This dish is great for a Sunday lunch. Prepare the dish and leave to cook slowly in a low oven for two and a half hours. Eat with plenty of floury spuds, a glass of good red wine, or a pint of the black stuff.
I’m not sure how Irish “Beef in Stout” actually is. Certainly, the British have been braising beef in ale for donkey’s years. And stout certainly isn’t an Irish invention, despite popular belief.
If this recipe seems like too much effort, you can always just drink the stout. Notice I haven’t used the “G” word in this recipe! You can use any Irish (dry) stout you have to hand.
Ingredients
- 125g bacon or pancetta, cubed
- 1kg stewing beef (such as round steak), cubed
- 2 tbsp flour, seasoned with salt and pepper
- 500 ml stout
- 2 onions, sliced
- 3 celery sticks, sliced
- 3 large carrots, cut into large chunks
- 250ml beef stock
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce (optional)
- 1 tbsp tomato pureé (optional)
- 2 tsp light muscovado sugar
- 2 bay leaves
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- salt & black pepper
Method
- Pre-heat your oven to 160°C (140°C if you have a fan-assisted oven).
- Add a little oil to a frying pan and brown the bacon or pancetta. Fry the bacon until golden. Transfer to a large casserole.
- Brown the beef. Toss the beef in the seasoned flour. Add a little more oil to the frying pan and fry the beef in batches until caramelised. Make sure you do this in batches so as not to overload your pan. Transfer the browned beef in the casserole.
- Add a little more oil and gry the onions until caramelised. Add to the casserole.
- Pour some stout into the hot frying pan to de-glaze it. As the stout bubbles, scrape at the bottom of the pan to remove any caramelised juices from the bacon and the beef. Add the stout and de-glazed juices to the casserole.
- Now, assemble the rest of the dish. To the casserole, add the celery, carrot, tomato pureé, Worcestershire sauce, stock, herbs and the rest of the stout. Season well with salt and plenty of freshly ground pepper. Stir well and place the casserole on your hob. Bring the casserole to a gentle simmer and place in the oven for between two and two and a half hours. Check after an hour that there’s no beef drying out on top of the casserole; if there is, just give it a quick stir.
Notes
- I like to thicken the sauce using a little “beurre manie”. Mix a tablespoon of plain flour with a tablespoon of softened butter. Stir the resulting paste gently into the sauce and simmer for a few minutes until thickened.
- You could use shin beef for this. Just trim some of the fat from the meat and add at least an hour to the cooking time to allow this tough meat to tenderise. The extra far in the meat will melt out, giving a rich and unctuous sauce.
Serves 4.
