guinness beef stew with potatoes

not a bad way to spend a lazy cold weekend when you want the oven on all day. this soup is everything you are picturing – rich, hearty, and dark. it’s the only meaty dish dark enough to rival my vegan chipotle chocolate chili.

 

1 cup homemade chicken stock
1-3 lbs. boneless beef chuck roast, or any stew beef cut into smallish stew-y bits
3 large carrots, one just cut in half, and 2 cut into large dice
2 parsnips, one just cut in half, and one cut into large dice
8 oz – 1 lb small, waxy potatoes
4 peeled medium onions, 2 cut in half, and 2 cut into large dice
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 oz bittersweet chocolate (about a small handful)
2 bottles or cans of dark, rich beer, like a stout or porter
sprigs of fresh thyme, parsley, and bay leaf (optional)
1 T fish sauce
1 T worcestershire sauce
1 T soy sauce
handful of flour
neutral veg oil, like canola
salt and pepper

preheat oven to 275. heat a dutch oven over medium-high heat on the stovetop, with a T or two of veg oil. wait til it’s hot. brown meat over a medium-high flame, about 10 min, turning regularly.

remove meat. add just the halved carrot, onion, and parsnip, along with garlic, and brown 4 min or so.

lower heat and add stock, beer, fish sauce, soy sauce, worcestershire, and herbs.

cut meat into stew-sized pieces and roll in flour. add to dutch oven, and bake the whole thing partially covered for 30 minutes. then stir, and bake for another 30 minutes.

then add potatoes and bake for another 30 minutes.

on the stovetop, saute the diced carrots, parsnips, and onions. skim any fat on top of the stew, and remove the herbs and the halved vegetables. add diced sauteed veggies to the stew and cook for an additional 45 minutes, or until everything is tender. the lid can be removed for the last 20 minutes.

garnish with parsley, or with sour cream, or hot sauce and tons of crusty bread.

 

+

recipe by serious eats: serious eats guinness beef stew & adapted by sig at friedsig

+

good, solid stew recipe, but boring enough that i got tired of it before it was gone. good for a “meat and potatoes” kind of person, but there was nothing super exciting about it to me, so i gave the rest to someone (who liked it a lot). maybe it needs something sour to cut the heartiness a little? it smelled great as it was cooking, though, and was really not bad at all.

irish oatmeal soda bread

this completes a trinity of irish soda breads.

between this irish oatmeal soda bread, this savory rosemary soda bread, and this sweet soda bread with raisins, you can please anyone.

this one’s right in the middle. it’s by far the most neutral of the three. it doesn’t have as much of the characteristic “irish soda bread” flavor as the other two. it’s just a good quick bread to whip up and occupy the second rack when you’re roasting vegetables or meat.

& since it’s a soda bread, you don’t need yeast, and you don’t have to wait for anything to rise. just mix the ingredients with your hands, and plop it on a cookie sheet. super easy. my housemate really liked this one, but i thought it was too dense. i just wonder if 375 is the right temp for my oven – the crumb came out doughy and glutinous. or did i overmix it? or does it need more baking soda? it calls for a third of the baking soda of the rosemary brown butter bread. any suggestions?

 

+
4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup old fashioned oats {plus more for sprinkling}
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp baking soda
4 tbsp cold butter, cut into small chunks
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ¾ cups well-shaken buttermilk or homemade kefir
1 egg, lightly beaten

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, sugar and salt. Cut the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingers until no more large clumps exist.
Combine the lightly beaten egg with the buttermilk. Pour into dry ingredients and mix. Dough will be wet!
Using wet hands, form a large shaggy ball of dough and place on a parchment paper lined sheet tray. Cut an “x” in the center of the loaf with a knife and sprinkle oats on top.
Bake for 50 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool for 10 minutes before slicing.

+

from pbs

irish soda bread

This adaptation of Rosie’s Irish soda bread is perfect for a snow day. Much faster than a yeast bread – no waiting for it to rise!

+

3 1⁄2 cups flour
1/4 – 1⁄2 cup sugar (optional; only use if you want this to be a dessert)
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 cups of sour cream, plain kefir or yogurt, buttermilk, or anything that’s creamy and tangy
2 eggs
1 tablespoon caraway seeds (optional)
3⁄4 cup raisins

preheat oven to 350.

mix flour, sugar, baking soda and powder, and salt in a large mixing bowl.

separately, in another bowl, mix eggs and sour cream/kefir/etc.

combine both, and knead with caraway seeds and raisins.

dough will be so sticky you’ll think you did something wrong.

transfer dough into a dutch oven, a springform pan, a 9″ round casserole dish, or if all else fails, a cookie sheet. (i did, and it flattened out a bit in the oven but was still delicious!)

flour your hands and pat top (and sides, if on a cookie sheet) of loaf until it is no longer sticky.

bake for ~55 minutes

+

adapted from rosie’s irish soda bread

+

The combination of caraway seeds and raisins is surprisingly amazing. This is so fast and painless for bread, and a great way to use the endless sour kefir that is always in my fridge! The recipe called for 1/2 c sugar, but I wouldn’t use that much again. It was way too sweet for me. Wonderful recipe otherwise! It’s dense and satisfying.

brown butter soda bread

brown butter soda bread

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup old-fashioned oats
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary plus more for topping
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon ground black pepper plus additional for topping
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (or kefir, or probably yogurt watered down with a little milk)

1 egg white, beaten to blend

Make sure your rack is in the middle of the oven and preheat it to 375F
Melt butter in a small sauce pan over medium heat and swirl it around until it turns golden brown (about 2-3 minutes) and remove it from the heat.

Put the flour, oats, sugar, rosemary, baking powder, baking soda, salt and a few grinds of black pepper (I didn’t measure) in a large bowl and mix well with a whisk. Pour the buttermilk and the melted butter on top and stir it together until the flour is moistened – don’t over stir. The recipe calls for using a fork but I used a silicone spatula and it worked really well.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead very gently until it feels likes it all mixed together – I did exactly 7 turns as instructed. Divide that in half, shape each half into a ball and flatten it. I put them on a parchment lined baking pan with lots of room in between them. Brush the tops with the egg white and sprinkle with a couple more grinds of black pepper and some more chopped rosemary. Using a knife, cut a deep X into the top of each round.

Bake until deep golden brown and a tester comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool on racks for another 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temp.

+

recipe found here

+

 

edit 1/2016.

delicious! heavy rosemary flavor. dense like a beer bread. used steel-cut oats because that’s what we had. chewy but great. old-fashioned oats would make the bread much, much lighter. 2 of us devoured the 2 loaves of bread in just under 24 hours.

this is so different from sweet irish soda bread with raisins and caraway seeds and yet, exactly the same. this is a great excuse to kick your oven on when it’s below freezing outside.