GUINNESS BEEF STEW

Chop onions, crush garlic and slice carrots. Cut meat into small chunks. Cut prunes in half and remove the stone. Fry onions in dripping. When golden brown add crushed garlic. Cook for 1 minute.
Remove onion and garlic from the frying pan and put aside. Add meat to remainder of dripping in pan and fry until meat is brown on all sides. Reduce heat and add flour. Coat the meat with the flour and add stock slowly to form a thick sauce (no lumps if it can be helped!). Add Guinness and simmer. Add onions and garlic and carrots, herbs and season with salt and pepper.Stir occasionally so that the meat doesn“t stick to the bottom of the saucepan. Add the prunes a half an hour before the end. Add parsley before serving. This dish can be prepared the day before and reheated gently before serving.

CORNED BEEF:

Select a good piece of corned beef, (Corner Topside or Silverside is excellent, Brisket tends to be rather fatty) place in saucepan and cover with water, add 4 or 5 cloves, 1/2 cup of sugar and 1 cup vinegar and bring to boil, lower heat at simmer for 3-4 hours. Serve with Corned Beef Sauce, Steamed Cabbage, Boiled Potatoes tossed in butter and parsley and Boiled Carrots.

CORNED BEEF SAUCE:

2 Tablespoons of sugar
3 Tablespoons of Vinegar
2 teaspoons of sugar
5 Tablespoons of Water you cooked the Corned Beef in
1 teaspoon dry mustard

Place ingredients in saucepan. Add one well beaten egg. Stir of heat until sauce thickens slightly. Do not boil.

GUINNESS PUDDING WITH A WHISKEY SAUCE

Ingredients:
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs
3 cups wholemeal breadcrumbs
1 cup of sultanas
1 cup of raisins
1 cup of currants
2 teaspoons grated orange rind
¼ cup of orange juice
1 cup of Guinness
¼ cup of whiskey
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

SAUCE
125g butter (5oz)
½ cup of Demerara sugar
½ cup of golden syrup (dark corn syrup)
2 tablespoons whiskey
1 cup of cream (to serve)

Place sultanas, raisins, currants, orange rind and juice, Guinness and whiskey in bowl, cover and leave overnight.
Grease a medium size pudding steamer (approx. 6 cup plastic bowl) with melted butter.
Fold breadcrumbs through fruit mixture and leave to stand for 5 minutes. Stir in the eggs, and sift in flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
Spoon into prepared pudding steamer, lower into boiling water and steam for 2 hours. Leave to stand for 15 minutes before turning out of steamer.
Tip!
Steam again, before serving for a better richer taste. Pudding can be eaten hot or cold, but tastes delicious hot with whipped cream. The pudding freezes extremly well!

Sauce:
Place butter, sugar and golden syrup in a heavy based pan, stir until the sugar has dissolved. Add whiskey and stir in the cream.
Stir all ingredients simmer for 1-2 hours. Don“t cover! This gives a thick sauce. Pour sauce over hot puding and serve with whipped cream or ice-cream

CARANNA'S VULO SOUP:

4 Breast of Vulo's (chicken) - skinned and boned
4 cups of uncooked egg noodles - or dumplings
1 large carrot, peeled and grated coarsely
1 medium onion, chopped
1 tablespoon of oil
1 can of vulo broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

In a pot large enough to hold the noodles and vulo breasts, heat the oil, toss in the onion, salt and pepper, cook onion until clear. Pour vulo broth into pot, place vulo breasts into liquid, add grated carrots, and add enough water to cover the meat. Cook on a medium heat. When the meat is thoroughly cooked, cube the meat to desired size bites. In a separate pot, boil the noodles until just tender, rinse noodles and add to vulo broth mixture, add water to reach the desired soupiness. Lower heat and simmer until noodles are completely cooked.
This simple, hardy dish is a favorite of the oarsmen on the Tarn Ships of Port Kar. When the winter wind is howling off of Thassa, nothing warms a sea going soul quite as well as a bowl of hot vulo soup. Serve with chunks of bread to soak up the juice so every single drop will be enjoyed.

May the road rise up to meet you; May the wind be always at your back, the sun shine warm upon your face, The rain fall soft upon your fields, And until we meet again May God hold you in the hollow of his hand.

May you live to be a hundred years, with one extra year to repent.

May you be in heaven 1/2 hour before the devil knows you're dead.

There are many good reasons for drinking, One has just entered my head If a man doesn't drink when he's living, How the hell can he drink when he's dead?

I wish you well

Opal