The Guinness Beef Experiment

Years ago, there was a restaurant in town that served (amongst other delicious dishes) Guinness beef. Unfortunately, they went out of business and my husband has been craving that dish ever since.  I've made different versions of it, from recipes I've found online, but they never quite seemed right.  I never actually ordered the dish as a meal (they had a salad with goat cheese - I pretty much ordered that ALL the time), but I tried a bite or two from my husband's plate.  So we are working off of memory here, and, memory of maybe 4 bites total.  I do remember the broth (sauce?) was really dark, rich brown and thick, but sweet.  The meat was real tender of course and there were carrots and onions in it.  It was served over mashed potatoes.  So I looked through past recipes I had printed and combined a few ideas to come up with the closest I've made yet.

The Guinness Beef Experiment

3 lb rump roast
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
4 strips bacon (make a little extra for nibbling and/or the asparagus recipe below)
2 Tbsp oil (more may be needed)

1 medium onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 Tbsp oil (more may be needed)
1 pint of Guinness (minus a few sips...heheh)
3 Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp milk (or sour cream)
1 1/2 cups baby carrots
1 bay leaf

1.  Cook bacon and chop, then set aside.
2.  Add addition 2 Tbsp oil to bacon grease and bring back up to heat.
3.  Mix flour, salt, and pepper.
4.  Chop roast into 1-inch cubes and toss in flour mixture.  Shake off excess flour and add to oil (you may have to do this in batches).  Cook until meat is brown on all sides, then set aside on a piece of paper towel.
5.  Add a bit more oil to the pan if necessary, then toss in the garlic, onion, and fresh thyme.  Saute until onions just begin to soften, scraping up bits off the pan.
6.  Be sure you have some oil remaining in the pan and whisk in 3 Tbsp of flour (you may need to add a bit of oil - actually I added butter at this point... don't tell!). Whisk until flour is completely combined with excess oil.
7.  Whisk in the Guinness, milk, and brown sugar.  Bring to a gentle boil, stirring often, then reduce to medium heat.
8.  Add the carrots, beef, chopped bacon, and bay leaf.
9.  Cover and simmer until meat is tender.  Or, dump the whole mess in a crock pot like I did until the meat is tender and the carrots are soft (about 6-8 hours on low).
10.  Remove bay leaf (my favorite part) and serve over mashed potatoes.

Some Guinness Beef recipes turn out a bit too bitter.  If that is the case for you, add a little more sugar and/or a little more milk.  However, mashed potatoes help cut the strong Guinness flavor too.

I made asparagus for a side dish, even though I know asparagus is not quite in season yet and it would probably not be the best asparagus ever eaten.  Sure enough, it was not terribly sweet, but I am getting tired of the usual winter veggie side dishes.  Because I predicted that the asparagus might not be tasty and because my husband (who usually loves asparagus) looked less than impressed when I pulled it out of the fridge, I sauteed mine in the bacon grease (before I added the onions and everything else) and then topped it with shredded fresh Parmesan (have I mentioned that I could survive off of nothing, but parm and be perfectly happy?) and some crumbled bacon