a couple weeks ago, lena showed me the food blog awards at wellfed.net and then we seriously spent like two hours looking at delicious food and finding good food blogs. the one i fell most in love with was simply recipes, which won for best food blog overall. this site is updated almost daily with recipes elise makes, and there are good photos to go along with them. the recipes are also mostly very simple but delicious looking. some other food blogs i found had gorgeous pictures and food, but i can’t see myself making such fancy things.
also, now that i subscribe to ten food blogs, i want to say that i love google reader.
the first recipe i tried from elise’s site is the irish beef stew. i had 2.5 pounds of beef stew in the freezer that i was going to use for chili, but then i discovered vegetarian chili, and now i’m too lazy to make meat chili.
irish beef stew
(from simply recipes)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/4 pounds stew beef, cut into 1-inch pieces
6 large garlic cloves, minced
6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
I cup of Guinness beer
1 cup of fine red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
1 large onion, chopped
2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots
Salt and Pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add beef and sauté until brown on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add beef stock, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
2 While the meet and stock is simmering, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes.
3 Add vegetables to beef stew. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and beef are very tender, about 40 minutes. Discard bay leaves. Tilt pan and spoon off fat. Transfer stew to serving bowl. Sprinkle with parsley and serve. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Salt and pepper to taste. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)
Serves 4 to 6.
comments: this was a tasty and easy stew to make. i used some california red wine i found at ralphs, and i used foster’s beer instead of guiness. i didn’t want to buy a whole 6-pack of guiness, so i paced around the beer section a long time trying to figure out which other beer would be a good substitute. that was kind of useless though since i don’t have any idea how all the beers compare in taste. so i finally decided to do the asian thing and buy the cheapest one. the foster’s seemed to work just fine, and the stew had some really nice flavors. after i made it, i still had a lot of liquid though, so i took out most of the liquid and cooked that down for a little while, and also spooned off more of the oil. i also added celery and turnips, and used red potatoes instead of russets because i like them, and they were pretty cheap. i used more meat too, but i had A LOT of potatoes and veggies, so it was still pretty well-balanced. conclusion: this stew is great.
