Flemish Beef And Beer Stew

Flanders is the northern part of multicultural (Latin, Celtic and Germanic) and trilingual Belgium (Flemish/Dutch, French and German are all official). The language of Flanders is "Flemish," a dialect of Dutch, and it is therefore closely related to English, Low German, German, and Frisian. In more recent decades the term "Flemish" has been replaced more and more with "Dutch." The people of Flanders are called "Flemings," so if your family name is "Fleming," there is a chance that at least that part of your family tree traces back to Flanders, although that is not a certainty, as not all family names "Fleming" relate to Flanders. Belgium is known for its beer, and the stew I'm covering in this recipe uses beer as one of its main ingredients.

For a brief sketch of the history of the overall region, this is a link to my article on the subject. The history is very complicated, but my article should give you a little understanding:  http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2010/07/german-question-part-twenty.html  

As with all popular recipes, there are variations to this recipe, often determined by the use of regional beers in Belgium, or the addition of carrots, or mushrooms, or of another herb, like tarragon, but the basic recipe seems to be pretty firm. I only tried this recipe once, but it was at least fifteen years ago, and where I got the recipe, I'm not sure, but since I had it jotted down on paper, it may have been from some television show.

The amounts I'm using will give you a basis for how to make a larger amount.

1 1/2 lbs. beef chuck, bite size chunks
2 slices bacon, chopped
2 large onions, sliced or chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped (this was not in all recipes, but it was in the original recipe I used)
tablespoon or so of flour, enough to coat the beef
3/4 tablespoon dark brown sugar (if you only have light, use light, the "brown sugar police" won't get you)
1  12 to 16 oz bottle of brown or red ale *
1 to 1 1/2 cups of beef stock
1 teaspoon of thyme
2 medium leaves
1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard ("Ah, pardon me, do you have any Grey Poupon?" Actually I make my own.)
1 tablespoon of cider vinegar
salt and pepper (use in two phases, first some mixed with the flour to season the beef, then later when all other ingredients are added, add a little more to the pan)
1 tablespoon of parsley

Coat the beef in the flour mixed with some salt and pepper. In a Dutch oven (I guess this is because Flemish is a dialect of Dutch .. okay, settle down, I'm just kidding) saute the bacon until the fat is rendered, remove the bacon and set it aside. Brown the beef in the bacon fat (you can pour off some of the fat, but it is only from 2 slices of bacon to brown 1 1/2 lbs of beef), when the beef is pretty will browned, add the onions and let cook until they begin to soften, then add the garlic and let cook until it also softens. Add the rest of the ingredients, except the parsley, the brown sugar and the vinegar, but include the bacon. Bake at 350 for about an hour, then add the brown sugar and vinegar, stir and let bake another 20 to 30 minutes, or until the meat is tender. Add the parsley and stir right after removing the dish from the oven. This is often, but not always, served with fries. Of course a glass of beer is mandatory, or the "beer police" WILL GET YOU! Then again, if you have more than one beer, the REAL police may get you.

* I checked several recipes and all but one used brown or red ale, but the one used light (in color, not calories) regular American beer. Of course, if you want to try to be authentic, you can pretty easily find Belgian beers nowadays, or American made Belgian-style beers. I love brown ale, so this kind of dish must have been invented with me in mind, albeit that I read somewhere that it was invented in like 1380, or some such date, but hey, they anticipated me. The United States now has lots of small craft brewers which make all sorts of beers once only generally available through imports, and that was if you could find them, or afford them. I prefer to support American made products, especially if they are from companies that pay and treat their workers decently. I'm not against a special treat of an import once in a while, so if you buy a Belgian import for this recipe, I'm fairly certain you won't trigger the "Great Recession, Part Two," or cause a gigantic leap in the trade deficit. English brown ales are excellent, and German Altbier is even more so, in my opinion. The German term "alt," is simply the English word "old," but it doesn't mean the beer has been sitting around since the turn of the century, but rather that it was brewed in "the old style;" that is, with yeasts fermented at room temperature, not at a chilled temperature. Ale is simply a type of beer, just like lager, stout, or pilsner.   

WORD HISTORY:
Leek-The ultimate origin of this word is unclear, but it "seems" the only forms outside of the Germanic languages were borrowed from Germanic (some Slavic languages have forms, as does Finnish ^). Some "suggest" its origins are from an Indo European word, the meaning of which was then developed into the name for the plants in Old Germanic. Besides the word itself, it is also the second part of English "garlic." Old Germanic had "lauka," which was a general word for "leek, onion, garlic, chive" (all from the same plant family). This gave Old English (Anglo-Saxon) "leac," with the "e" and "a" originally pronounced separately, and with the same general Germanic meaning. Later the "e" sound alone prevailed and the spelling became "leek," and the meaning narrowed to the more specific plant, as English had its own word "garlic," but English relinquished its own compound form "enneleac/ynneleac" in favor of "onion," a word borrowed from French ("chive" was also borrowed from French). The other Germanic languages have: German "Lauch" (leek), ^^ Low German Saxon "Look" (leek), West Frisian "knyflok," as the second part of a compound (garlic, leek), Dutch "look" (leek, garlic), Danish "løg" (onion), Norwegian "løk" (onion), Icelandic "laukur" (onion), and Swedish "lök" (onion).

^ The Slavic tribes often had lots of contact with the Germanic tribes long ago, so this is certainly possible. Finnish, a non Indo European language, borrowed words from both Germanic and Slavic sources.

^^ Some of the other Germanic languages still use compounds with their respective forms of "leek" for the more specialized plant meanings. For instance, German uses its word in compounds for two of the other plants: "Schnittlauch," meaning "chive" and "Knoblauch," for "garlic," but the word for "onion" ("Zwiebel") was borrowed from Latin, and besides the former English compound for onion, English too used a form, "cipe," borrowed from the same Latin word, but these forms were replaced by "onion."