I pulled one off of about.com, and then modded it some. I like the recipe a lot.
Guinness Irish Stew
Ingredients:
2 pounds lean stewing beef
3 Tablespoons oil
2 Tablespoons flour
Salt and freshly ground pepper and a pinch of cayenne
2 large onions, coarsely chopped
1 large clove garlic, crushed (optional)
2 Tablespoons tomato puree, dissolved in 4 tablespoons water
1-1/4 cups Guinness stout beer (this is a lie, use the whole can) <-------fixed
2 cups carrots, cut into chunks
Sprig of thyme
Salt, salt, and more salt <------------fixed
Preparation:
Trim the beef of any fat or gristle, cut into cubes of 2 inches (5cm) and toss them in a bowl with 1 tablespoon oil. Season the flour with salt, freshly ground pepper and a pinch or two of cayenne. Toss the meat in the mixture.
Heat the remaining oil in a wide frying pan over a high heat. Brown the meat on all sides. Add the onions, crushed garlic, and tomato puree to the pan, cover and cook gently for about 5 minutes.
Transfer the contents of the pan to a casserole, and pour some of the Guinness beer into the frying pan. Bring to a boil and stir to dissolve the caramelized meat juices on the pan.
Pour onto the meat with the remaining Guinness; add the carrots and the thyme. Stir, taste, and add a little more salt if necessary.
Cover with the lid of the casserole and simmer very gently until the meat is tender -- 2 to 3 hours. The stew may be cooked on top of the stove or in a low oven at 300 degrees F, stirring occasionally. Taste and correct the seasoning (i.e. add a lot of salt). Scatter with lots of chopped parsley.
Fesenjan
I found this one on the internet somewhere... but the chick who wrote it was vegan... ignore this. Use chicken, boil it, shred it, mix it in...
Ingredients:
2 cups fresh raw walnuts
1 medium white onion, grated
¼ cup pomegranate paste*
3 TB tomato paste
2 3 cups water
1 tsp turmeric
½ - 1 tsp cinnamon
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of your favorite vegan chicken (I used baked tofu, but seitan, tempeh, packaged faux chicken, or even legumes such as lima beans also work well) <--------------- IGNORE. Use Chicken, boil it, shred it with a pair of forks, mix it into the stew. 2 Breasts should be the right amount.
3 tbsp brown sugar <---------fixed. Original recipe did not call for brown sugar. But that's what the dish needs to make it taste right. Just add the brown sugar to taste. It's about 3 tbsps.
Directions:
Using a food processor, grind the walnuts until they form a paste with a smooth nut-butter consistency
Crumble the walnut paste, along with the grated onion, the pomegranate and tomato pastes, and spices into a stock pot over medium-high heat, and stir in enough water until smooth. You want a thin consistency, like tomato juice, this will thicken up substantially. Make sure to get rid of any lumps in the sauce.
Bring to a boil, lower heat, and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. As the mixture thickens, the color will darken to a deep brown.
Add your baked tofu (or whatever chicken substitute you are using) at this point, and allow it to simmer for another 30 minutes. Towards the end, you can add 1 or 2 tablespoons of ice water to the mixture once or twice, to get the beautiful reddish walnut oil to rise to the top for presentation purposes. This step is totally optional.
Serve warm over rice. White basmati rice is traditional ( click here for the recipe for Iranian-style steamed rice pilaf -scroll down), but I also love fesenjan with my favorite brown rice. <---------FIX... no seriously, use white basmati rice cooked with a little butter, you'll have a better time of it.
Enjoy!
* Pomegranate paste is a thick, intensely sour paste that gives many Iranian dishes a distinctive flavor. You can find pomegranate paste at Iranian supermarkets, or hit up your closest Iranian friend! If you cant, however, you can replace it in this recipe with pomegranate molasses or juice, changing the amount of water accordingly. The juice and the molasses are not as tangy as the paste, however, and you should probably add some lemon or lime juice to make up for this fact.
