Ox stew with beer (in a traditional pot and in a quick cooker)

Whether with beef or cow meat, this Guinness beer stew or Irish stew is a traditional recipe and one with which you will be fabled at family meals. The intense flavor of the beer brings a delicious flavor to these dishes!

Its preparation is simple, and it is only the cooking that will take time after a few simple steps. Let the chup chup do its job!

Below I bring you 2 ways to prepare it :

• Traditional pot stew or cocotte
• Slow cooker stew

You can cook this traditional pot stew on the stove throughout its entire process, or leave it in the oven. What is recommended, however you prepare it, is that you let it rest for a while, to settle flavors.

You will see that it is a very grateful recipe: you have very few work steps and a fabulous result.

Stainless Steel Affinity Casserole from De Buyer

Ingredients

• 1.5 kg of beef (ox, you can also use cow or veal)
• 1 marrow bone
• 25g butter
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 100g of flour
• 1 medium or large onion
• 3 or 4 carrots
• 1 leek
• 200 g of fresh peas (or already defrosted)
• 500ml Guinness beer
• 1 L of chicken broth
• 4 bay leaves
• some parsley leaves
• 1 tsp ginger
• 1 tsp ground paprika
• Salt
• Pepper

Preparation

1) Preparation of the stew in a traditional pot

1. Prepare all the ingredients:

• Cut the meat into large cubes, apply salt and pepper. Pass the meat through flour, removing the excess, and reserve.
• Peel the onion and chop it small.
• Peel the carrots and cut them into slices.
• Clean the leek, remove the green part and cut the white part into thin slices (2 mm thick).

1. Put a roaster, cocotte or a steel saucepan (we used De Buyer's Affinity ) over medium heat.
2. Add and melt the 25 g of butter along with 3 tablespoons of oil.
3. When it is melted, add the meat that you have prepared in cubes and brown it.
4. Add and brown the marrow bone in the same casserole as well.
5. When you see the meat being browned, remove it to a plate or tray and set aside (do it when it has taken on a little color, but not too much, we just want to seal it to preserve the juice and flavor, but it will cook later, during the stew).
6. In the same pot and in the same juices, add the chopped onion and brown it over low heat. If you see that there is little oil, you can add one more tablespoon.
7. When the onion is transparent, add the carrot slices, and apply a little salt.
8. Sauté for 2 or 3 minutes and add the half liter of black beer (Guinness beer). We want to deglaze the preparation*. To do this, bring the beer to a boil.
9. As the beer warms up, scrape the bottom of the pan well with a wooden spatula to recover any cooking juices from the meat that had stuck to the bottom.
10. When the beer is already reducing and the sauce begins to concentrate, add the spices (the bay leaves and 2 sprigs of parsley), and also add a third of the chicken broth.
11. Now return the reserved meat to the casserole.
12. Add the cut leek at the same time.
13. Salt pepper, adding with your fingers and eye salt and pepper in the liquid, distributing it throughout the casserole. Also add a pinch of ginger (optional) and half a teaspoon of paprika.
14. Let cook on the fire, covered, for 1h30 to 2h**. During cooking, keep stirring the meat and you should add broth regularly when you see that the broth in the casserole is reducing and thickening. In the end, you must have added everything and it has to be reduced.
15. While the stew is being made, in a separate saucepan, boil the peas in salted water. When they start to be tender, remove, strain and set aside (about 20 min. of cooking).
16. In the last stage of cooking the stew, add the peas to the casserole. If you have left them not very tender, add them half an hour before finishing the stew; if you have cooked them well, add them the last 10 minutes before finishing.
17. When the stew has reduced the cooking liquid and the meat is done and tender, turn off the heat.
18. You can serve it the same day, but like any stew it will be ideal if you let the flavors settle until the next day, keeping it in the fridge -I assure you that you will notice the difference if you have a few hours of patience!

2) Preparation of the stew in a quick cooker:

1. Prepare all the ingredients:

• Cut the meat into large cubes, apply salt and pepper. Pass the meat through flour, removing the excess, and reserve.
• Peel the onion and chop it small.
• Peel the carrots and cut them into slices.
• Clean the leek, remove the green part and cut the white part into thin slices (2 mm thick).

1. Put the body of the 6.5L pressure cooker on the heat, at medium intensity, and add and melt the 25 g of butter along with 3 tablespoons of oil.
2. When it is melted, add the meat that you have prepared in cubes and brown it. Add and brown the marrow bone in the same pot as well.
3. When you see the meat being browned, remove it to a plate or tray and set aside (do it when it has taken on a little color, but not too much, we just want to seal it to preserve the juice and flavor, but it will cook later, during the stew).
4. In the same bottom of the pot and in the same juices, add the chopped onion and brown it over low heat. If you see that there is little oil, you can add one more tablespoon.
5. When the onion begins to change color, add the carrot slices, and apply a little salt.
6. Sauté for 2 or 3 minutes and add the half liter of black beer (Guinness beer). We want to deglaze the preparation*. To do this, bring the beer to a boil (still without covering the pot).
7. As the beer warms up, scrape the bottom of the pan well with a wooden spatula to recover any cooking juices from the meat that had stuck to the bottom.
8. When the beer is already reducing and the sauce begins to concentrate, add the spices (the bay leaves and 2 sprigs of parsley), and add a third of the chicken broth.
9. Now return the reserved meat to the casserole.
10. Add the cut leek at the same time.
11. Salt pepper, adding with your fingers (by eye) salt and pepper in the broth, distributing it throughout the liquid. Add a pinch of ginger (optional) and half a teaspoon of paprika.
12. Add the rest of the chicken broth to the pot (reserve a finger of broth in a separate glass), and close the pressure cooker with its lid (close the pot latch so that it gains pressure), and cook over medium heat. When the pressure indicator ring comes out, lower the heat to a minimum and cook for 45 minutes.
13. While the stew is being made, in a separate saucepan, boil the peas in salted water. When they start to be tender, remove, strain and set aside (about 20 min. of cooking).
14. After 45 minutes of cooking, stop the heat and let it lose pressure. When you can open the pot, add the finger of broth that you had reserved, add the cooked peas, turn the heat back on and mix with a spoon to distribute the peas. For the fire, you already have it ready!
15. You can serve it the same day, but like any stew it will be ideal if you let the flavors settle until the next day, keeping it in the fridge -I assure you that you will notice the difference if you have a few hours of patience!

Grades

• * Deglazing is a cooking technique that consists of adding a liquid to a container (in this case the casserole, it could be a frying pan or the bottom of a pressure cooker, cocotte, etc.), in which meat, fish has been cooked or vegetable. What you want is to recover the juices that have stuck to the bottom of the container. Thus, a sauce is obtained that concentrates all the flavor and aroma of the food that has been cooked (in our case, the flavor of the previously browned meat, and the sautéed onion and carrot).
• **Instead of making the stew on the fire, you can also cook it in the oven at 160ºC.
• You could also add the peas to the stew and make them with the broth, but depending on the type of peas they require more or less time and can easily lose their shells... for all this, added to the fact that the stew is on the fire for a long time and it is difficult to know when it will be better to add them so that they are just right, it is better to cook them separately and leave them just right, and add them to the stew at the end of cooking.
• You can accompany the stew with some steamed potatoes, and you will have a most complete dish.