waste and a fresh batch of muffins to tide off hunger pangs.

Once this is all done it will not look impressive, after all its an Irish beef stew. But trust me, it tastes good and is the perfect meal on a cold day. Enjoy!