Cooking with Guiness

Since the rain shows no sign of stopping , hot comfort food is the special du jour around here. This weekend we had:

Guiness Stew (adapted from a Guiness Meat Pie recipe found on Facebook)

1/4 C oil, preferably olive
1 1/2 lbs beef top round, or stew meat
4 slices of bacon, chopped
1 large onion, diced
1 garlic clove, minced
2 carrots, sliced
1 stalk celery, sliced
8 oz mushrooms, stemmed and quartered
2 Tbsp. flour
1 C beef stock
1 C Guiness beer
salt
pepper

Heat oil in a medium pot. Add beef and bacon; sear over medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until beef is browned on all sides. Add onion, garlic clove, carrots, celery, and mushrooms, and cook 8 minutes or until soft, stirring occasionally. Sprinkle in flour and cook 1 minute before adding the beef stock, and Guiness.

**At this point stop and breathe deeply...the stew smells heavenly**

Season with salt and pepper, turn down heat and simmer at least 2 hours, stirring occasionally.

You can make a double pie crust and serve this as a meat pie, but we served it to a football watching group as stew with french bread on the side. Excellent.

Serve with Guiness or a peppery red wine.

Next Guiness recipe to try:

Irish Brown Beer Bread

2 c. raisins
1/2 c. butter
2 c. sugar
3 eggs, beaten
4 c. flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. allspice
1 (16 oz.) bottle Guinness Stout beer

Soak raisins in warm water for 10 minutes until they fluff up a bit. Dry on paper towels and coat with a little flour. Cream butter and sugar well. Add eggs and mix well by hand. Sift flour, salt, baking soda, salt, and allspice; add to creamed mixture alternately with beer. Then add floured raisins. Bake in greased tube pan at 350 degrees for approximately 1 hour and 20 minutes -- check with toothpick.

If we like the bread I will then try and replicate the Guiness Bread Pudding we had in Eugene. We'll see how it goes.