Beef and beer stew and Brussels

Four years ago I visited Brussels for my birthday with my hubby. We have friends living there as well so it was a great opportunity to go and see them too.
I loved the city and the architecture was amazing!

But the reason I’m writing this post is not Brussels architecture it is the dish I enjoyed eating there the most. And believe me I’m not talking about waffles and ice cream! They were really yummy though! The best I ever ate actually! And if you visit Brussels you HAVE to try them!
The dish I’m talking about is “Beef and beer stew”!
We both enjoy eating it and decided to investigate and cook it! So here it is:

Beef and beer stew

3 1/2 lbs chuck roast cut into 1-inch pieces
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 Tbsp butter
3 medium yellow onions sliced about 1/4 inch think
3 Tbsp all-purpose flour
11/2 cups chicken or beef stock
1 1/2 cups Belgian beer or any dark beer
4 springs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves 1 Tbsp whole grain mustard
1 Tbsp brown sugar

Firstly cut and pat dry beef with paper towels, then season well with salt and pepper. Heat 2 tablespoons of butter in a large heavy bottomed pan over medium- high heat until hot,almost smoking. Working in batches, brown the meat without stirring let’s say about 3 minutes on each side. Do not stir as you need to give meat an opportunity to brown well. Transfer the browned beef to a separate bowl and replace with the onion sliced as mentioned above.

Add the other 2 tablespoons of butter and reduce the heat to medium. Also add 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Cook the onions until onions are browned about 15 minutes. As soon as the onions are browned add the flour and stir until the onions are evenly coated and flour is lightly browned about 2 minutes.

Stir in the stock scraping pan bottom to loosen browned bits. Stir in beer,thyme,bay,browned beef with any of the accumulated juices,and salt and pepper to taste. Increase heat to medium- high and bring to a full simmer. Reduce heat to low,partially cover. Let cook for 2-3 hours until beef is fork tender. You can also cook in the oven at 150 Celsius is you prefer.
Stir in occasionally scraping up anything is sticking the bottom of the pan. About half an hour before it finishes cooking add the mustard and the brown sugar and adjust seasoning to your own taste.
Before you serving discard the thyme and the bay leaf. The dish can be served plain with warm bread or with potatoes, over noodles or French fries. As you can see below we had chips and we loved it! Even my daughter enjoy it. And I know I put beer in but the alcohol evaporated so it is safe for kids believe me.