Culinary Disasters

At the butcher shop since it was in Amishville I had to pick up egg noodles.  I know you can buy them at the grocery store but something about getting them where they are made makes them taste 100x better.  One of these days I swear I will invest time and energy into making my own pasta (up there on the list along with getting a root canal or learning how to actually bake).  When thinking of egg noodles the first thing I think of is beef and noodles and normally I just dump some beef stock and red wine in them and let it go but why not try Guinness since it is one of my favorite beers to pair with beef.

The reason why I wait to add in the vegetables is because the chuck roast will take hours to break down but believe me waiting for that chuck roast to break down and all that joyous fat and muscle fibers giving up in the beer makes it taste amazing.  What was my point…..oh yeah veggies….so if you decide to dump the veggies in right out of the gate by the time the meat has properly broken down you will be left with tasteless veggies that are the consistency of baby food and I don’t wish that even upon my worst enemy.  To compensate for this I like to wait till the meat is melt in your mouth goodness and then dump the veggies in so they can soften up.

For this recipe you will need:

• 2.5 lbs of chuck roast cut into bite size pieces
• 2 bottles of Guinness
• 2 bay leaves
• Pinch of crushed red pepper
• 1 onion finely diced
• 1 stalk of celery diced
• 1 carrot diced
• 4 cloves of garlic finely diced
• Cup of frozen peas
• All purpose flour
• Kosher salt and black pepper
• Oil (I used bacon grease)
• Good handful of noodles per person

In your favorite cast iron dutch oven over medium-high add the oil.  Salt and pepper the chuck roast and toss the chuck roast in enough flour to coat. Working in batches brown all over usually about two batches will get everything perfectly browned without overcrowding the pan. As one batch is done remove it from the pan and set aside.

Once all the meat is browned add it back into the pot and add in the two bottles of Guinness, bay leaves, and crushed red pepper. Bring this mixture to a boil, reduce to a simmer, cover, and wait for a good 1.5 hours.

After an hour and a half test the meat if it is still pretty chewy cover and let it go for another 30 minutes. If not add in the onions, celery, carrots, and garlic and cook for another 45 minutes. Shut off the heat and add in the peas while you cook the noodles.

Serve over noodles.

Tags: beef, All //