Irish Beef Stew

Okay... blogging under the name of "Chef on a Budget" would be redundant if I never included my recipes in here... So, therefore, since school's out and I have more or less nothing to do, I shall now publish my first recipe: Irish Beef Stew.

Ingredients:

Beef (of course... buy the cheapest cut you can... I did, since I'm obviously on a budget)

Guiness Stout (BC liquor store sells them for about $12 for 4... a bit of a splurge I admit, but did I mention? school's out!!)

Flour (seasoned with salt and pepper)

Bay leaves (2 should be enough)

Potatoes

Tomato Paste (half a can or more than enough to coat the beef)

Celery

Carrots

Onions

Garlic

Oil

Method:

1- Cut your beef into bite sized pieces. Pat them dry with a kitchen towel (makes the browning easier :D) and toss them in your seasoned flour.

2- Heat some oil up in a pan. Brown the beef in said pan. (Browning can be done in batches if you are making a big portion)

3- Remove beef from pan and add in onions and garlic for about 1-2 mins and then the carrots and celery comes next. Stir in half a can of Guiness while scraping the brown bits of the bottom of the pan. (mmMMMmmmm yuuummm)

4- Put the beef back in and stir in the tomato paste. After about 3 mins, pour in the rest of the Guiness, about 1/2 a cup of water, add the bay leaves and give it a good mix, and leave it to simmer for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

5- Every chef's privilage- when you think its almost done, open up the lid and have a taste and then season to your liking. And then... Bon apetite!

p.s. It goes oh-so-well with mashed potatoes, otherwise, some bread would be good too :D

Combined with a huge group of friends and some beer, this was the perfect way to end the studying term.

School's Out!

Well...

and there we have it folks... yesterday was the last day of classes and guess what i managed to do? Skip them.

With a certain fondness for the act of procrastination, I decided to push all my work till the last possible moment and guess what? Success.

What happened you ask? Well the result of indulging in procrastination was 10 hours of sleep for the past 2 days and a whole load of forcing my brain to co-operate and produce smart sounding essays. On top of that, I bullied my mind into submission and produced a "psychedelic" piece of a life sized self portrait and

I now know how the library looks like at 6 in the morning with rubbish and prone bodies looking somewhat like an academic battle field. I have been scarred for life but somehow, I have a strong suspicion and feeling that this vicious cycle will repeat itself again when classes start in January.