Beef and Guinness Stew

Winter struck, snow in some parts of WA, which, for here, is the equivalent of raining frogs in novelty. Cold so a stew made sense before BBQ season hit.

First things, a kilo of chuck steak , diced and popped in a casserole dish in the oven at 200C to seal the outsides. Half an hour was too long, so maybe 15.

Meanwhile, fry a couple of chopped onions and, before they're too fried, mix in a tablespoon of brown sugar and a tablespoon of mustard. I used grainy mustard which left lots of tasty orbs floating around in the gravy. Kept stirring until caramelised.

Then, in went 500ml of beef stock and 500ml of guiness. 500ml of Guinness is too much for one draught can so the remaining 340ml can be put to good use. Additionally it's better value to buy a four pack. Bring to a boil and then reduce to desired thickness.

Once that was done, in went the beef, rosemary and thyme, and a glass of red. I also added a couple of handfulls of mushrooms and a couple of diced spuds to counteract the inauthenticity of the mushrooms. Hate to upset anybody. The starch of the spuds acts as a thickener as well.

The plan was to let it simmer in the pot and drink until overcome by hunger. This took about two hours, by which time the budget beef was as tender as you could want. It was fun to just stick my head in the pot and breath in the aroma, it would have made for an interesting sauna and the smell stayed around until the next morning.

Served with New Norcia sourdough. It was facking marvellous - the flavour doesn't hit at first but accumulates and then all the stew was gone. How sad.