1000 pizza doughs: Winter Beef Stew with Beer Bread

Like many people I resolved to exercise more this year, albeit in a roundabout way. I will be racing in my first half-Ironman triathlon this May, so to get ready for this (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, 13.1 mile run), I am going to have to exercise. A lot. In the dead of winter. (This is where I always say to myself "What was I thinking?")

An inevitable side effect of all this working out--and the reason I actually gain weight while training for endurance races--is that I am incessantly ravenously hungry.

This beef stew and bread combo was a great after a slow but long-ish run at about 26 degrees yesterday. The first part of the recipe to the point where you get everything in the pot together takes about an hour; after that you can just let it simmer for a few hours until you're ready to eat.

Beef Stew with Caramelized Onions and Amber Lager

recipe from Tori Ritchie, Cabin Cooking, Time Life Books 1998, via Food Network

1/4 cup (2 fluid ounces/60 milliliters) vegetable oil
2 1/2 pounds (1.25 kilogram) beef stew meat, preferably chuck, cut into 1-inch (2.5 centimeter) chunks
1 1/2 pound (750 grams) yellow onions, sliced
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
2 teaspoons sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose (plain) flour
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 carrots, sliced
1 bottle (12 fluid ounces/375 milliliters) good-quality amber lager or pale ale
1 cup (8 fluid ounces/250 milliliters) beef or chicken broth
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Salt and ground pepper
Cooked whole grains, like brown rice or barley, for serving (my addition)

In a large, heavy pot, warm the oil over high heat until hot but not smoking. Working in batches, brown the meat well on all sides, 5 to 7 minutes. Adjust the heat as necessary to keep the meat from scorching. Transfer the browned meat to a plate and repeat until all the meat is browned.

Add the onions and butter to the pot and stir over high heat until the onions start to soften, about 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium and sprinkle in the sugar. Continue to cook the onions, stirring occasionally, until golden brown, about 15 minutes. Add the flour, thyme and carrots and raise the heat to high. Stir for 1 minute, then pour in the lager or ale, letting it come to a vigorous boil. Stir in the broth and tomato paste and return to a boil.

Return the meat and any accumulated juices on the plate to the pot, let the liquid come just to a boil, then reduce the heat to low, cover, and simmer until the meat is tender when pierced and the sauce is slightly thickened, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve on warmed individual plates.

***

Here are some step-by-step photos. First, brown the beef. You can use a lot less than the original recipe requires -- just add more carrots, and maybe some potatoes (add cubed, uncooked potatoes in the last hour that you simmmer) to make up the difference. I used about a pound of beef cubes from Hedgeapple Farm.

As I side note, this is probably my favorite pot ever. It's a mid-sized heavy gauge stock pot (about 8 quarts, I think), and I use it about once a day.

While you're browning the beef, chop the onions and carrots. I always use more carrots than required, and sometimes more onions too. This is about 4 mid-sized onions.

The slices don't need to be perfect. The onions sort of melt away as the stew cooks, and I think the uneven carrot slices add charm to this rustic dish.

After all the beef is browned and set aside, add the onions and butter to the pot. (Don't clean the pot -- you want the flavor from the beef bits to stay in there.)

Cook on high for 5 minutes, then add sugar and reduce heat to medium. Cook another 15 minutes or so, until nice and brown.

Then add the flour, thyme and carrots, and cook on high for 1 minute. Then add a bottle of beer. (I like pale ale, and generally use Sierra Nevada or Flying Dog, but if you're not so hop-happy, amber lager would be good too.)

Once the beer comes to a boil, add the stock and tomato paste. (Another side note: I LOVE tomato paste in a tube. Since I rarely need a whole can, buying it in the tube keeps the waste to a minimum, so I think it's worth the higher price. In Frederick you can buy it at Juliet's Italian Market & Cafe. My supermarket has it sometimes too.)

Then let everything simmer over really low heat, covered, for at least an hour or two, but longer if you wish. With shorter cooking times, I've found that sometimes the beef doesn't get as tender as I would like, so I start cooking mine at lunch time for that day's dinner on weekends, when I'm going to be home all afternoon. You could probably put it in a crock pot at this point if you needed to leave for a while, but I haven't tried that.

I served this over barley, with a new (for me) bread recipe from King Arthur Flour's Whole Grain Baking: Micro-Brewery Honey-Wheat Bread. I can't find the bread recipe online. Instead of the amber lager it called for, I used the same pale ale I used for the beef stew. It turned out pretty well, and was good as toast for breakfast too. The book recommended letting the bread machine knead the dough (on the dough cycle), then putting it in a loaf pan in the oven to finish rising and bake. This worked well, and was really easy, so I'll be trying it with other bread recipes now.

[Looks like I need some new cutting boards... I got several of these at Ikea years ago for $1 each, and now they don't make the thicker ones I like any more.]

Serving suggestion: enjoy the beef stew with bread warm from the oven, and a nice cold pale ale.