beef stew

[mlbrown76]

When I think of beef stew, I think of stout, but last time I made it (last week) I didn't have any stout in the fridge. I used my good friend's homebrew pale ale. It was great...Here goes:
(serves 4-6)
You Need:
About a two pound beef chuck roast
An onion, chopped
A carrot, chopped
A celery stalk, chopped
A potato, large dice
Mushrooms (optional), cut in quarters
Some kind of squash (butternut, acorn, turnip, parsnip...) cut same size as potatoes
One 12 oz. bottle of beer
About one cup of chicken stock, broth or just plain water
About three or four Tablespoons of flour
A pinch of dried thyme or a couple tablespoons fresh thyme
A bay leaf
You can buy the pre-cut stew beef, but there's something to be said for buying meat that's been through the ringer as little as possible before you get it home. Buy the whole Chuck Roast and cut it along its natural separations...I like to leave the pieces big, but you can cut them as small as you like.
Season the meat with salt and pepper, add a couple tablespoons of olive oil or butter or both to a nice hot pot and put in the meat. Let it brown nice and dark all around, then take it out.
Drain some of the fat from the pot if need be.
Add the onion, carrot, celery, mushrooms thyme, and bay leaf. Allow the vegetables to soften a bit, and scrape up the stuck-on bits from the bottom of the pan.
Reduce heat to medium and add the flour. Stir the flour with the fat in the pan until it looks like peanut butter. If it looks dry, add butter.
Add the beer and the stock or water(hot), allow it to come to a gentle boil.
Put the meat, potatoes and squash in. Add salt and Reduce heat to medium/low and simmer, covered, until the potatoes and squash are tender, or until the stew is as thick as you want it.
If it doesn't look like there's enough liquid in the pot, add hot water.
If it doesn't seem like the stew is getting thick, let it simmer uncovered for a while.
The trick is: about one Tablespoon of flour for every cup of liquid.

[HogieWan]

I'll be making a variation of this tomorrow - I'll post how it turns out. I'm going to use my homemade porter for the liquids.

[mlbrown76]

The porter will be great, I'm sure. I made beef stew last week with a bottle of Brooklyn's Chocolate Stout (why not?) and it was very good.
I've been making larger quantities lately, though, and I think the stew has been coming out better.
I've been going with an onion, about three carrotts, one celery stalk, seven sliced mushrooms, maybe a quarter of a butternut squash, and say, four good size potatoes cut into bite-size wedges.
Use 9 tablespoons of flour (you'll most likely have to add butter to it) one beer and 7 cups of hot stock or water. It makes a bunch, but the leftovers are great.

You can follow pretty much the same rules of thumb to make chicken stew...use a lighter beer, and instead of potatoes, I use two cans of drained white beans...When I make the chicken stew, I cut a whole chicken into pieces (thighs, drumsticks, breasts, wings) and brown them in the pan.
After I've added all the liquid, I put the pieces back in the pan to finish cooking, about 30 min. Then, I take the chicken pieces out, strip the meat off the bones, and put it back in the pan when I add the beans.
If you decide to use potatoes (or squash), put them in when you take the chicken out, and return the the chicken to the pan once the potatoes have cooked.

[corkybstewart]

I did beef ribs and carrots with my oatmeal stout Monday, kind of like a pot roast. And of course I threw in a couple of green chiles for "accent". It's hard getting used to cooking for 2 people again. When my kids lived here I could make a big pot of stew and it would get eaten in no time.

[HogieWan]

I got a tender chuck roast and intend on leaving it whole. I'm throwing everything into a crock in the morning and leave it until dinner time. I'm glad the BCS came out well, because my porter has a decent chocolate malt flavor and I was worried about that.

[Seymour]

We were at my mom's not long ago, and on a whim she did her crock pot pork roast with a bottle of Redhook ESB. Not the world's best beer, I'll allow, but the roast was out-of-this-world delicious. She was amazed cooking with beer could lead to something that good. I think someone's eyes opened that day...

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
I did beef ribs and carrots with my oatmeal stout Monday, kind of like a pot roast. And of course I threw in a couple of green chiles for "accent". It's hard getting used to cooking for 2 people again. When my kids lived here I could make a big pot of stew and it would get eaten in no time. I'm a bit envious. I like to cook big. My nuclear chili recipe, for example, is for 4 gallons, and Thanksgiving dinner featured a 23 lb turkey. I have one step-kid that's kind of adventurous, but the other two won't venture much beyond white bread, white pasta, "american" psuedo-cheese, sugar cereals, and plain cheese pizza. One is vegetarian, which is OK, but I call her the vegetarian that doesn't like vegetables, the other kid will at least touch hamburgers and nondescript hot dogs. None of three would even touch my snakebite yams last Thurday, and those are good!

[mlbrown76]

Most any supermarket should have beef short ribs, which are pretty cheap...One of my favorite recipes is to brown them up really well, then pour in a bottle of beer, and a jar of Hoisin sauce. Then, put the pan in the oven uncovered until the meat is falling off the bone.

[corkybstewart]

My kids have always eaten anything we cooked, and spending a lot of time on a farm in France and at the beach in Alabama helped. I can remember my 6 year old son asking me why his French grandmother had so many rabbits. I explained that they were for eating. His reply and I quote: "can we have that one for dinner". And we did, and several more before we left. My daughter ate her first raw oyster at age 8, she still loves them. They would "help" their baby sitter slaughter hogs for parties, it never bothered them at all. Now they're in their 20's they both love to cook and try new foods. My daughter even got me to try sushi last weekend.

[Seymour]

I'm s'prised at you, Corky. Us south'ners call sushi "bait";) .

[markaberrant]

I did a bratwurst stew tonight with a bottle of chocolate stout and a can of crappy pale ale. Smells good, dinner is in 10 minutes...

[HogieWan]

My stew came out great - I didn't tell the wife that I used the porter in there until after she said she liked it

[corkybstewart]

Good move Hogie, I did exactly the same thing with my ribs and stout. Eventually they'll learn to not cringe automatically when you tell them you're cooking with beer.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by corkybstewart
Good move Hogie, I did exactly the same thing with my ribs and stout. Eventually they'll learn to not cringe automatically when you tell them you're cooking with beer.

I messed up the first time I did it - so it's my fault she cringes

[markaberrant]

Originally posted by HogieWan
My stew came out great - I didn't tell the wife that I used the porter in there until after she said she liked it

Ha, ha. I did the EXACT same thing. And the wife loved it too.

[corkybstewart]

The first time I cooked those beef short ribs I used a ber that turned out to be way too hoppy for cooking. The ribs tasted like hop oil but I poure the liquid off and mad a new gravy just before my wife got home from work. And I added some porter about 1/2 hour before we ate. The beer taste was there, but very mild and the hops oil flavor was gone completely. I learned my lesson.

[HogieWan]

I used Paulaner Salvator to marinate some steaks - they turned out tasting like hops. Go figure.

[Seymour]

That Sante Fe Brown Ale I was remarking in another thread as being ho hum has turned out to be a great marinade (and baste) for beef boneless ribs. Gives it that hint of sweetness. So at least the rest of the six-pack didn't TOTALLY go to waste. My mom (remember the pork roast?) was out here before TG and she thought they were a knock-out.

[tarelki]

Sometime ago i braised short ribs in Ommegang - the result was outstanding: in fact the braise required no other flavorings - they just distracted from a rich and aromatic beer flavor (ok, except for a nice touch of mustard/sugar mop on ribs to broil them a bit before serving)...