Guinness Irish Stew recipe

When I look back at the time when I lived in Wales, with my mother, and drove home from work on a cold winter’s night, I always remember the feeling of coming home to some good old fashioned home cooked meals.

My mother was a wonderful cook; using simple ingredients she used to come up with all sorts of delicious recipes. One of my favorite recipes was her wonderful Irish Stew.

Over the years I’ve tried to emulate her stew, but mostly have never been able to come close to the wonderful flavors she managed to coax out of the stew, let alone the wonderful aromas. However, I do now have a recipe that comes close to her stew, and the secret ingredient I use to get the boldness of flavor that I remember is Guinness; somehow, when done right, the Guinness adds a richness that is unique and amazing – it somehow adds body to the stew.

This really is a great recipe for Irish Stew, especially for a cold winter's night - enjoy!

• 2 lbs beef, cubed. You can use any cut of beef, but the idea of stew it to use a poor cut – the stewing method tenderizes the meat and adds flavor.
• 3 Tablespoons oil. You can use any oil here; the stew is hearty and a lot of fat will come out of the meat, so you don’t have to be too health conscious – I general use a vegetable oil, although a good virgin olive oil with garlic would probably enhance the stew.
• 2 Tablespoons flour (to thicken). You can use a solution of corn starch and water if you prefer.
• Salt and pepper - you can leave this out and add when serving.
• 2 large chopped onions. I generally use red onions; they have a slightly sweeter taste and are very nice in stew.
• 1 large clove garlic crushed. This is optional; you can also use powdered garlic if you prefer.
• 2 Tablespoons tomato puree combined with 4 tablespoons water. This isn’t essential, but adds some body to the gravy; try substituting with ketchup, or even something like a Branston pickle.
• 1-1/4 cups Guinness. This seems to be about the amount required – but you can increase or decrease as desired – the more you put in the more bitter the stew will taste.
• 2 cups chopped carrots. I also add mushrooms usually – it’s not traditional in a stew, but the mushroom really soaks up the flavors.
• 2 cups of chopped potatoes (optional).
• Your favorite herbs . Thyme, Rosemary, Sage etc all add a nice flavor to the stew.

It should be noted that as you are cooking the Guinness, up to 95% of the alcohol will burn away (depending on how long you cook), this dish is therefore considered safe for kids as it contains less than .25% of alcohol.

• Cube the beef into 1 and a half inch cubes; remove as much as the fat as you can – the fat in the cube will be released when cooking and add lots of flavor, there’s therefore no need for the extra fat.
• Mix flour, salt, pepper and herbs together. You don’t have to do this, but I just find it a little easier.
• Place the beef cubes in a bowl and cover with 1 table spoon of the oil. Mix thoroughly so that all the surfaces of the beef are coated in oil.
• Mix the flour and herbs mixture into the beef cubes trying to evenly cover all surfaces of the cubes.
• Heat the remaining oil on medium and brown the beef cubes. There are many cooks who tell you that this is not necessary, but I find that this seems to hold more of the flavor in the beef. You should continue to stir the beef cubes until all surfaces are browned.
• Stir in the onions, and garlic and simmer for a few minutes – make sure to stir occasionally, and ensure you don’t burn the meat or onions.
• Add the tomato and simmer for another minute.
• Place the meat into a casserole dish.
• Use a little bit of the Guinness to ‘swill’ the pan – you’d be amazed how much flavor can be left behind on the surface of the frying pan.
• Add the ‘swilled’ contents to the casserole dish and add the remaining Guinness – stir well.
• Cook in an over at 325 degrees for 2 to 3 hours. (You can cook in a crock pot, or on the stove – just be careful not to burn the stew).
• About an hour before serving add the vegetables – you can add the vegetables at the beginning if you prefer.

You can use tofu, or a different vegetable instead of the beef (try turnip) – the method is similar, although you won’t need to brown the vegetable.

Guinness is not suitable for vegetarians, you’d have to replace the Guinness with one of the stouts below:

• Alloa Stout - bottle
• Bell's Stout (Various)
• Black Isle Brewery Porter Stout
• Bridge of Allan's Glencoe Wild Oat Stout (bottled)
• Hopback Entire Stout
• Isle of Skye Oyster Stout (bottled)
• Linfit English Guineas Stout - bottle
• Cropton's Scorseby Stout (bottle)
• Dublin's Darcy's Dublin Stout
• Samuel Adams Stout (Various)
• Titanic Brewery Stout - bottle

I serve this meal in many different ways:

• In a bowl with a nice large dollup of Sour Cream – my favorite way to eat it, especially with some hot crust buttered bread.
• Mixed with Egg Noodles – and you can add the sour cream too!
• With mashed potatoes  - don’t normally do this, but if you don’t add the potatoes in the recipe, then this adds the starch to the meal.
• With rice – not my favorite way to serve, but not too bad, especially if you use wild rice.

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