Thick and Rich Beer Beef Stew

Especially during the winter months when it’s cold outside, you want something to warm you up and fill you up as well. Also known as comfort food, I find this a perfect answer to that desire.

I’ve made many versions of this and often used wine but decided to go more Irish and used beer instead. In fact, I use two kinds of beer here. I used malt beer (here in Israel it’s known as “black beer”), a slightly sweet and non alcoholic one to get that malty flavor without any bitterness (not gonna use Guinness which is bitter and hard for me to find) and a regular beer as well. All in all you use three bottles of beer for this, one malt, two regular but sorry, no getting tipsy for you! All the alcohol cooks off. Never mind, it’s good enough that you can drown your sorrows in an additional beer, if need be 😉 .

But seriously, this gives you a wonderful layer of flavor. I’ve found time and again that beer can nearly sub out for wine, it has a similar flavor when cooked and adds a wonderful note in your cooking. One more thing. Ya gotta brown the meat for this dish. I’m sorry, I know it’s a pain in the neck but the additional flavor the searing/caramelization of the meat brings completely changes the flavor of the dish. If you don’t, the dish is much more bland and that’s a shame. Buck up, it’s worth the effort. So now that you know, let’s carry on!

First and foremost, you must use the correct cut of meat. For long and low cooking on the stovetop, you need either chuck, or flanken or as I found, shin meat. Basically if it says it’s good for soup or stewing, it means it’s meant for long low cooking and that’s what you want. Second, I did not find prepared stew meat so I bought it and while slightly frozen, cut into chunks myself.

Now I made them kinda flat to maximize surface for browning and also to make it faster to cook. The thicker the chunks of beef, the longer it may take to cook.

Next prep your veggies and I will show you how thick approximately to cut them to optimize cooking time. Try to evenly cut them so they will more or less cook at the same rate.

That’s a combo of cubed pumpkin and sliced carrots. If you cannot get pumpkin, just use more carrots. The mushrooms should be small to medium and left whole so they don’t disappear in the stew. The idea with the potatoes, is you want them to almost crumble into the stew, barely keeping their shape. You’re going for a melt in your mouth effect.

Now I first brown or sear the meat in the oil, and it will need to be done in batches so it sears and gets that nice brown crust and if you crowd the pan it’ll steam. So, place oil in the pot and brown the beef in batches, about 2-3 minutes on each side like so:

No worries, all those brown bits will get scraped and stirred into your stock. Place the browned (on both sides, for clarity) beef on a plate till you finish the lot, no need to keep warm. Another important tip. The beef tends to stick a bit. I always use a sharp spatula to dig it cleanly off the bottom both to flip over and remove. Also, add a bit more oil if need be so it’ll brown properly.

The meat looks fully cooked but it ain’t, it’s just browned. Remember, this isn’t steak, it’s a tough-ish cut meant to be cooked awhile. That’s all good. Now in the same pot, put your onion in the remaining oil, adding a bit if needed and fry gently till light brown, then throw in the chopped garlic and brown for a coupla secs, not more, or it gets dark and bitter. Pull off the fire a minute.

See the brown bits? That’s the residue of browning the beef and scrape all that yumminess into your stock. Onward. Take your prepared veggies, but NOT the potatoes and add to the onion and garlic off the fire (just to make sure you don’t overcook the garlic) and stir and place back on flame and toss in oil and let cook about 5 minutes or so.

The kitchen is starting to smell enticing, no? Next take some beef or chicken broth/stock, (I had chicken stock awaiting me in my freezer, I try to always have some on hand) if homemade, great, if not, buy it or if a desperate person, use cubes or powder dissolved in water, yes I forgive you. Pour it on the sauteeing veggies, scrape the bottom of the pot a coupla times and now add your two kinds of beer. It’ll foam as you’d expect, no worries, it’ll settle down. Add your beef, and then add the potatoes. Make sure your liquid covers the beef completely but it’s okay if half the potatoes peek over the liquid since they will cook down. Add your thyme and bay leaf, and some salt.

