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Hearty Beef Stew With Red Onions and Ale
![Hearty Beef Stew With Red Onions and Ale](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/11/04/dining/04apperex/merlin_178770741_300da621-a32e-4894-adc7-4ae660af6d3c-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- 3 hours
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- 2pounds boneless beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch chunks
- Kosher salt and black pepper
- 3medium red onions
- 1 to 2tablespoons all-purpose flour
- 2tablespoon unsalted butter
- 1tablespoon olive oil, plus more as needed
- 4garlic cloves, thinly sliced
- 1tablespoon tomato paste
- 1teaspoon ground coriander
- ¼teaspoon ground allspice
- 2cups beef or chicken stock, preferably homemade
- 1cup ale or beer (nonalcoholic is fine)
- 1rosemary sprig
- 3carrots, sliced
- 1tablespoon cider vinegar or sherry vinegar, plus more to taste
- Chopped chives, for garnish
- Flaky sea salt, for garnish
Preparation
- Step 1
Season the beef all over with salt and pepper. Set aside while you prepare the onions.
- Step 2
Peel the onions. Cut 2 of them in half root to stem, then thinly slice them crosswise into half-moons. Cut the third onion, root to stem, into ½-inch wedges.
- Step 3
Dust the beef cubes lightly with flour. Heat butter and 1 tablespoon oil in a large Dutch oven or other pot over medium-high. Add beef, in batches taking care not to crowd the pan, and sear until it’s good and dark all over, 5 to 6 minutes per batch. Transfer beef cubes to a bowl as they brown. Add more oil and adjust heat if necessary to prevent burning.
- Step 4
Stir in sliced onions and raise heat to medium-high if you lowered it. Cook until pale golden brown and soft, 10 to 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant and lightly golden at the edges, 2 to 3 minutes longer.
- Step 5
Make a well in the center of the onions, then stir in tomato paste, coriander and allspice; cook, stirring until paste is darkened, 1 minute. Stir in stock, ale, 1 cup water and rosemary sprig. Return beef and any juices to the pot and bring to a simmer. Partly cover the pot and simmer gently for 45 minutes.
- Step 6
Give the beef a stir, then add onion wedges. Simmer for 15 minutes, then stir in carrots and continue to simmer until the meat, onions and carrots are tender, 30 to 45 minutes longer.
- Step 7
If the sauce seems thin, use a slotted spoon to transfer meat and vegetables to a platter; cover with foil to keep warm. Discard the rosemary. Return pot with liquid to stove and simmer until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in vinegar. Taste and add more salt and vinegar if you like. Spoon sauce over meat and garnish with chives, flaky sea salt and more black pepper.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Suggestion. Once the beef cubes are browned and set aside in the bowl, add the cup of ale to that bowl immediately. Browned beef is “thirsty,” and immediately absorbs the flavors of any added liquid. Tip out and stir in the ale and all the accumulated beef jus into the pot at step 5.
I made this last night. Delicious. I did not substitute pork for the beef, nor vermouth for the ale. I didn’t substitute parsnips for the carrots or tarragon for the coriander. Used the ingredients listed and cooked them according to the directions. Loved it, would make again.
What do you need to do to convert to Instant Pot?
Avoid buying nebulous "stew meat." I find using chuck roast works well. Also, you have to wonder if this would come out much different if you just tossed it all into a crock pot, circumventing all the browning, etc. Tried that recently with another stew recipe, and it came out great. I finished the crock pot version in a nice Le Creuset dutch oven on the stove, giving it a good stir. Makes for a better presentation when guests serve themselves. An easy time-saving tip and serving tip.
Making this to enjoy tomorrow night while we watch the returns! #biden/Harris I also bought the 2nd to the last package of oreos in case it doesn't go my way.
Why would you make a recipe with “ale” in the title if you don’t like ale?
- Don't get hung up on her obsession with stock: the beef, onions and beer provided plenty of flavor as a base - feel free to use delicious NYC tap instead. I find that chicken stock in a beef stew can make it too rich and cloying. - The real gem in this is addition of the onion wedges near the end - these are YUM. - Her cook times are off. Stew beef can take 3-4 hours before it's really tender. Recommend to do the simmer stages in the oven at 275F - much faster and more even cooking.
Ms. Clark: FYI, research has found that a subset of people who are unable to tolerate cilantro also do not like beer. I, like my mother, am one of them. Usually in a beef stew my thoughts would go to a hearty red wine (thankfully, beyond beer, wine is a go), vermouth would give the layers of additional flavor. Perhaps next time you could give an appropriate substitute.
One cup of Worcestershire sauce?!? Please don't.
Cooking the carrots for 30 to 45 minutes will make them soggy. I soften them in butter in a saute pan for about 10 minutes, then add them to the stew for the final 10 minutes of simmering. A tablespoon of plain old white vinegar does just as well as cider or sherry vinegar.
