French Friday Food.....

Recipe and photo from here

For those of you on the ball, you may have thought that I made an error in the title of this post as I have reversed the words Friday and Food so instead of French Food Friday you get French Friday Food.

There is a reason as this weeks recipe is not French but it is a recipe that I served for lunch on Sunday and everyone (all were French) loved it......I took a huge risk as Guinness is relatively unknown in country France but it went down a treat.

Note I did cheat a little and added a bit of sugar to take away the tartness of the beer.

Guinness and Beef Stew

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking times

Prep 20 mins
Cook 2 hrs - 3 hrs

Ingredients...

• 2 large onions , diced
• a few sprigs thyme
• 2 tspn sugar (optional)
• 1  clove garlic , crushed
• olive oil
• 1kg braising steak , cut into chunks
• 6 tbsp plain flour , well seasoned
• 500ml Guinness
• beef stock fresh, cube or concentrate made up to 250ml
• parsley chopped, to serve 

1. Cook the onions, thyme and garlic with a little olive oil in a large casserole until the onion is softened and translucent. I added the sugar after I had cooked the onions and then cooked for a minute but you could simply stire in teh sugar to the gravy mixture in the next step and it would have the same affect.
2. Dust the braising steak in the seasoned flour and brown in a hot pan with a little oil.
3. When the beef has a good, even colour, add it to the pan with the onions and pour in the Guinness. Top up with the stock to just cover the beef.
4. Cover and simmer over a very low heat or transfer to a 150C/fan 130C/gas 3 oven for 3-4 hours until the beef is meltingly tender (check after 3 hours). Season to taste and add some chopped parsley. I served with with celeriac and potato mash.

..bon appetit à tous, Leeann x