Beer Stew

Since Mrs. Bugbear and I both work full-time and our commute means we don't get home until between 5:30 and 6:00 we try to cook meals on the weekend so that supper is just a matter of reheating and serving.  On the weekend I decided to make a stew which turned out surprisingly well.

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• 2lbs of stew meat (beef or venison)
• 2 medium onions diced
• 1can of condensed onion soup (not cream of onion, beef broth and onion)
• 1 bottle of beer (light ale or lager is best)
• ghee
• flour
• salt
• pepper
• herb or spice of choice (rosemary, or thyme seems best but be creative)

Mix salt and pepper into the flour.  Dredge the stew meat in the flour.  Melt ghee in a frying pan and cook the stew meat until the flour turns brown. Place the stew meat in a slow cooker on low, add onions, beer and condensed onion soup. Add remaining flour to the ghee and make a light colored roue that is fairly liquid, add the roue to the stew and cook for 8-12 hours.  Put the stew in the fridge overnight.  Before reheating remove the congealed ghee from the top of the stew, add your herb(s) or spice(s) and reheat and serve over mashed potatoes accompanied by green beans.

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I added fresh basil to my stew but in the past I've found that freash rosemary or thyme works very well, but this week I had to pinch back the basil on our kitchen herb garden so I used that.  The basil worked out very well added to the stew as whole leaves.