I do not always have great results with Melissa Clark's recipes but this one is a keeper. Even on the first day this stew had a rich flavor. The only things I did differently was to pour the ale over the browned meat as suggested below and use a can of V8 juice for part of the liquid since I only had 1 cup of broth available. I also doubled the tomato paste. I served it with boiled potatoes tossed in butter and chives since some in my house hate noodles at this point.
I have been making beef stew with beer for forty years and the best beers for it are ales, bitters, and stouts, not lagers/pilsner. Try star anise instead of coriander. If you can get it try oxcheek as your stew meat. You will need to sharpen your knives because it is extraordinarily tough before cooking but such good flavour
This recipe is for a basic Flemish Beef Stew - Carbonnade Flamade. My recipe, from a Belgian friend, is very very similar, but hers calls for Belgian beer (of course) and does not include carrots. Like a good Belgian, she always serves it with a side of fries. It’s one of my favorite dishes when the weather turns cold a rainy.
I used the saute feature on the instapot for about double the recommend time (10mins) to brown the meat on the highest setting. Then I sauted the onions in the instapot until translucent. Then followed the directions except I set the instapot to do 15mins on the stew setting w lid. I vented it added the carrots and thicker onions put the lid back on for another 15 mins stew setting. The carrots were soft but not mush. Adjust accordingly to preference. Then I added vinegar and salt to taste
After step five, you can probably throw it into a slow cooker. If you do that, set the timer for double the recommended stove top cooking time at each step.
This was a lovely and simple way to use up a beef roast in my freezer. Very cozy, easy prep, delicious with Guinness. The vinegar brightened up the flavor nicely and kept it from being too heavy.
I cooked this as the heat descends on the desert and found it to be very delicious. Throw in some orange peel?
My 14 and 15 year old daughter and son made this for our family for supper. It was delicious. It was barely enough for 6 though, with three of those being teenagers. Next time I would up the veggies considerably so that some of us could have had seconds.
I was thrown off by the step that says to add the spiced onions. I added all the onions I had sliced, only to be surprised later when I was expected to add wedges of onions....
I had 3.8 lbs of stew meat but only one red onion so I subbed two yellows and three big shallots for the thinly sliced onions and used the one red onion for the wedges. Doubled the recipe otherwise. Used a non alcoholic Athletic Brewing All Out because my other beers were the wrong kind. This was the BEST stew I’ve made in ages. My husband made egg noodles, and the whole dish was amazing. My kids even said nice things. It’ll be my go-to, but I’ll try using the oven next time based on comments.
I’ve made this several times in the past and I’d forgotten how good it is till I made it again recently. I think of it as “Christmas stew” given the ale and warm spices. The only thing I change is to add a little grated ginger to the mix.
I was tempted to put in wine instead of beer, but stuck with the recipe. Excellent flavor and great for leftovers the next day.
Used cubed chuck roast. Better meat. Absolutely add ale to the browned beef bowl- great idea. Reduced water to 1/2 cup. Add 1/2 tsp ground ginger. Don't simmer, use your oven at 275 for 3 hours; deeper flavor and fork tender meat. In the last 40 min put in the onion wedges for 20 min, then add sliced carrots for final 20 min. Strongly disagree with comment any vinegar will do. We picked up an aged, complex sherry vinegar that made a crucial finish to the sauce.
I opted to bake in the oven 300f for about 2 hours instead of the 45 min stovetop option. I also made potatoes separately (gold roasted whole). No alcohol in mine - I just used beef broth. Delicious! My 11 year old said 2 million out of 10 rating!
A very good recipe. I have on suggestion. Ale has many varieties, but in my 50+ years of making a stew very much like this one stands out: Guinness, and not just one cup, the whole bottle. Cooking the stew longer will improve it some, if you have the time.
Added turnips, rutabaga, fennel, shitaki mushrooms, milk stout and fingerling potatoes
this was delicious! made according to recipe and the only think I would do differently is double it next time!
Flavors are good but hard pass on the cooking method. I’ve ultimately needed to pour this into a Dutch oven and cook until the vegetables were tender, after several attempts to re-pressurize after removing the lid and adding vegetables. It has taken forever and now giving me the burn signal. I could have cooked this stove top from the start and been done by now. Still waiting.
This was great. I made it with leftover prime rib, which I didn't brown. The only thing I added was a dollop of sour cream for serving.
Either the cow i cooked was unusually tough or this is not enough cooking time.
I don't understand why so many stew recipes have a cook time of 2-3 hours. Using chuck roast (not "stew meat"), I cooked mine nice and low for 6-7 hours to get the beef real tender. Obviously you would add the vegetables later on so they aren't too soft. Anyone can feel free to enlighten me here but stewing for only 2 hours usually results in tough beef for me.
Yup. Low and slow..
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