Dan's Guinness & Red Wine Beef Stew

This time of year is the best for soups, stews and chowders. We recently had our annual autumn open house, and I threw this Guinness and red wine stew together for friends to enjoy. Since several of you have asked me for this recipe, I finally wrote it out. I typically just throw things together when I cook, but this pretty much follows what I did, when I made my last batch of this a few weeks back. Enjoy!

Dan's Guinness & Red Wine Beef Stew

2 pounds stew beef, preferably sirloin
3 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons tomato puree/paste, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
1 1/4 cups Guinness
1/2 cup red wine
1 Qt Beef Stock
2 cups largely diced carrots
3 Sage leaves
Fresh thyme
Fresh parsley and green onion, for garnish

Trim the meat of any fat or gristle, and cut into 2-inch cubes. Toss beef with 1 tablespoon of the oil. In a small bowl, season the flour with salt, pepper and cayenne. Toss meat with seasoned flour. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in a large skillet over high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Reduce the heat, add the onions, crushed garlic and tomato puree to the skillet, cover, and cook gently for 5 minutes. Transfer the contents of the skillet to a dutch oven and pour half of the Guinness into the skillet. Bring Guinness to a boil and stir to dissolve the caramelized meat juices on the pan. Pour over the meat, along with the remaining Guinness. Add the carrots and thyme. Stir and adjust seasonings. Cover the dutch oven and simmer over low heat, or in a 300 degree oven until the meat is tender, 2 to 3 hours. Garnish the beef with parsley and serve.

Alternatively, after meat is seared off, you can put all the remaining ingredients into a large crock pot and cook on low all day, 8-10 hours, or until vegetables are tender.

May need to adjust thickness of stew with flour and beef stock slurry.