Rev. Peanut's Beef & Stout Stew
Beef & Stout Stew:
Necessary Items:
2 bottles of your very own home made stout. Or Guinness.
4 tablespoons of olive oil.
500g Chuck steak. Or osso buco (beef shank) works well too.
Some flour and some paprika.
250g flavoursome mushrooms purchased at a local mushroom festival (they exist).
1 large red onion purchased at a local large red onion festival (they exisit).
3 cloves of garlic (which you will have grown yourself the previous year).
2 cm of ginger (I'm unaware of any ginger festivals in this neck of the woods).
3 or 4 chillies or half a teaspoon of Rev. Peanut's Hot Sauce.
½ litre of passata.
2 tablespoons of Worcester Sauce.
1 teaspoon of chopped fresh rosemary.
1 sprig of fresh thyme.
1 sittin' in the dock of the bay leaf.
250ml beef stock.
Salt and pepper.
A couple of spuds.
A couple of carrots.
The odd pea or two.
A few other assorted winter vegetables, if you like.
How to do it:
In pretty much the same was as you would the Guinness & Mushroom Pie, open 1 bottle of stout and pour half into a glass.
Sift the flour and paprika into a plastic bag. A freezer bag works well, so long as it's not the bag your freezer arrived in.
Cut the beef into handy bite sized cubes and add to the bag. Shake it as though you were trying to extract valuable information from it.
Brown the meat well in half the oil in a lovely saucepan. Don't skip this step. (for browning methods please consult Google. If using osso buco, include the bone in all stages except the munching stage).
Roughly chop the onion, mushrooms, garlic, ginger and chillies.
Heat the rest of the oil and sautee ½ the onions in a different lovely saucepan until browned. Drink half the glass of stout.
Add the rest of the onions and sautee for a couple of minutes.
Add the garlic, ginger and chillies and continue to sautee for a couple more minutes.
Add the mushrooms and cook for 3 minutes stirring occasionally. Add this delightful mixture to the browned beef and drink the other half of the glass of stout. Pour the rest of the first bottle of stout into the glass.
Add the thyme, rosemary and bay leaf, beef stock, Worcester sauce and ¾ of the second bottle of stout to the saucepan and top up your glass with the rest.
Cover and cook over a low heat for an hour and a half or so, stirring regularly.
Drink the rest of the Guinness.
Chop the potatoes and carrots and other veggies into 1cm cubes. Add them to the saucepan along with the passata and salt and pepper and cook for a different hour and a half or so. Add the peas and remove from the heat.
Leave covered until tomorrow, for everything tastes better tomorrow. Go out and get a pizza.
Reheat the next day and simmer for 15 or 20 minutes before munching with a big feckin' wedge of crusty bread.
