A stew is literally a combination of solid ingredients cooked in a liquid base. You might be thinking "why are you explaining this to us"?
Well...in Italy we do not eat stews a lot. As a matter of fact we really are some sort os SEASONAL EATERS therefore we eat something like a stew or a soup mainly in winter times... And having so many great options for hot dishes in italy ( as lasagna, cannelloni for example) I think we left stews a bit behind our top favourite dishes!
(It is not strictly related but being us SEASONAL EATERS we do not eat gelato in winter. Gelato places in winter in italy are usually closed... so this is why we are looking at you weirdly when you go for a ice cream dessert in December!)
It italian, "stufato" is the translation of STEW. But still is not the same as a stew in the U.K.! We have then "brasato" that is a similar version with the meat cooked in red wine, and then we have "bollito " that litterally means "boiled meat".... As you can spot from the name...is not very appealing and usally our mums will make it when we are sick!🤒
All this above regression is to say that I found this quite of a shame that a dish so delicious as a stew is not very eated in a place who loves food so much as Italy!
This is a short story of how an italian, that does not eat meat that much as I do not fancy it too much, fell in love with this dish here in the UK and it is one of my favourite meat dish when it comes to beef!
The combination of beer and meat is just amazing! So this is me, trying shyly to make my version of a beef ale stew to try and re-do at home something that I only tasted in british restaurants and pubs!
Doses for 4 portions
INGREDIENTS
- 400g diced beef meat
- plain flour
- half lemon juice
- 2 carrots
- 1bayleaf
- 2 potatoes
-1 red onion
-2 table spoon of oil
- 400mls of vegetable broth
- 1 guinnes can ( golden ale)
- 1 glass of tomato sauce
PROCEDURE
So first of all if you have time to spare, the full cooking time will be already 2 hours so I am sure at this point you can spare another 30 minutes), put the meat in a bowl with some lemon juice and let it rest 30 minutes in the fridge.
In the mean time you can start chopping the vegetables. Cut down the onion and put it in a pan with 2 spoons of olive oil ( or just vegetable oil) until goldened.
Once is goldened add the carrot sliced, then the potatoes and a bay leaf.
Take the meat now, and add flour to cover all sides of the meat dices. Then in another pan add a spoon of oil and golden the meat.
Now add the meat ( and therefore all the juice that it has been released ) to the vegetables, and then add the guinnes ( all of it! yeah!)
Let it cook for approximately 5 minutes with a high flame.
Then reduce it down and add 400 mls vegetable broth, 1 glass of tomato sauce. Reduce the hob temperature down to the minimum, now cover with a lid and let it cook for approximately 2 hours ( 1 minimum at least), just stirring every now and then to make sure it does not stick to the bottom of the pot.
You will see the broth getting thicker and thicker every time you will go to stir it and that is just what it is meant to happen so.... GREAT JOB!
After 2 hours it should be ready to be tasted and enjoyed!
Your stew is ready!
ENJOY!
SUGGESTIONS
Do you want to make it into a cornish pasty? Full recipe of how to do it coming out by the end of this week! We will keep you posted on our instagram page!
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