Irish Beef Stew

Irish Beef Stew

Went to a supermarket in Sassuolo today. I'm finally an optimist, always hoping that I'll find something new or interesting somewhere.

Well, they had the usual stuff, though while looking through the beer section for German Weissbier (I don't ever drink beer but Hubby likes a good one occasionally), I came across a pack of Guinness Stout. I've grown up with the beer advertising (though I get confused as to which were the ones with those beautiful half naked women) and as a student in Paris, I've worked part time for an Irish-owned English language school. So I guess that I'm partial to many things Irish.

Then I arrived at the meat section and saw 2 interesting things : Charolais beef (Hub would be happy) and...Irish Beef. Hmm...I stared at the packs of Irish meat and just grabbed one of them. I have what it takes to make an Irish Beef Stew and so that's what we'll have for dinner this evening.

I used to make normal Irish Stew (with lamb or mutton - easily available in Paris especially at the Halal Butchers), Irish Beef Stew and even Irish Chicken Stew when Eldest Son was still little. And along the way I started adding red wine to my Irish stews probably due to my love for the other big stew - the French Boeuf Bourgignon. And French bread is great for accompanying the stews, which reminds me that I have no bread for my stew tonight. I never found much interest in buying bread in Italy - usually lousy texture and no taste. If the oven's working I could have tried baking one, but well...

Irish Beef Stew :

olive oil

1 Kg (Irish) beef (if you can get the cheeks it would be perfect)

6-8 cloves of garlic

2 onions

2 celery sticks

1 can guinness or murphy's stout

250ml red wine (optional but recommended)

500ml beef stock

1 Tsp brown sugar

half a can of chopped tomatoes

1-2 Tbsp Lea and Perrins (Worcestershire) sauce

2 bay leaves

A few springs of thyme

100g butter

4 potatoes

3 carrots

2 parsnips

3-4 tbsp Flour

Salt

Crushed Black Pepper

Heat olive oil in a pot like Le Creuset (grin). Brown the meat, then remove and set aside. Add more olive oil if necessary in the pot and brown the onion and garlic. Return the meat to the pot.

Stir in the sugar, worcestershire sauce and chopped tomatoes. Pour in the beer, red wine and the beef stock. Add the herbs and cover. Simmer for at least 2 hours.

In a separate pan, melt half the butter (I used salted) and sautée the potatoes, carrots, parsnips and celery till they turn golden. Add the buttered vegetables to the meat in the pot. In the same pan, add in the remaining butter and the flour and stir well to make a roux. Pour that into the meat and vegetable stew and let it simmer till everything's nice and tender. Add salt and pepper to taste.

The stew can be prepared a few days in advance and is actually better re-heated. One can also take the opportunity to remove whatever fat is visible to the naked eye when the stew is cooled. In our case, we have no space in the fridge (every day I like and try to cook something different) and it's too hot in the house to leave anything in the open, so we had to eat it immediately. Hub downed his with a glass of Guinness, of course.

As for the consistency, it's a matter of personal taste. But I like mine not watery and not thick either. I just dip my spoon into the gravy and it should just have a layer of sauce stuck on it and that's good enough for me.

Finally, I may sometimes choose not to add potatoes to cook in the stew. Instead, I would roast the potatoes with whole cloves of garlic and olive oil in the oven and serve them with the stew.