Sussex Stewed Beef - David Smith
Pot Roast and Guinness - Susan Wenger
Begorrah Shure I might as well send to Dem too - Brian Tansey
Beef and Guinness Stew - Chef Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cooking School - County Cork, Ireland
What Kind of Ale? - Alice Gomez
Ale Suggestions:
Doug Essinger-Hileman
Edmund Burton
Philip Johnson
Sara Waterson
Sussex Stewed Beef - David Smith
The great thing about this dish is that
1. even I can put it together in about five minutes, and
2. you can spend the next three hours down at The Grapes, in the Liberties of the Savoy, comparing warm beers with iced beers.
For six, you need
2 to 2.5 pounds of sliced top rump or chuck steak.
Salt and pepper
Flour
1 large onion, sliced.
6 tablespoons of stout (I use Guinness)
6 tablespoons of port (not your Taylor's '45)
2 tablespoons of mushroom ketchup OR wine vinegar.
Season the beef and rub it all over with the flour. Put it into a shallow ovenproof dish in which it can lie flat. Put the onion on top in an even layer. Pour in the stout, port and ketchup or vinegar. Cover the dish with a tight-fitting lid or foil, and put it into the oven at 140 degrees centigrade, 275 fahrenheit for three hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and some field mushrooms if you can get them.
By some alchemy, the beef emerges deliciously tender, in a glorious gravy slightly thickened by the flour. I've not tried it with the wine vinegar, but use Harvey's mushroom ketchup; vinegar might make it a touch sharp, I fancy.
Recipe from Jane Grigson's classic, English Food.
Pot Roast and Guiness - Susan Wenger
Guinness makes for a terrific pot roast! Beef, carrots, onions, potatoes, whatever vegetables you like for a pot roast, whatever seasonings you like - and a can of Guinness. Brown the beef in a bit of oil on all sides, add the Guinness, and simmer. Add the vegetables later, so they don't cook longer than they have to, so they won't get mushy.
Begorrah Shure I might as well send to Dem too - Brian Tansey
I'm just emailing my fav steak recipe to me friend Con.
So I decided to give the Gunroom a flavour...
4 thick fillets
2 cloves garlic
salt/pepper
2 ounces butter/olive oil
glass good dry white wine
large dollop of best Dijon mustard
handful of chopped parsley
say 3 tablespoons Hennessy Brandy
quarter pint double cream
cardiac ambulance on standby
Rub the Steaks all over with the Garlic Season - S and P
Fry in hot butter (bit of Olive oil helps)
Remove and keep hot
Rinse pan with the wine, scraping up all the flavour - wooden spoon please
Now add the brandy and the Dijon mustard-stir well and blend all
Add parsley and cream - don't allow to boil
Pour any juices from the waiting steaks into the pan-stir.
Pour the sauce over the steaks
Serve with Guinness and Home Grown Potatoes.
Beef and Guinness Stew - Chef Darina Allen of Ballymaloe Cooking School - County Cork, Ireland
Guinness, Ireland's famous black stout, has been brewed in Dublin since 1759. It has a very special place in Irish life. In Dublin Tenement Life: An Oral History, publican John O'Dwyer recalls the importance of stout in the lives of the poorest tenement dwellers in Dublin: They had nothing. They lived for pints. Drink was the main diet. It was food... they used to call the pint the 'liquid food'.
Nowadays the 'liquid food' is used increasingly in cooking. It is a tasty addition to stews and casseroles, helping to tenderize the meat and imparting its distinctive malty flavor to any dish. This recipe makes a wonderful gusty stew which tastes even better a day or two after it is made.
Yield: 6-8 servings
Ingredients:
2 lb lean stewing beef
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons flour
salt and freshly ground pepper and a pinch of cayenne
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed (optional)
2 tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cups Guinness
2 cups carrots, cut into chunks
sprig of thyme
Method:
Trim the meat of any fat or gristle, cut into cubes of 2 inches (5cm) and toss them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon oil. Season the flour with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch or two of cayenne. Toss the meat in the mixture. Heat the remaining oil in a wide frying pan over a high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Add the onions, crushed garlic and tomato puree to the pan, cover and cook gently for about 5 minutes. Transfer the contents of the pan to a casserole, and pour some of the Guinness into the frying pan. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the caramelized meat juices on the pan. Pour onto the meat with the remaining Guinness; add the carrots and the thyme. Stir, taste, and add a little more salt if necessary. Cover with the lid of the casserole and simmer very gently until the meat is tender - 2 to 3 hours. The stew may be cooked on top of the stove or in a low oven at 300 degrees F. Taste and correct the seasoning. Scatter with lots of chopped parsley.
What Kind of Ale? - Alice Gomez
I've a recipe for a beef stew cooked in ale. I'm assuming this isn't beer. Thanks to this list I know there's dark ale, brown ale, Audit ale, India Pale Ale, East India Pale Ale, ginger ale, and Sir William Pellew's own bottled lukewarm, fizzy ale (POB - Reverse of the Medal).
But is there a cooking ale? I'm not a beer, porter, stout, nor ale aficionada, so I probably wouldn't be able to tell the difference between beef cooked in ale and beef cooked in beer, but if there's going to be a big difference, then I'll get some ale. Some inexpensive ale.
The beef stew recipe is a basic beef stew recipe. Really.
4 lbs. beef chuck, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
6 tablespoons flour
3 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 bottles (12 ounces each) ale (Note: not beer, not lager, not porter, not stout, not Guiness, just "ale")
2 large onions, thinly sliced
8 ounces mushrooms, quartered
3 large carrots, cut into 1-inch lengths (hmmm... no potatoes, not even any interesting herbs like Rosemary and Thyme)
One bottle of ale is used as the braising liquid, then the other bottle is used for the stewing.
The other addition to this recipe is buttermilk and green onion dumplings made with 2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, 1 egg, and 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions, plus the addition of enough buttermilk to hold it together, about 3/4 cup.
Ale Suggestions:
Doug Essinger-Hileman
This stew, could easily be transformed into a Carbonnade with the use of a good Belgian Abbey style ale. Perhaps the most well known is Chimay, though it is also amongst the most expensive. There are probably some microbreweries in your area which make a very good abbey-style ale which is less expensive.
I love using a good porter or stout (both particular variants of ale) for making beef stew; it yields a stew with a wonderful, hearty character. When making chile, I have used Young's Double Chocolate Stout, which provides a similar result to adding cocoa. I suspect the result would be similarly enjoyable when used in making a beef stew.
Other favorite stouts/porters I've used are Samuel Smith's Oatmeal Stout and Sam Adams Honey Porter.
However, considering the dumplings, you might consider a good wheat beer in this recipe. Sam Adams makes one. And I'm sure that there are some local breweries which do, too.
Edmund Burton
I suggest Fat Tire Ale, from the New Belgium Brewing Company.. Very good and not very expensive.
Philip Johnson
In cooking, the same principle should be followed as with wine: "Don't put anything into the pot that you're not happy pouring down your throat." Find a beer that you like and that you think will blend well with the other ingredients.
Sara Waterson If you are going to use ale to cook with, then get a full-bodied decent brew with some flavour, not some chemical mass-produced muck.
Some chap on the All Knowing List will no doubt tell me I'm mistaken, but I've always thought beer was just a modern name for ale - ie an alcoholic beverage brewed from hops. Guinness is commonly called a stout, or porter, not an ale; but it too is used to cook beef (especially in the case of beef, Guinness and oyster pie).
It's the same rule as cooking with wine - always use the best you can afford. Don't by rotgut really cheap stuff to cook with any more than you'd drink it!
Which it's the Patrick O'Brian list of the world!