Recipe: Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika (Ree Drummond)

Hello September! This month, I will be hosting "Cook Like a Star" along with Zoe and Mich, and we will be cooking Ree Drummond's recipes. Ree Drummond, also known as The Pioneer Woman is an award-winning American blogger, No. 1 New York Times best-selling author, food writer, photographer and TV personality who lives on a working ranch outside of Pawhuska, Oklahoma. In the cooking section of her blog, she posts step-by-step photos of the cowboy-friendly dishes that she has taught herself to cook through the years. Her recipes are straight-forward, often rustic and simple.

I spent quite a long time browsing her recipes and the first one I picked to cook is her Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika. Even if it's not winter time here in KL, my family always welcomes a good stew for dinner.

Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika

So does beef stew in beer taste like beer at all? Initially in the first 30 minutes after pouring in the beer, the sauce tastes slightly bitter and beer-like, but after 2 long hours of slow cooking, the alcohol has evaporated and you are left with rich and flavorful sauce as the beer adds depth to it. You can use any beer for this, I just raided Hubby's supply and used Tiger Beer.

As always for beef stews, I used O'Connor Black Angus oyster blade. Love how tender the meat is after being slow-cooked for 2 hours.

Any beer will do!

I made a few changes to the original recipe, such as reducing the beef stock used (from 4 cups to 3 1/2 cups) as I prefer a thicker sauce as well as adding sugar snap peas right at the end of cooking. I served this stew with a hot herb and garlic loaf and they went really well together. Imagine mopping up all that delicious sauce with the bread.

Made a batch for 6 servings but we managed to finish it all up! No more leftovers for tomorrow, I guess ;P

Beef Stew with Beer and Paprika
Recipe adapted from Ree Drummond
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 2 - 2 1/4 hours
Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tbsp butter

800g stewing beef (I used Black Angus oyster blade), cut into thick chunks

1 whole medium onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 (12oz) can beer

3 1/2 cups beef stock (or 3 1/2 cups water + 3 beef bouillon cubes)

1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

2 tbsp tomato paste

1/2 teaspoon paprika

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 1/4 tsp Sugar

500g carrots, peeled and cut into thick chunks

500g boiling potatoes, quartered

12-15 sugar snap peas, ends trimmed

To garnish

Minced parsley (optional)

1. Heat oil and butter in a large pot over medium-high heat. Brown meat in two batches, setting aside on a plate when brown.

2. Add diced onions to the pot. Stir and cook for two or three minutes until softened, then add garlic for another minute. Pour in beer and beef stock, then add Worcestershire, tomato paste, paprika, salt, pepper, and sugar. Add beef back into the pot. Stir to combine. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

3. Add carrots and potatoes, then cover and cook for an additional 30-45 minutes. (If stew gets dry, just add a little water at a time to replenish the liquid.) Taste and adjust seasonings as needed. Just before serving, add the sugar snap peas and cook for 1 minute.

4. Serve in bowls with some garlic bread. Garnish with fresh parsley.

Gorgeous, hearty stew

So tender!

Here are some other beef stew recipes you can try: beef stew with mushrooms, simple beef stew (oven-cooking), Sarawak braised beef soup, beef and beans, and beef bourguignon.


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I am submitting this to the "Cook Like Ree Drummond" event which I am co-hosting with Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids and Mich of Piece of Cake. To join, simply cook or bake any recipe from any Ree Drummond websites or cookbooks for the whole month of September 2013. You can link your posts at one of the host's pages.

Your post must be a current post i.e. posted in September 2013 - please do not link older posts.Please mention Cook like a Star in your post and link back to Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Mich of Piece of Cake and Baby Sumo of Eat your heart out.

Happy cooking! Do check out the other bloggers recipe below: