Upgrade: Guinness Stew

I've recently found myself thinking about the earliest days of No Free Lunch. I was 23, in my second semester of grad school, and I didn't really know what I was doing. I had only been seriously trying to cook for myself for about a year and a half at that point, but I did my best. These days, I'm blogging with an enthusiasm I haven't felt since those heady days in 2012. Going back through my old recipes, there's a lot of room for improvement with all I've learned in the last 8 years. Thus begins a new semi-regular feature: No Free Lunch Upgrades. I'm going to recreate some of my old favorites, maintaining the overall structure of the dishes, but upgrading them with better technique and ingredients.

Guinness stew was my fourth-ever recipe, and represented an important step in the development of how I cook and write about cooking. It's my Goldfinger, if you will. The basic recipe is actually pretty good, and I didn't change it too much. Instead of generic "stew meat," I use a chuck roast and break it down myself. This has the advantage of full control over the size of the pieces and selection of a well-marbled piece. Instead of beef bouillon, I use chicken stock, pumped up with some tomato paste and soy sauce to add complexity. The last change is removing the potatoes from the actual stew and serving with mashed potatoes instead.

Carbonade Flamande

No Free Lunch has recently passed two great milestones: the three-year anniversary of my first post and 10,000 views. I am always amazed by how many views the blog continues to get, even through the long period of hibernation, so whether you are a long-time reader or first-time visitor, I appreciate you stopping by! As one of my earliest posts, just a few days short of 3 years ago, was my recipe for Guinness Stew, it seems appropriate to mark the occasion with another beer-based beef stew.

Carbonade flamande, known as stoverij in Flemish, is a traditional Belgian dish that I have been wanting to feature for a while now, and there is no better time than this cold and snowy January. I scoured the internet for recipes, and came up with this one. Carbonade has three main ingredients: beef, onions, and beer. Other than those three things, the recipes vary quite a bit, but most emphasize the sweet-and-sour aspect of the dish. As such, I have made sure to include both brown sugar and cider vinegar. My version also has carrots. Although they are not a "core" ingredient, they add some color, some variety, and some more sweetness. As with many slow cooked dishes which probably have roots in "peasant food" (cassoulet would be another), I try not to get too hung up on what is or is not traditional. The spirit of this style of food is to use what is available to create something more than the sum of its relatively humble parts.

Ingredients

• 3 lb beef, cut into 1-2 inch chunks (see notes below)
• 3 onions
• 2 carrots
• 3 Tbs flour
• 1 1/2 cups (one 12 oz bottle) ale (see below for discussion)
• 1 1/2 cups beef stock
• 2 Tbs brown sugar
• 2 Tbs apple cider vinegar
• 1 Tbs mustard
• 2-3 bay leaves
• Dried thyme
• Salt and pepper
• Vegetable oil

The beef I used here was a big package of pre-cut "beef for stew" from Sam's Club. Any inexpensive cut should do. In the sources I found, there was a wide variety of beer recommendations. As with wine, I would stick with the old rule of "only cook with what you would drink." That said, it does feel like kind of a waste to toss a bottle Trappist ale into a stew. At the same time, you do want something with a good, strong flavor to impart to the stew. Sticking to the Belgian theme, I went with a Summit Abbey Ale. This is a strong, Belgian-style ale that I had something of a windfall of a few years ago, and have been "aging" ever since. My point here is that you should go with what you like. On the same note, I probably should have used a more authentic mustard, but Dijon is what I had, so that's what went in, at the risk of veering into boeuf bourguignon territory.

Instructions

Ideally, we will use just one pot for the whole process, so choose something you are comfortable searing meat in, but that will also be big enough to simmer the stew. A dutch oven or a copper stew pan (as pictured here) does nicely. Copper pans are useful for getting just the right amount of sticking from the meat, as well.

Season the beef with salt and pepper. Patience is the key to browning the meat. Work in batches, searing the beef pieces in the pot with a little oil. Resist the temptation to speed things up by cramming more pieces in -- the browning will be more successful if you don't crowd them. I found the sweet spot to brown well, but not burn was halfway between medium-high and high heat. Sear one side, then flip, sear the other, and set aside. Quite a bit of fond will form on the bottom of the pan, and that's a good thing.

