Thursday, March 17, 2011

Faith and Begorrah ~There's a pint in my stew !

“May God grant you always...A sunbeam to warm you, a moonbeam to charm you, a sheltering Angel so nothing can harm you. Laughter to cheer you. Faithful friends near you. And whenever you pray, Heaven to hear you.” ~Irish Blessing
The Irish soda bread turned out very well

Normally on St. Patrick’s Day I’d be fixing corned beef and cabbage but, this year I thought I’d try something different. I’ve always wanted  to prepare Beef and Guinness stew and what better day to try it than St. Patrick’s Day?

I pride my self on my stew making ability but this is a version I have not tried yet. I’ve been researching many recipes and I’ve come up with a plan. Normally I put red wine in my stew but today it’s Guinness all the way.I’ve adapted the classic recipe by adding potato and green beans to the stew pot. I’ve also cut up the vegetables in large size pieces because I want this to be a really chunky stew.
The  star of the stew
1 ½ lbs stew meat cut in 1-2 inch cubes
1 onion roughly chopped
2 red potatoes 
3 carrots
1 bottle Guinness
¼ cup flour (to the flour add ¼ tsp salt & ¼ tsp pepper ¼ tsp cayenne)
salt to taste
pepper to taste
cayenne
pinch allspice  (optional)
1 bay leaf (remove the bay leaf before eating stew)
String beans (small handful)

I browned the meat and onion in a fry pan
with a bit of cooking oil
when browned
I added enough flour S&P mixture to coat the meat
I cooked it a few minutes longer (to cook the flour)

I moved the meat & onion to a waiting stockpot

I deglazed my fry pan with some of the Guinness
then I put the contents from the fry pan in to the stock pot

I added
The rest of the Guinness
3-4 cups of stock
The rest of the cut up veggies
1 bay leaf
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

let it all stew on low for about 1 ½ -2 hours
Happy St. Patrick's Day

Total for this salute to Ireland under $10.00
A Happy and blessed St. Patrick's Day to you all.

2 comments:

Weekend Cowgirl said...

I love stew and think I will try your recipe this week! Thanks!!

Vagablonde said...

Thanks I hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think when you prepare it .