These are three super easy recipes to whip up when you have Guinness to spare for cooking and don’t want to spend too much time in the kitchen.
Pub Beer Cheese
This is a super cheesy and boldly flavored dip you can make when you’re tasked with bringing an appetizer or you’re having a serious Netflix and chill night.
Mix together two blocks of cream cheese, two cups of shredded cheddar, ¼ cup of Guinness, some fresh chives, some caraway seeds, a bit of garlic powder, and some good quality salt and pepper. Garnish the dip with more chives and eat with anything you want – chips, pretzels, crusty bread, crackers – this dip is incredible with everything.
Bratwurst Burgers with Braised Onions
We love a good burger and this one is exceptionally tasty.
Start by slicing up a large onion, a red bell pepper, and a yellow bell pepper and sauteeing in canola oil in a large skillet over medium heat. After about five minutes, pour in one cup of Guinness and let the onions and peppers simmer for at least 15 minutes.
Next, mix together equal parts ground beef and uncooked bratwurst links (the casings removed of course). Shape the mixture into hamburger patties.
After that, crack an egg into a bowl and add about a tablespoon of milk. Add some bread crumbs to another bowl. Dip each hamburger patty in the egg bowl and then in the bread crumb bowl so that each is nicely coated.
Scoop the onions and peppers out of their pan and fry each burger over medium heat for 3-4 minutes on each side. Add a slice of cheese to each burger about a minute before they’re done.
Serve your burgers on buns with a good creamy mustard (we like a Dijonnaise) and the onions and peppers. Yum!
Short Rib Tacos
Who doesn’t love taco night? They’re so easy to make but so satisfying. These tacos are made with bone-in beef short ribs. We recommend sprinkling the raw beef with good salt as soon as you get home, rewrap it in its butcher paper (or whatever packaging you brought it home in), and put it in the fridge until you’re ready to cook. The salt will work to tenderize the meat, making the taco beef even more flavorful and delicious.
Start by preheating your oven to 325°. On your stovetop, heat some canola oil over medium-high heat in an ovenproof Dutch oven. Salt the short ribs a bit more, pepper them, and brown in batches and remove with tongs.
Next, turn the burner down to medium and throw in a couple of chopped carrots and a chopped yellow onion. Saute for about 5 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons of baking cocoa (trust us) into the Dutch oven and let it melt in, stirring a bit, for 2 minutes. Next, pour in a can of tomato sauce and a bottle of Guinness. Stir to get the brown bits up off the bottom of the pot and bring this mixture to a boil, then simmer for 3 minutes.
Put the ribs back in the pot and add enough water – if the liquid already in the pot doesn’t fully cover the short ribs – to cover them.
Cover and pop the pot into the actual oven and bake for about two and a half hours. It may take closer to three hours, but try a piece of the meat at the two-and-a-half hour mark.
Once you’re satisfied that the meat has been cooked to your liking, drain the meat from the liquids BUT reserve the liquid.
Remove the short rib meat from the bones, shred with a couple of forks, and return to the pot. Skim any fat off of the reserved liquid and pour the reserved liquid over the shredded meat. You may need to turn the burner back on to gently heat the meat once again if it’s cooled since you were handling it.
Now, the best part – spoon the meat onto corn tortillas and top with fresh chopped cilantro, pickled red onions, pico de gallo or salsa verde, queso fresco or shredded Monterey jack, sour cream, fresh sliced avocado, a healthy squeeze of lime juice, and your favorite hot sauce. Delicioso!