Beef & Guinness Stew with a difference

Winter started here in Oz on 1 June and I for one was very pleased to see the onslaught of cooler weather. If only because it heralds the season where I can make stews and cbutteroles & curries to my heart's content! So..... given that I now always roast my capsicums and garlic (and sometimes even onions) as a precursor to the making of bolognaise, I decided to replicate this process for my first stew of the season. Once the capsicums & garlic were well roasted there were plentiful juices from both still in the baking dish and I decided to add my diced topside steak to the dish and ... gads... what a novel idea... bake the diced steak in the still hot (and on) oven! All I can say is that the diced steak was the most tender, succulent and moreish addition to any stew I have made in the last 29 years! This is definitely a method I absolutely will be continuing for the (hopefully) next 29 years.

Preheat oven to 180DegC. Place 6 large capsicum (bell peppers) into baking pan, together with 2 or 3 heads of garlic. (Yep, I know it seems a lot, but once they are baked they are very, very mellow...and so, so very delicious!) Drizzle with evoo, thoroughly coating skins of both garlic and capsicums and bake for around 40 minutes. Turn at least once to promote even cooking. Once cooked, remove capsicums and place in freezer bags and tie off - this aids in the eventual removal of non-digestible skin). Squeeze garlic from husks and mash. Once the capsicums have cooled sufficiently to handle, deseed and slice or dice - your choice. In same (hot) pan add cubed/diced beef steak. Season with freshly ground black pepper and toss through the capsicum juices/oil. Return baking dish to oven and cook for around 30 minutes, tossing meat once or twice during this time (saves on standing over cook top browning meat in a cbutterole!!) Into large, heavy based (preferably Le Crueset) dutch oven/cbutterole, add 2 Tblsp olive oil and saute 4 large, finely sliced brown onions. Add the mashed garlic and add 1 Tblsp tomato paste. Fry for one minute. Add 1Litre beef stock, or ¸ & ¸ of beef stock & pbuttata (tomato puree) then add the roasted beef. Stir well and add 1 large can of Guinness - secret ingredient! can substitute plain old lager/beer, but the Guinness gives it a lovely dark, rich gravy! - then add the beef and stir well. Add capsicums. Add freshly chopped herbs of choice (around 1 Tblsp. all up - I use rosemary, marjoram, oregano, parsley & bay) Simmer for at least one hour - preferably two. This will be much nicer day two (or three, if it lasts that long!) Serve with boiled then mashed potatoes (boiled with a couple of cloves of garlic, then smashed and add 1 whole egg - gives a lovely creamy texture to the mash & the heat of the spuds cooks the egg) and whatever veg you like. Main serving accompaniment is thickly sliced crust bread with lashings of fresh REAL butter! Sometimes I add chopped potato, sweet potato, frozen peas, turnips, pasnips, swedes, pumpkin to the stew at intervals so that all veg are cooked (but not stewed to obliteration) by the time the meat is cooked & tender. Other times I serve up an 'Irish Stew' - meat, onions, potato, with other veg on the side. All I can say is that the roasted meat cubes really, really were delicious - much more so than cubed/diced meat which was stir fried at the stove top and then stewed. PLUS it had the juices from the capsicum/garlic to infuse before the slow cooking process started. Family gave it a wholehearted thumbs up - and they were thoroughly smitten with my previous method!

Who said you can't teach an old dog new tricks? hehehe

LadyJane -- "Never trust a skinny cook!"