While the beef is cooking, you can prepare the vegetables. Slice the onions into strips. Peel the carrots and cut them up. I went for bigger pieces, cutting the carrots into 3-4 segments, and then halving or quartering these pieces, depending on thickness.

When all the beef is done and set aside, turn the heat down to medium and add some more oil. Cook the carrots and onions for about 15 minutes, stirring frequently. These should be well softened. Add the flour, and stir to coat. [In the interest of full disclosure, I forgot this last step, and added the flour after the stock and beer, making sure to mix it into a paste with water. This worked out fine.]

Ready to simmer

Pour in the stock and beer, then scrape up any bits left stuck to the pan. Add brown sugar, vinegar, mustard, bay leaves, and a good dusting of thyme. Stir everything together. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn heat down to low and simmer, covered, for 2 1/2 hours. By this point, the beef should be fall-apart tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve the stew with the starch of your choice. Potatoes, french fries, noodles, or rice are good options. You can't go wrong with a piece of crusty bread, either.

Schlafly Bottleworks

St. Louis has a long association with brewing, and was home to many producers pre-prohibition. The most famous among them, of course, is Anheuser-Busch. In more recent years, craft brewers have emerged. We visited the Schlafly Bottleworks, the primary brewing and bottling facility of the Saint Louis Brewery. They offer a free tour of the brewery and beer tasting that I would definitely recommend for beer fans.

Located in a former supermarket, the Bottleworks is home to a pub, beer garden, store, and a small museum of St. Louis brewing history, in addition to the brewing and bottling facilities. Our guide informed us that Schlafly produces 45,000 barrels of beer each year, an output that Anheuser-Busch can match in just a few hours. Their brewhouse, pictured below, is where the beer-making process begins, before moving to storage containers to ferment.

To qualify as a craft brewery in the United States, a brewery's "flagship beer" must use the four craft beer ingredients: water, barley, hops, and yeast. This means no "adjunct" ingredients in the mash, like the major brands use. Schlafly's flagship is their English-style Pale Ale. They must also be locally owned and produce under six million barrels each year. Schlafly was the first craft brewery in St. Louis when it opened in 1991. 

The tasting included four different beers: Pale Ale, Hefeweizen, American Pale Ale, and Schwarzbier. The Pale Ale, their flagship beer, is a good example of English-style pale ale, full of flavor and a nice bitterness. Hefeweizen (unfiltered wheat beer) is actually one of the beer styles I'm not particularly fond of. This one was a pleasant surprise for me, as it uses American hops and was not so overwhelmingly aromatic. The American Pale Ale had a strong grapefruit-citrus flavor, and differs from the English style with the use of American hops. The Schwarzbier was perhaps the most interesting brew they offered. It is a black lager, combining the light crispness of lager with the smokiness of a dark beer. I brought home a sampler six pack. The oatmeal stout is pictured above.

Beer-Battered Tilapia

Pub Week, Day 5. Fish and chips are an absolute pub classic, as well as popular street food in the UK. Here I have put a few twists on the traditional formula. I've swapped cod for tilapia, which is readily available in US grocery stores. I also chose to make roasted potato wedges instead of french fries (chips). The recipe for the potato wedges will be posted next week. The exact formula for the batter is still something of a work in progress - you may desire to add a bit more flour, or perhaps some spices. Ideas are welcome in the comments!

Ingredients

• 2 tilapia fillets
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 cup Guinness stout
• 1 egg
• Salt and pepper
• Malt vinegar
• Oil for frying

Instructions

Pour flour and Guinness into a bowl. When pouring the beer, try to pour against the side to stop the creamy head from forming. Crack the egg into the batter, and lightly season with salt and pepper. Whisk together thoroughly.

If you look at the tilapia fillets, you will notice they have a natural divide down the center. Slice each fillet in half, so that they'll be more manageable to cook. Lightly salt, pepper, and flour each side, then dip in batter to coat. Drop each piece into the oil, taking care not to crowd the oil or let the fish pieces stick together. I did two pieces at a time in my small fryer. Cook for about 6 minutes.

Serve immediately to retain crunchy exterior. Pour malt vinegar over the fish and salt to taste before eating. This recipe, along with the potatoes, makes 2 servings. There is more than enough batter here to fry a lot more fish than just our two fillets, so keep that in mind if multiplying the recipe.

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!