This recipe is from Shannon Haye's book "The Grassfed Gourmet Cookbook"
"This stew epitomizes comfort food. Adding beer to the broth livens the beefy flavor, and the biscuit topping makes an extra-special treat. My recipe testers believed this would be particularly suitable as Superbowl fare. If your local farmer can provide you with lard (or if you make it yourself following the instructions on page 140), you will have a light, flaky biscuit topping beyond imagination. If lard is not available, butter will work." - Shannon
SERVES 4
For the dredge:
½ cup all-purpose flour
1 to 2 heaping tablespoons chili powder (or to taste, depending on the heat you want)
1½ teaspoons salt
1 to 3 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Mix all the ingredients in a large, shallow bowl. Use the dredge to coat the beef bones, oxtails, or stew meat.
For the stew:
4 to 7 tablespoons olive oil
1 to 1½ pounds beef soup bones, oxtails, or stew meat, thawed
1 large onion, cut into wedges
3 carrots, scraped, coarsely chopped
1 parsnip or turnip, peeled, coarsely chopped
1 can beer (cheap beer will do; save the good beer for yourself)
2 cups beef stock
2 teaspoons dried thyme
3 bay leaves
In a large Dutch oven or ovenproof pot, heat 4 tablespoons oil over medium heat. Brown the bones or meat on all sides, adding more oil if necessary. Remove and set aside.
If the pan is dry, add a little bit more olive oil. Add the onion wedges, and sauté until translucent, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Add the carrots and parsnips, sauté, and scrape up the brown bits. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes, until the onion just begins to brown (do not allow any bits to burn).
Return the meat to the pot, add the beer and enough stock to cover everything; add the thyme and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and cover. Cook the stew for 1½ to 2 hours, until the meat is fork-tender. Remove the bones. When they are cool enough, pick off any morsels of meat and return them to the stew. Discard the bones.
For the biscuit topping:
2 cups all-purpose or cake flour
3 teaspoons sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons lard or cold, unsalted butter
1 to 1½ cups milk
Preheat the oven to 425ºF when the stew is almost ready.
Combine all the dry ingredients for the topping in a mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, lightly blend in the lard or butter. Add just enough milk to create a moist, paste-like dough that can be scooped up for the stew. Be careful not to over mix. Gently drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the top of the slowly simmering stew. Try to do this as evenly as possible, but don't worry if you cannot cover the entire top, because the biscuit topping will rise and expand.
Put the stew with its dough topping into the oven, and bake, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes until the topping is browned.