Cooking with Red Wine and Stout Beer: 2 beef recipes that could soon become your go-to comfort food

This week Pulselive is bringing you not one but two recipes that will make your mealtimes more comforting despite the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

In case seeing "red wine" and "stout beer" makes you cringe at the thought of possibly intoxicating your family, we'd like to clarify that all the alcohol in the drinks evaporates while cooking so don't be shy to try this. And if you still are, then maybe try it on your next dinner date with your special someone.

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The Pulselive twist for Sweet stout beer stew

Stout beer has a certain bitter taste that remains even with cooking but Pulselive has the trick that will make this dish more palatable and it's sugar! Just 4 tablespoons of normal white sugar or two of brown sugar will sweeten up this stew in no time. Also, carrots tend to carry that natural sweetness so don't forget to add them to the pot.

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Ingredients

For the Sweet stout beer stew

500g beef

1 cup stout beer (we used Guinness)

2 large carrots

2 large potatoes

1 large onion

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2 tablespoons tomato paste

4 cloves of garlic

Bell peppers

Bacon

Salt

4 tablespoons white sugar

For the Red wine t-bone steak

1 cut of t-bone steak

1 cup of sweet red wine

1 large onion

Squeeze of one lemon

1 cup cooking oil

Mixed spices and herbs

Salt

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Method: Sweet stout beer stew

• Chop bacon and cook until crispy with a tablespoon of cooking oil. When cooked, set aside. Bacon adds a brilliant flavour to the stew.

• In the same cooking pot, add the seasoned (salt and pepper) beef cubes and cook until slightly seared. Set aside. This will add a smokey flavour to the stew.

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• After removing the meat, use the same cooking pot for sauteing the vegetables. Start with onions, then add the garlic. You can add some cooking oil.
• After the onions and garlic are slightly caramelized, add the tomato paste and mix well then add the stout beer.

• Let the mixture come to a boil before adding the seared beef cubes and cooked bacon.
• Allow the stew to simmer on low heat for 30 minutes before adding carrots. Simmer for an hour then add the potatoes and sugar. After simmering for 20 minutes add the bell peppers cilantro, cook for 10 minutes and turn of the heat. Serve with rice or chapati.

Method: Tender red wine t-bone steak

• In a plastic container or ziplock bag, place the t-bone steak and sprinkle with some salt, black pepper, garlic powder, rosemary and cooking oil then generously spread over the steak.
• Add wine into the ziplock bag or plastic container, cover and leave to sit for 2 hours (don't exceed the time or it will make your steak tough).

• After marinating the steak, place in a hot cooking pan or grill and cook to your preference (ours was well done). We also used the marinade to cook the steak, it produced a very tasty and shiny outer coat for the steak.

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