So this is all I have left from our trip to Dublin as far as the food goes. We ate a small breakfast on our last down, took one last walk around the city and we actually had hamburgers for lunch at the Jasmine Bar at the hotel before we headed for Dublin airport to come home. I did get some recipes from Guinness while we were there at the Storehouse. They do have a whole display of how Guinness has been incorporated into many food dishes in Ireland and the world. I picked up three separate recipes while we were there that all looked good. The first one is Irish mussels in a Guinness cream sauce. Keep in mind that all these recipe measurements are in metric so you may have to convert them when you give them a try.

Irish Mussels in Guinness Cream Sauce

1 kg fresh Irish Mussels

300 ml cream

200 ml fish stock

330 ml Guinness extra stout

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon fresh dill, chopped

1 onion, diced

1 carrot, diced

1 stalk celery, diced

Juice of half a lemon

In a saucepan over medium heat, place the butter, onion, carrot and celery and fry for 2-3 minutes until tender but not browned. Add the Guinness, fish stock and bay leaf and simmer until reduced by half. Add the cream and reduce by half again. Add the mussels and cook for 2-3 minutes until all the shells of the mussels have opened. Add the dill and sprinkle with lemon juice.

I think this one will make a great appetizer for a group of 4 or 6 people. I’m not sure you can find Irish mussels easily, but I would try substituting mussels you can get at your local fish market and see how it goes.

For an entrée, I picked this recipe, one we actually saw on a number of menus in places we were at in Dublin. Beef & Guinness stew seems to be a favorite, and it just plain looks like it would taste awesome.

Beef & Guinness Stew

200 ml of Guinness Foreign Extra Stout

400 g stew beef, diced

1 medium onion, diced

1 large carrot, diced

1 large stalk of celery, diced

1 large parsnip, diced

1 liter beef stock

Sprigs of fresh thyme & rosemary

In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon vegetable oil until shimmering. Add the stew beef and brown on all sides, 4-5 minutes. Add the vegetables and cook until tender then pour the Guinness and reduce by half. Add the beef stock and the herbs and simmer very slowly for between an hours and an hour and a half.

They serve the stew with mashed potatoes served on the side of the bowl of the stew. It looks like it has a great dark color to it. It sounds very simple to make and does not have a lot of ingredients, so you can easily make it on a weeknight.

Of course, there needs to be a dessert using Guinness as well. They had a few different ones to choose from, including some cakes, but I chose this recipe for Guinness chocolate truffles instead. It looks simple and should taste great.

Guinness Chocolate Truffles

1 kg dark chocolate, cut into small chunks

400 ml cream

100 ml Guinness

Zest of 1 orange

Cocoa powder

Add the cream and Guinness to a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the chocolate and grated orange zest. Mix together until the chocolate is fully melted. Leave the chocolate mix until it is cool to the touch, but not set. Take a generous teaspoon of the mixture and roll it in your hands to form small round truffles. Dust each with the cocoa powder. Set in refrigerator for 2-3 hours.

A simple fast, chocolatey dessert to finish off a Guinness meal.

So that covers all of the Dublin meals. It was a wonderful trip and we hope to get back to Ireland again and see more of the country than just Dublin. it was a great experience and I would recommend to anyone that they go and enjoy it.

Back to real world cooking for me now though. I do have a backlog of some recipes we have tried recently that I plan to post, including one I just tried from Cook’s Illustrated the other night. Check back and see which one I display first. Until then, enjoy your evening and enjoy your meal!