Guinness Beef Stew

Since Valentines Day is just around the corner I thought I would blog one of the very first meals I ever cooked for my now husband. I can remember being so nervous about cooking him dinner for the first time, we had maybe been dating for a couple of months at this point and I figured it was time to woo him over with my cooking skills. I swear he will say he loves anything I ever cook but this was the meal that made him fall in love. It's true, the night I made him this dinner was the night he told me he loved me for the first time, so sweet I know. So the saying is true, cooking is the way to a mans heart. After 8 years, 2 kids and a house every time I make this meal for him I can't help but smile and with out fail he will always bring up the story of the first time he told me he loved me.

Adapted from Ballymaloe Irish Beef Stew by Darina Allen

Ingedients:

• 2 lbs beef stew meat
• 3 tablespoons oil
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• salt and pepper
• 3 large onions ran through food processor
•  2 large garlic cloves
• 1 small can tomato paste dissolved in one can of water
• 1/2 cup Guinness Beer
• 5 carrots cut into chunks
• 1 lbs cubed new potatoes
• sprigs of fresh Thyme and Rosemary 

Directions:

1. Trim fat off stew meat and tenderize with a meat mallet. After tenderizing toss in a bowl with 1 tablespoon oil .
2. Season the flour with salt, pepper and paprika and toss in with the stew meat.
3. Heat the remaining oil in a large pot, I usually use a large dutch oven. Add stew meat and brown well on all sides. 
4. Add the onions, garlic and tomato paste/water to the pot and cook for 5 minutes
5. Add the Guinness, carrots and potatoes and bring to a slight boil 
6. Salt and pepper to taste and add the fresh herbs, I tie my herbs together so the twigs are easy to pull out after cooking.
7. Cover and cook on low heat for 5-6 hrs