Bring the pot to the boil and lower to a lowish simmer, and tilt the pot’s lid and wander off, read a book, type an email, drink some coffee. In other words, you’ve got time. The trick to this? You cannot know just how long it’ll take to cook your beef, some is more tender, some is less. So set the timer for an hour or so. About an hour after letting it simmer, I wandered back into the kitchen and using a long wooden skewer pierced a piece of meat and lo and behold it was soft. Yay me! Faster than I though it would be. If your meat isn’t tender yet, no worries, cook another 15 minutes and check again. It can take as long as an hour and a half, depending on how tender your meat is.

So now you want to thicken it up. I know some people dredge the beef in flour but here I don’t like to do this. It tends to stick terribly when you sear it and I find it much simpler to just make a slurry and add to the pot. A slurry is just cold water (put it in the cup first and it must be cold or the flour will clump up) and then flour which you whisk together till smooth and pour into the simmering liquid and stir stir stir. It’ll thicken up your stew or soup. It’s a great thing. I wound up adding my tomato paste now just because I forgot to add it with the beer. Either way, the stew is forgiving. Keep an eye on the stew now and let it simmer another fifteen minutes or so till thick but very saucy. Not soupy! The difference is there is thick pieces of veg and meat throughout in a thick sauce. It’s ultimately probably better served in a rimmed soup bowl but I actually plated it with other sides on the plate and everyone was happy chasing it with their forks and bread.

This is just wonderful served with bread to mop the sauce and I even made Irish soda bread as a go with but never used it (we ate it separately at a different meal with cream cheese for a lunch!) cuz we had challah instead. Yummm.

Thick and Rich Beer Beef Stew

1 kilo (a little more than 2 pounds) stewing meat cut into chunks (chuck, flanken, shin, any meat meant for stew is good)
1/4 cup or so oil
1 1/2 large onions or two medium, peeled and chopped
1 crushed or finely chopped clove of garlic
4 carrots peeled and sliced thick
20 small to medium mushrooms cleaned and left whole
1 small chunk peeled cubed pumpkin about 1 cup’s worth
1 cup chopped celery
5 medium potatoes peeled and sliced thick
2 cups chicken stock or beef broth or if need be, 2 heaping tablespoons soup powder with 2 cups hot water
1 bottle sweet malt beer (black beer in Israel) 330 ml (about 1 1/3 cups)
2 bottles regular beer 330 ml (about 2 2/3 cups)
Pinch of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/4 cup cold water
1/4 cup flour

Directions:

Put 2 tablespoons of oil in the pan and in batches, brown the meat chunks on both sides 2-3 minutes on each side. Do not crowd the pan or the meat won’t brown properly and will steam. Depending on the size of your pot, you may need to do 2 to 3 batches, add oil as needed.

Remove the seared beef from pan to a dish as you go, no need to keep hot. Take the onions and fry in the same pot you used for the meat in the oil and juices in the pan, adding a bit more oil if needed and scrape up the brown bits. Sautée till light brown and toss in the crushed garlic sautéing very very briefly. Pull pot off flame and put celery and mushrooms, carrots and pumpkin in sautéeing briefly and add the beers and chicken broth, stir and scrape the bottom of pan and add the beef and then the potatoes. The stew should just be covered with liquid if the potatoes stick out a bit it’s fine, just make sure the meat is fully covered with liquid (that’s why it comes before the potatoes). Add tomato paste, the thyme, bay leaves and salt, stir to combine.

Bring to the boil and immediately lower to lowish simmer, and cook for about 1 hour. Check to see if beef is tender (I pierce it with long wooden skewer) – if beef is not tender enough, cook another 15 minutes and check again. If still not, another 10-15 minutes, and whisk flour into water until smooth and not lumpy and add in a stream to pot. Stir well and let simmer another fifteen minutes till thickened but still quite saucy and beef is super soft and tender. Serve with bread to mop the sauce.