Beef and Guinness Stew

(sorry for the horrible picture)

This stew is amazing.  Let me just say this:  my kids knew what the ingredients were the second time I made it and they STILL had seconds, thirds and fourths (this is shocking considering my non vegetable eating children).  After I made it the first time, everyone from the husband on down to the littlest kiddlet begged me to make it again in less than a week.  The only problem I had with the ingredients was the Guinness.  In Utah, you can't buy a single bottle of beer (at least anywhere that I know of) and I'm just way too cheap to buy a whole pack of beer to use one in a stew.  Although, if my family had their way I would make this stew once a week and then we would make short work of the beer in a month in a half.  But I would feel really weird keeping the beer in my refrigerator for that long.  What if a nosy neighbor peeked in there and saw it and didn't believe me that it was for stew?  I'd like to think that I wouldn't care what anyone thought if that happened, but it's probably not worth the drama.  So anyway, I just used beef broth instead of the Guinness.  Oh, and the first time I made it, when the kids were eating it and asking me what the different white things were, I totally lied and told them that the parsnips were white carrots and the turnips were potatoes.  After they fell in love with it, I confessed to them the real identities and everyone was cool with it.

Beef and Guinness Stew

Recipe modified from Cooking Light

Ingredients:

2 tbsp. canola oil

1 tbsp. butter, divided

1/4 cup flour

2 lb. boneless chuck roast, cut into 1 inch cubes

1 tsp. salt, divided

5 cups chopped onions (obviously Kathee The Onion Hater did no such thing)

1 tbsp. tomato paste

4 cups beef broth

1 (11.2 oz.) bottle Guinness Draught (I just used more beef broth)

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1 1/2 cups diagonal slices carrot

1 1/2 cups diagonal slices parsnip

1 cup cubed peeled turnip

2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh parsley

Directions:

Heat 1 tbsp. oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add 1 1/2 tsp. butter to pan.  Place flour in a shallow dish.  Sprinkle beef with 1/2 tsp. salt; dredge beef in flour.  Add half of beef to pan; cook 5 minutes, turning to brown all sides.  Remove beef from pan with a slotted spoon.  Repeat procedure with remaining 1 tbsp. oil, 1 1 /2 tsp. butter and beef.  Add onion to pan, cook 5 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.  Stir in tomato paste; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently.  Stir in broth and beer, scraping pan to loosen browned bits.  Return meat to pan.  Stir in remaining 1/2 tsp. salt (or you could go crazy like me and put more salt than that, sheesh, Cooking Light!!) and pepper; bring to a boil.  Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.  Uncover and bring to a boil.  Cook 50 minutes uncovered, stirring occasionally.  (This is a good time to start cutting up your vegetables.)  Add carrot, parsnip and turnip (I threw a potato in too once).  Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Uncover and bring to a boil; cook 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender.  Sprinkle with parsley.