Easy Irish Beef Stew Recipe

When it comes to comfort food, its hard to beat a nice homemade beef stew. A really great meal to warm you up during the long cold winters, packed with goodness to help you keep healthy. There are many variations of beef stew and it can sometimes be confused with beef casserole and braised beef. Although there are only small differences between the three dishes, there are some differences in how they are prepared even though all the ingredients are similar.

Below we are going to look at a two different Irish recipes for beef stew,a traditional Irish beef stew, ideal for families and the always popular Irish Beef and Guinness Stew. You may notice that the ingredients for both are quite similar but there are subtle differences. Beef stew is an easy dish to make and it is very hard to make it wrong, you can't really make a mistake here as long as you follow the simple instructions, this is what makes it such a great comfort food, its easy to prepare, can be left to cook while you relax and tastes great.

Ingredients for Irish Beef Stew

You Will Need:

• 2 lbs stewing beef or stewing steak
•  1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 large potatoes chopped (large chunks)
• 3 large carrots, peeled and diced (roughly half the size of your potato chunks)
• 1 beef stock cube
• salt and pepper to season
• 1 tablespoon of tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon cornflour
• 2 tablespoons of cold water
• cooking oil

Method for Irish Beef Stew:

1. Chop your beef into bite sized portions and heat 1 teaspoon of cooking oil in a large frying pan.
2. Add the carrots and onion and fry lightly until the onion is soft but not brown.
3. Remove the vegetables from the pan and put aside add the chopped beef and cook until brown.
4. Remove the beef from the frying pan making sure to leave any juices in the pan and place together with the vegetables in a large pot.
5. Mix your beef stock cube with 400 ml of boiling water.
6. In a small bowl combine the cold water with the cornflour and add this mixture to the juices remaining in the pan, stirring gently all the time.  When this mixture starts to come together gradually add in around half of your beef stock.
7. Add your sauce from the pan to the pot along with the remaining stock and simmer gently.
8. Add the tomato puree and stir.
9. If you need to you can add more boiling water to ensure all the meat in the pot is covered.
10. Cover the pot and simmer on a low heat for 1 and 1/2 hours.
11. Add the potato to the pot and cook for a further 45 minutes or until all the vegetables are soft.

If you have never had this dish then you may be thinking it sounds a bit strange but Guinness, the famous black stout loved by the Irish has  had a long history with Irish Stew and while it may seem unusual the combination makes for a really spectacular dish that warms and comforts.  The addition of Guinness in this dish really tenderizes the beef and gives it a very distinctive flavor.  A really hearty meal.  

Ingredients for Beef and Guinness Stew

You will need:

• 2 lbs stewing beef or stewing steak
• 2 onions, roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree mixed with 1 tablespoon water
• 1 half pint of Guinness
• 3 carrots chopped into chunks
• salt and pepper 
• Potatoes (this recipe does not use the potatoes, use as a side serving as you choose)

Irish Beef and Guinness Stew Method:

1. Chop the beef into bite size chunks and heat the oil in a large pan.
2. Brown the meat and add the onion and tomato puree, salt and pepper. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Transfer all the ingredients from the pan to a large pot, leaving any juices behind in the pan.
4. Add about half of the Guinness to the juices in the frying pan and bring to the boil.
5. Pour the sauce from the pan and the remaining Guinness to the pot with the beef and add the carrots.
6. Make sure that there is enough liquid to cover the meat in the pot, if necessary add a little more Guinness.
7. Leave the pot to simmer gently for about 2 and 1/2 hours or until the beef is tender and serve with potatoes.