Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Guinness Beef Stew for St. Patty's Day

Surely you will see countless Guinness recipes on this St. Patty's Day.  However, I must tell you that this one is special!  As I (attempted to) reorganize my tags in a fit of boredom and bad TV, I noticed how very few 'beef' recipes I've posted on the site.  Truth is, of all the things I love in this world, I just don't love beef.  I know, I know...I've come around on a lot of foods, and perhaps this just may be one of them.

Mini Guinness Beef Stew

Though I put on my best show - cringing and making faces while cooking the stew, once I dug in I had to sheepishly admit that damn, this stuff is pretty good! This stew is chock full of flavor, hearty veggies and of course, hunks of beef.

Speaking of hearty veggies, I had never cooked with parsnips or really knew what they looked liked.  Luckily the friendly guy working produce at Henry's was so kind as to not only show me what they were, but also pull some fresh ones from the back.  Have I mentioned that I love Henry's?

Mini Guinness Beef Stew

Apparently I am the last person in the world to enjoy parsnips as I received not two but three comments on my purchase from other customers inquiring what I was making and mentioning the deliciousness of parsnips. For those in the dark like me, don't let the odd paint smell of parsnips turn you off! They're like carrots, only tastier :)  The original recipe called for turnips, but I just couldn't add one more oddity to my meal.  Instead, I added good old standbys:  Yukon Gold potatoes (a definite must add) and celery.

Hope you enjoy St. Patrick's Day. What are your plans? Green beer and Guinness Stew, I hope! :) 

Guinness Beef Stew
Adapted from Cooking Light March '10

Canola oil
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup all purpose flour
salt & pepper for seasoning beef
2 pounds boneless chuck roast, cut into cubes (don't use lean stew meat as it will get tough with the slow cooking)
1 teaspoon Kosher salt
5 cups chopped onion (about 3)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
4 cups beef broth
1 (11.2 oz) bottle Guinness Draught
1 tablespoon raisins
1 teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 medium-large Yukon Gold potatoes, chopped into chunks
1 1/2 cups diagonally sliced carrots (peeled)
1 1/2 cups diagonally sliced parsnips (peeled)
2 tablespoons finely chopped flat leaf parsley

1. Heat several rounds of oil in a large stock pot or Dutch oven over medium high heat. Add 1 1/2 teaspoons butter to pan.

2. Place flour in a shallow dish. Sprinkle beef with salt and pepper; dredge beef in flour. Add half of beef to pan and cook 5 minutes, until browned but not cooked through. Remove beef and repeat procedure with remaining beef.

3. Add onion to pan and cook about 5 minutes or until tender. Stir in tomato paste and cook 1 minute. Stir in broth, beer, scraping bottom of pan to loosen brown bits. Return meat to pot; stir in 1 teaspoon salt, raisins, caraway seeds, pepper and bay leaf. Bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

4. Uncover and bring back to a slow boil. Cook uncovered for 50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add carrot, parsnip, celery and potatoes. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Uncover and bring back to boil, cook 10 minutes or until veggies are cooked and tender. Remove bay leaf & sprinkle with parsley.

11 comments:

Joanne said...

Coincidence! I made Guinness stew too! This looks so delicious. I love that it has raisins and caraway seeds. What awesome additions!

La Bella Cooks said...

I love how rich and dark the broth is and the caraway seeds are a cool addition. I will have to give parsnips a go too...i'm totally in the dark there!

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

This looks so delicious! We went with the traditional coen beef, cabbage and potatoes.

grace said...

parsnip virgin here. also, i'm not much of a beef-eater either (or a beefeater-eater), but this looks down-home and darn comforting!

momgateway said...

What a lovely dish--thanks for posting the recipe and your beautiful pics!

The Blonde Duck said...

I'm so glad you're liking beef now. It's all we eat in Texas.

test it comm said...

This is a great beef stew for St Patty's day!

Kerstin said...

This looks so comforting and hearty! I don't really cook beef much at home either (there are no beef recipes on my blog), but I do crave it every once in awhile and I think I would slurp this right up!

Sophie said...

Paint smelling parsnips? That's funny :D! I always thought they were kinda gingery. They do taste kinda like carrots though. I'm a big beef eater so I'd probably have two bowls of this :D.

Anonymous said...

I am gonna try this one pronto! My bf loves Guinness so this will be a fun one for him. I don't like beef either, but my bf really does, so we compromise with bison. I actually really like the flavor of bison. It doesn't give off that fleshy meat smell like beef does when cooking, it has more flavor and is much leaner, probably because they are grazed on open fields and eat grasses instead of industrial meal.

Mandy said...

I love beef stew, it's so comforting! I was shocked to see raisins in the recipe...it didn't seem to fit in (one of these things is not like the others.) I've never cooked with parsnips either...not sure I could even pick one out of a lineup. Great post!! It's warm in Austin, so it's not the right weather for beef stew, but I might need to make an exception.