Beer beef stew

Greatly excited by my friend's discovery of the Gourmet Today cookbook, I tried out its Irish beer beef stew recipe.

Recipe: Guinness beef stew (for 4)

Ingredients:
- 2-3 lb beef top round steak, trimmed of fat
- 1/4 cup flour
- 1 tp salt
- 2 tp pepper
- 2-4 TB oil
- 1-2 TB worcestershire sauce
- 2-3 TB catchup
- 1 small onion, chopped
- 1 tp dried thyme
- 1 tp garlic powder

- 1 cup beef stock

- 6-8 oz Guinness

Procedure:

1. Cut beef into 1" cubes. Pad dry.

2. Mix flour salt and pepper thoroughly in a bowl.

3. Roll each dried beef cube in the flour mixture to coat lightly. Set aside in a bowl.

4. Heat 2-3 TB oil in a heavy non-stick pan on med-high heat.

5. Brown the beef cubes in 2-3 batches. Brown each side lightly. Turn each side of the beef when it is lightly browned and detached from pan. 

6. Set the browned beef aside in a bowl.

7. Clean pan in water. Then heat 1 TB oil. Add chopped onion and cook on med-high heat. After 2 minutes, add 1 TB water or beef stock. Cook until soft. About 5 minutes. Then add worcestershire sauce and catchup. Cook for another 1 minute.

8. Add in the beef, along with any liquid in the bowl.

9. Add Guiness, beef stock, thyme and garlic powder. Stir. When the liquid starts to boil, transfer to a medium pan. Make sure that the liquid is enough to cover almost all the beef.

10. Cover pan with lid, and let stew cook on lowest heat setting. Allow the liquid to bubble very gently. At least 1 hour.

11. To serve, scoop out the amount of beef to be serve. Then place liquid in a small sauce pan. Stir in 2 TB flour. Heat on medium setting. Stir and remove fine lumps. Cook until the liquid thickens. Add in the beef. Stir and serve right away.

Results:

2:39pm, dusting beef cubes:

2:49pm, to brown beef cubes:

3:18pm, lightly browned beef cubes:

3:19pm, onion softening in pan:

3:23pm, beef added to onion cooked with worcestershire sauce and catchup:

3:26pm, beer and beef stock added:

7:29pm, to serve half the beef stew thickened with 2 TB flour:

Observations:

1. The beef cooked this way is very tender, but not falling apart.

2. The pepper flavor may be a little too strong in this experiment.

3. Hubby likes this dish. But he prefers my regular way of cooking it because of the rich taste of Guinness. He notices some flavor in this recipe that is not in mine. I guess it's probably the thyme. I like both.