Not your Mom’s Beef stew – w/ onions, mushrooms and beer

I’m following the recipe for a really cool beef stew from The Complete Meat Cookbook (see link to cookbooks.) Tons of onions and mushrooms, some carrots, bay leaves, thyme, garlic… And beer. Becks Dark or an Oktoberfest amber is recommended. Nothing to hoppy.

It is simmering, now. It says for an hour and 1/2, but I’ll check it in an hour. I usually make some version of a Lorna Sass pressure cooker beef stew, but wanted to try making it via the simmer this time. And the meat guy’s recipe already smells scrumpcious! If you happen to be vegetarian, I bet the onion and mushroom combo – and the whole recipe would work with seitan – just not the kind premarinated in too heavy a marinade. Although, tamari would give depth to a non-beef version.

It will be a while before it’s done, but the beer I selected is very yummy (had to buy a sixpack since it was not sold singly.) Paulaner Oktoberfest Marzen Amber. Fruity. Definitely not lots of hops. Anyway, I’ll report later. I also have to write about a very cool flounder I baked with a crab/spinach/cheese mixture in between two layers of thin fillets.