Beef Chuck Braised with Stout and Dried Cherries – from Caprial & John’s Kitchen
I’ll start right now by telling you that if you are not willing to buy the stout and the dried cherries for this recipe, don’t bother making it, find another beef stew recipe. Those two ingredients really make this stew what it is!
I’ll confess that I am NOT a fan of stout; I’ve tasted Guinness, and I’m just not that into it. Mike loves it, though. However, cooking with it is a whole ‘nother thing for me.
As for dried cherries, well, I had to stop myself from nomming on them all before it was time to put them into the dish! Next time I will buy extra, just for my personal nomming needs!
I saw the TV show on which this recipe was demonstrated, and the printed online recipe does not go into the detail that the show did. So I’ll help you out with some of that.
There is no way that this can cook in the oven for an hour, as called for, if you don’t cut the chuck into small enough pieces. By small, I mean no larger than 1 inch. I think I did mine a little smaller than that.
My usual 12-inch cast iron skillet is too small for this. My 15-inch one was large enough, but alas, it has no lid. I used my 8.5 quart Calphalon Dutch oven, it looks very similar to this one. It has not too tall sides, and enough surface room at the bottom to brown all of the meat in one fell swoop. If you use a Dutch oven with a smaller bottom surface space, you should brown the meat in batches, then add it all back before adding the onions and garlic. Just don’t use a stockpot, which has really tall sides, this will make it difficult to reduce the stout.
I used a 14.5 ounce can of *draught* Guinness. These re most often sold in 4-packs, but some places will sell you just the one can. I bought a 4-pack, Mike will drink the rest.
The recipe calls for chicken OR beef stock. I used half of each. I like the Better Than Bouillion bases, they keep forever in the fridge, and although they look expensive, there is a lot of stock in those little jars! All beef tends to be too strong. All chicken would be better than all beef, but half and half is best, I think.
One thing not mentioned in the recips is that you can thicken the finished stew with a beurre manie. This is a mixture of equal parts softened butter and flour, combined well, and whisked into the stew at the end, and cooked for a few minutes. I used two tablespoons of each here.
I also threw in a bag of frozen green beans at the end, to add some green veggie-ness to this. Peas would be good as well.
Ladle this over cooked, broad-width egg noodles, and you are good to go. Enjoy!
