Double Chocolate Stout Beef & Lamb Stew

Beef stew is one of my favorite comfort foods. With St. Patrick's Day around the corner I decided to put a little Irish spin on this homestyle favorite by adding lamb and using stout in the sauce. Thom insisted my stew was more of a soup and thus, after a lengthy discussion betwixt mouthfuls of mashed potatoes and wiping away the juices dribbling down our chin we agreed to refer to it between ourselves as stoup.

And really, you can call it AnabanaMushPie for all I care - the end result is still delicious. Thick chunks of beef and lamb, sweet pieces of carrot and leek, earthy turnips and mushrooms, and mixing the saucy stoup gravy with the mashed potatoes!... oh, oh!... I could nosh on that all day! This stew pairs really well with either beer or red wine. We enjoyed a lovely Côtes du Rhône with ours - feel free to add a little extra wine in the sauce!

Double Chocolate Stout Beef & Lamb Stew (Stoup)
2 slices bacon, chopped
2.5lbs beef and lamb stew meat, cubed (ratio up to you. I used two-thirds beef to one-third lamb).
1 cup Young's Double Chocolate Stout
1 cup shallots, minced
1/2 cup celery, fine dice + 1 cup celery, large dice
1/2 cup carrot, fine dice + 2 cups carrot, large dice
1 cup leeks, sliced
1 cup turnips, large dice
1 pint mushrooms, sliced
1 can tomato paste
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bouquet garni with rosemary added to the bundle. 
1 quart beef stock
1/2 cup red wine ~ optional

Preheat oven to 375º F.

Prepare all ingredients ahead of time. Make sure your large dice vegetables are all approximately the same size to ensure even cooking.

Place a dutch oven on top of stove over medium heat. Cook bacon until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside to drain. Season beef and lamb cubes with salt and pepper. Sear in batches until all pieces are well browned. I keep a large bowl handy for transferring pieces while cooking. If you dump everything in at once the meat will release a lot of liquid and you'll end up boiling the meat instead of searing it.

Remove meat and sear off mushrooms. Add the finely diced shallots, carrots, and celery. Saute. Deglaze pan with the stout. Add back meat, bacon, any collected juices, and all remaining ingredients. Cover and place in oven. Bake for 90 minutes to two hours, or until vegetables are tender. The turnips will take the longest. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Remove bouquet garni before serving.

Now, I love my stew with mashed potatoes, but if you really want a one pot meal add diced potatoes to the stew when you add the turnips and large diced carrots and celery.

Garnish with chopped parsley and serve hot.

This is a perfect potluck meal and should definitely be followed with Chocolate Stout & Bailey's Whoopie Pies.  

Sláinte!