Happy St. Patty's Day: Guinness Beef Stew

For St. Patty's Day, I wanted to get in the spirit and make some traditional fare. After last year's major failure at making Guinness Beef Stew, I was skeptical about recreating this dish again. However, my good friend Rachel (who's now in New Zealand) made a similar Guinness stew last year and raved about the taste and flavors. I gained the confidence and starting looking for a new recipe. The weather is just starting to warm up, but the evenings are still brisk and crisp, so I thought beef stew would be a great meal to celebrate this holiday. This stew had a deep flavor with a hint of heat from the cayenne. The meat was fork-tender- literally, it melted in my mouth. The vegetables were cooked perfectly, and the broth was amazing. My DB was raving about this dish. Make this today, you’ll have a dish that will turn your guests green with envy.

Guinness Beef Stew
Ingredients:
2 lbs beef stew meat
2 Tbsp vegetable or olive oil, divided
2 Tbsp flour
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
A few pinches of cayenne pepper

2 large onions, coarsely chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste dissolved in 4 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup red wine
1-1/4 cup Guinness Stout
1/2 tsp sugar
4 carrots, cut into 2" pieces
1 potato, cut into bite-sized chunks
Few sprigs of fresh thyme or 1/2 tsp dried thyme
2 cups beef stock
Chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Directions:
1. Toss beef with 1 Tbsp olive oil, flour, salt, pepper, and cayenne (the amount is up to you and how much heat you like).
2. Heat the other Tbsp olive oil in a 5-qt dutch oven. Add beef and brown on all sides, about 6-7 minutes. (Make sure to not over-crowd your pan or else the beef will not obtain a good sear. I cooked my beef in 4 batches.) Set aside beef on a separate plate.
3. Add garlic and onions into the dutch oven, and saute 2 minutes.
4. Add tomato paste mixture, worcestershire sauce, and red wine. Cover and let simmer 5 minutes.
5. Pour the Guinness into the dutch oven, and scrape up any brown bits and bring to a steady simmer for 5 minutes. Transfer beef to the dutch oven..
6. Add carrots, potatoes, thyme, sugar, and broth. Stir and adjust seasonings.
7. Cover and cook over medium-low heat (just at a nice simmer) for 1 hour 15 minutes, stirring every 20 minutes or so.
8. Adjust salt and pepper, and simmer partly uncovered for an additional hour. (This is when the stew will become thicker in consistency.)
9. Adjust salt and pepper and serve.

Source: Adapted from Mary Ellen's Cooking Creations