“GuinnessⓇ: The drink of football lovers thanks to intensive World Cup advertising

Not Gulder: The drink of cultists and armed robbers in nollywood films.“

-A wise man, (2019)

Or Legend: sigh.

And no, you won’t get drunk by eating or making this Stew.

Well, only if you take large swigs of the GuinnessⓇ into your mouth and not into the pot. Or if you had a Beef stew on the side and took a gulp of GuinnessⓇ with every forkful, maybe it would fall into the same category as a GuinnessⓇ and beef stew.

When I saw this recipe, I was shocked and thrilled because the concept of cooking with alcohol has always intrigued me. When I saw just how simple and straightforward this recipe was, I knew I had to try it, and now, you have to try it as well.

This uses the same method as many other stews, apart from what my darling Nigerian brothers and sisters call stew. Which involves browned meat that has been left to simmer in a broth of stock, spices, Tomato Paste, vegetables, and in this case, a bottle of GuinnessⓇ foreign extra until fork tender which normally is about 2 to 2½ hours on medium-low heat in a stew pot or Dutch oven.

I didn’t have any sprigs of fresh thyme because my plug (wink) could not get any for me. So, feel free to use some dried thyme and other spices that you love.

The beer and meat are left to simmer for a very long period of time. This would allow the alcohol to be cooked off, and sauce to be left with the rich malty flavour of the beer and no alcohol. Sorry guys *wink*. Some recipes put potatoes into this along with the carrots, celery and beef, but I decided not to, mainly because I wanted to eat this with some white rice later on, and I forgot to get potatoes from the market.

After two hours, my stew was nice and brown, and my house smelled so delicious

RECIPE

Beef X GuinnessⓇ Stew

Preparation

1. Melt four tablespoons of butter in a skillet or frying pan.
2. Season the beef with salt and pepper.
3. Toss the seasoned meat into the pan and brown on all sides. Brown, not charr. Once browned, remove from the pan and set aside. During the browning, there would be a light coating of fragrant meat juices and fat lining the bottom of the pan. This is normal.
4. Transfer the browned meat into a stew pot or Dutch oven or heavy bottomed saucepan with a lid.
5. Stir the onions and garlic into the retained fat and cook until the onions are transparent and the garlic releases its fragrance.
6. Pour in the beer and keep stirring until the bottom coating of the pan comes off. This should take less than five minutes.
7. Pour the cooking liquid from the pan into the pot containing the browned meat.
8. Stir in tomato paste, thyme sprigs, carrots, sugar, black pepper, potatoes and enough beef broth to cover.
9. Bring stew to a gentle simmer, reduce heat to low and cover. Allow to simmer until beef is fork tender, which is about two hours. Stir occasionally.
10. Remove the lid from the pot and raise the heat to medium-high. Remove and discard the thyme sprigs (if you removed any). Leave to simmer until the stew thicken
11. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.
12. Ladle into a bowl and eat nice and warm.

Tip

If you like your carrots crunchy, put them in as soon as the stew is done. Mine became so soft and mushy that they’re a part of the sauce.

Love, 

The Ultimate Cheapito.