Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ah, fall. The kaleidoscope of colors on the sugar maples. The sound of fallen leaves crunching as you walk on the sidewalk. The faint smell of firewood coming from your neighbor's chimney. The crisp feel of the air outside. The fuzziness of the sweater you're wearing for the first time. And, oh, the food! Hearty, comforting food that needs to cook for hours and makes your house smell so delicious. Yes, we love fall. And our first great fall dish this year was Beef and Stout Pot Pie.

In this dish, a basic beef stew meets Harpoon's smooth, rich, small-batch Island Creek Oyster Stout for a flavorful and satisfying meal. Island Creek is an oyster farming and distribution company out of Massachusetts. Typically, stouts make a great pairing when eating oysters. In this case, Harpoon's brewers put the oysters right into the beer during the brewing process, although the impact to the taste of the beer is minimal. The stout has hints of roasted barley along with a slight mineral brininess from the oysters, both of which add great flavor to the chuck steak we braised in it.

We reserved the water in which we had boiled the carrots and potatoes to enhance the vegetable flavor in the pot pie. And, instead of regular old onion and garlic, we used fresh cippolini onions and hard-neck garlic from the farmers' market. Refrigerated puff pastry dough topped the deliciousness inside the bowl, offering contrasting texture with its flaky crunch as well as a hint of surprise when you break through to the chunky, meaty stew.

 

Beef and Stout Pot Pie

Ingredients (for 4 individual pot pies):

2 potatoes, peeled and diced

4 carrots, peeled and diced

2 lbs. boneless beef chuck steaks, cut into 1-inch pieces

2 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

6 yellow cippolini onions, roughly chopped

2 hard-neck garlic cloves, chopped

1/4 cup water, reserved from boiling carrots and potatoes

1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 cup beef broth

1 cup Harpoon Island Creek Oyster Stout

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

3 sprigs of fresh thyme

2 sheets frozen puff pastry dough

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon water

Boil potatoes and carrots together until tender. Drain, reserving 1/4 cup of the water, and place in refrigerator to cool. Preheat oven to 350. Place chunks of beef along with flour, salt and pepper in a large zip-type bag; toss to coat. Heat oil in a large ovenproof pot over high heat, then working in batches, brown meat on all sides, about 4 minutes per batch; set aside. Add onion, garlic and 1/4 cup reserved vegetable water to th epot and cook, scraping the brown bits from the bottom of the pot, and stirring often until onion is softened. Add tomato paste and cook for one minute. Return beef to pot along with broth, stout, Worcestershire, and thyme. Bring to a low boil, then cover and transfer to oven. Braise for 1 1/2 hours. Remove from oven and stir in the cooled carrots and potatoes. Allow stew to cool uncovered for 1/2 hour before topping with puff pastry (otherwise the pastry will melt). In the meantime, thaw the puff pastry dough and raise oven temperature to 425. When ready to assemble pot pies, cut circles in the dough 1/2-inch wider in diameter than the bowls you plan to use. Fill these individual oven-proof bowls with the stew then top with the pastry dough, pressing dough onto the rim of the bowl to help it adhere. Beat together the egg and tablespoon of water and brush the top of the pastry dough with this egg wash. Place pot pies on a baking sheet and bake until pastry is puffed and golden, about 20 minutes.  

Beef and Barley...Stew?

The chill and scent of the air portended an approaching snowstorm. We had plenty of vegetables in the house (remains from a previous night's Rosemary Root Veggie Pot Pie), and picked up some beef stew meat at the store. Apparently, judging from our recent posts, it's soup-n-stew week here at A Couple in the Kitchen. We suppose there are worse things.

In the hopes of making our beef stew a bit healthier and heartier, we added some barley. A little too much, it turns out. The barley soaked up most of the liquid, giving it more of a risotto-like texture than a stew, which Chris actually preferred. Therefore, the recipe below explains what we did. If you like yours a bit more stew-y, either add more liquid or less barley. Besides that, we loved the tenderness of the beef and the flavors in this stew. The addition of a little balsamic vinegar right before serving gave it a nice zing!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lbs. beef stew meat, cut into 1/2-inch pieces

1/4 cup all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

3 carrots, peeled, halved lengthwise and diced

1 onion, chopped

2 slalks celery, diced

1 parsnip, peeled and diced

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 14.5-ounce can diced tomatoes

1 cup water

1/2 cup red wine

1 cup beef broth

2 bay leaves

1 teaspoon dried thyme

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup uncooked barley

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

Dredge the beef pieces in flour until lightly coated, shaking off excess. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large stockpot and, in small batches, brown the beef on all sides. Set aside. Deglaze the pot with a bit of wine or broth. Heat the second tablespoon of oil in the pot and add the carrots, onion, celery and garlic. Cook for five minutes, until onions are translucent and start to soften. Stir in the diced tomatoes and cook another minute. Return the beef to the pot. Add the water, wine, broth, bay leaves, thyme, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil. The reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for one hour. Add the barley, cover and simmer for an additional 45 minutes, until barley is to desired tenderness. Discard bay leaves and stir in balsamic vinegar right before serving.