Guinness Stew

To kick off Pub Week, we have a hearty Guinness stew. I did a bit of research beforehand and came up with a sort of amalgam of the recipes floating around on the internet. This one is pretty simple to make. It's also delicious - I just ate it.

Ingredients

• 2 pounds stew beef
• 3 potatoes (red or gold)
• 4 carrots
• 1 sweet onion
• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 1 bottle Guinness (or other stout)
• 4 cups beef broth
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• Olive oil
• Salt, pepper, and garlic powder
• Parsley

Instructions

If you don't have beef broth, you can do what I did and heat 4 cups of water in a saucepan and dissolve one bouillon cube in it. Purists may scoff, but I don't care. One cube is enough; we don't want the broth to be too salty.

Have two large bowls ready to set aside ingredients. Season the beef with salt, pepper, and garlic powder. Preheat olive oil in a large pot, high. Brown the meat for a few minutes, one pound at a time. Remove and set aside. When I did this, the beef gave off a lot of liquid. Set this aside with the meat also. 

While the beef is cooking, peel and chop the carrots into disks. Saute the carrots in olive oil for a few minutes, then set aside. While the carrots are cooking, wash and cut up the potatoes into about 10-15 pieces, depending on the size. Add more olive oil and saute these for a few minutes as well. Set aside with the carrots. While potatoes cook, roughly chop the onion into strips. Turn down the heat to medium, add more oil, and brown the onions. 

Once the onions are soft, pour the Guinness and beef broth into the pot. Add beef and tomatoes, along with the juice in the can. Cover and simmer for one hour. Now add the potatoes and carrots back in and cook uncovered for another hour. By now, the meat and vegetables will be very tender.

The star of our show.

If you, like me, desire a thicker broth for your stew, prepare a roux. Melt the butter in a saucepan on medium-low heat. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and stir together. Keep stirring as it cooks to avoid clumping and burning. The roux will bubble and slowly darken. Remove from heat after a few minutes, when the roux attains the color shown below.

Spoon a little of the broth from the stew into the roux and scrape it all into the main pot. Stir to integrate. Now, taste the broth. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Below you'll see what the stew looks like at the end. Serve in bowls and sprinkle parsley over the top of each. I suggest serving with a bread roll to sop up the stew.

Store the remaining stew in the fridge, and you will eat for days!