Put your money where your mouth is, Jack

I'm stepping up and putting on my own Beer and Food presentation next week at our pub. I'm going to pair beers with some foods, prepare some food with beer and talk about how you can do it too. Details are here. Come see if its all talk...

The fall air has me thinking comfort food, so this weekend I made one of last year's creations, Sundog Stew. I didn't have every ingredient in the house, but of course, improvisation is the beauty of stew. Anyway it was warming and comforting, every day we ate it! Below is the original recipe - I type 'em to fit on notecards.


SUNDOG STEW
Beef stew meat, 2 parsnips, 2 turnips,1 medium sized yellow onion, 15+ peal onions, 1 – 2 cups chopped carrots, 1 – 2 cups shitake/portabello mushrooms, 6 cups beef broth, fresh rosemary, thyme, herbs de provence, 2-4 Sundog beers, 1-2 cups chopped figs. 1 Tbsp brown sugar. 4 bosc pears- as crisp as possible, peeled and sliced into chunks.

Toss beef in flour. In stew pot, saute yellow onions and mushrooms (season). In pan, brown beef at high heat. Add browned beef to onions. Add pearl onions in with beef to brown a little. Add broth to pot to cover as you go. Deglaze beef pan with beer and add to pot. Add carrots, turnips, parsnips and figs to pot. Season stew with rosemary, thyme, bay leaf, and herbes de provence. Bring close to boil, then cover and simmer for 1 ½ hours total. Dust peeled pears in brown sugar and sautee at high heat to brown. Set aside and add to stew ½ hour before serving.