Guinness Pork Stew

SO.  This is one of the first things I ever learned how to make.  It's simple, cheap, and it will feed you and your friends for quite some time.  The main ingredient is what makes the whole dish.  What is that ingredient?  Time.  (Yes, there is also Thyme in this.)

Ingredients:
1/4 lb of Bacon
2 lbs Pork Butt
1 Leek
1 lb Red Potatoes
1 lb Carrots
1 bottle of Dark Beer (Guinness)
2 cups of Water (or Stock)
1 Tbsp Kosher Salt
1 Tbsp Black Pepper
2 - 4 Tbsp Flour
Rosemary
Thyme

First render the fat out of your bacon.  Remove the bacon bits from your pot and set them aside.  Next, cube up your pork shoulder into 2 inch pieces.  Coat them in flour, salt, and black pepper.  Brown the pieces well in your pot with your rendered bacon fat.  It's best to do this in batches so you don't crowd the pot with your cubed pork shoulder.  After all your pork is browned, set the pieces aside with the bacon bits.  

Chop your vegetables into roughly the same size as your pork.  First, sweat the leek in your pot to help deglaze the pan from all the browning you did with your pork and bacon.  A little splash of water here won't hurt, or you can throw in a splash of beer.  After your pan is deglazed and your leek is soft, add in the carrot, potato, and the reserved pork and bacon.  

Pour in an entire bottle of dark beer and continue to deglaze if you haven't yet gotten all the nice fond off of your pan.  Pour in enough water to barely cover your vegetables and pork.  You can use stock, but honestly I find water to be just fine.  You're going to leave the pot uncovered and cooking for more than 2 hours, so a lot of that will evaporate out and concentrate the flavors.  

Throw in the Rosemary and Thyme at this point.  You don't need to chop it.  After a few hours of simmering, you can just pick out the stems. 

Let this cook on the lowest possible setting for at least 2 hours.  But really, you can let this thing go for as long as you want.  Just add water if you need it, or let it reduce to a nice thick gravy.  When the meat falls apart with a fork, you're ready to eat.

The fine people at Ecooe.com sent me the Pepper Grinder used in this video to try out.  It's a pretty good product!  Ya'll should always be grinding your own pepper.  You can check out a few different products by that company at https://www.ecooe.com/