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Irish Stew

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TasunkaWitko View Drop Down
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    Posted: 03 March 2012 at 18:05

Irish Stew

Here is the recipe as written in Time/Life's Foods of the World - The Cooking of the British Isles, 1969:

Quote To serve 4 to 6:

6 medium-sized peeled potatoes (about 2 pounds), cut cross-wise into 1/4-inch slices
4 large onions (about 1.5 pounds), peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
3 pounds lean boneless lamb neck or shoulder, trimmed of all fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 teaspoon salt
freshly-ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon thyme
Cold water

Spread half the potatoes on the bottom of a heavy 4- to 5-quart casserole or Dutch oven, and cover them with half the onion slices, and then all the lamb. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of the salt, a few grindings of pepper and the thyme. Arrange the rest of the onions over the meat and spread the remaining potatoes on top. Sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon of salt and a few grindings of black pepper, then pour in enough cold water just to cover the potatoes.

Bring the stew to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to its possible point, and cover the casserole tightly. Simmer for 1.5 hours. Check from time to time and add boiling water, a tablespoon or two at a time, if the liquid seems to be cooking away.

Serve the stew directly from the casserole or Dutch oven, ladeling it into heated, deep individual serving plates. Traditionally, Irish stew is accompanied by pickled red cabbage.

Note: If you prefer, you may cook the stew in a preheated 350-degree oven instead of on top of the stove. In that event, bring the casserole to a boil on top of the stove before placing it in the lower third of the oven.

Back in late May, I was able to make this luscious Irish stew, using a few slight variations that I will enumerate below. Results were outstanding for the most part, with only a couple of minor problems - and what problems there were, were my fault alone. With that, I do believe that this recipe on its own is quite sound, and one can make it as-written, or incorporating any of these modifications as they prefer.

I'll begin as always with a shot of the goods for an amount that approximates a batch-and-a-half:

Easy stuff! A few notes:

Lamb - I wish! Unfortunately, I had none available at the time, and the one source that I know of is very good, but also very expensive. This is too bad, because the few times I have had lamb, I enjoyed it. Instead, I used a nice beef chuck roast. I am willing to bet that this would be great with venison.

Onions - The larger onions are from the store, but the smaller ones were the last of the ones my dad grew in his garden last year; very good, flavourful onions that really had a nice, earthy taste to them - perfect for some good, old peasant cooking.

Beer - Yes, the recipe called for water, but I figured, "why not?" and used Guinness Black Lager - a very dark, smooth, non-bitter beer that I found to be quite good, and I hoped that this goodness would carry over to the stew. I got the idea from various sources, including Dave's mention of a Guinness stew that he makes (I thought we had a pictorial here, but now I can't seem to find it!). I was also bouncing the idea around due to the proximity of a local Irish pub that has a quasi-weekly special that they call "Guinness Stew." In fact, the pub is just a few steps away from my office, and a co-worker of mine loves it, waiting on pins and needles for the next time it is served. It is good stew, to be sure, but I keep telling her that she could make her own for a lot less. This pictorial is an attempt to show her just how easy it is.

Parsnips and carrots - The recipe simply calls for potatoes, but based on a couple of conversations I had regarding other soup/stew dishes, I decided to give parsnips a try, working them into the recipe along with some carrots; no problems here, as some research turned up many references to both of these root vegetables in Irish stews. I'd never tried parsnips before, so this was a bit of a leap of faith, but what the heck - you only live once!

Ready to get started, and looking forward to some really good eats, I began my prep work. First, I trimmed the chuck roast and cut it into cubes:

Then, I peeled and diced the (left to right) parsnips, carrots and potatoes:

Keeping with the aforementioned conversations that I had had on other threads, I decided to try pan-roasting the vegetables a little in order to get some extra flavour out of them:

For this first attempt, I just gave them a light browning, but this did achieve good results, and in the future, for these types of soups and stews, I will see about getting a deeper browning.

Meanwhile, I gave my onions a good dicing, then melted a little butter in my Dutch oven and carmelised them until they started to get nice and toasty-brown:

When the onions were just right, I removed them and set them aside. I then lightly salted and moderately peppered the chunks of chuck before searing them:

My plan was to do them in batches, in order to get better searing action, compared to previous attempts with other similar stews, where I simply did all the meat at once. This worked pretty well, but I probably should have done each batch a little smaller. No worries - we learn as we go, right?

In any case, the beef seared pretty well as it was; here's a batch about halfway-through:

Once the beef was seared, I began to put this whole thing together. First, I put down a layer consisting of half the vegetables:

Then, I placed half the onions:

After that, I added all of the beef, plus the thyme, salt, pepper and a couple of tablespoons of flour:

Next, the other half of the onions:

And finally, the rest of the vegetables:

Then, I added the ingredient that I hoped would really make this stew interesting, taking it up a notch: the Guinness Black Lager:

To me, Guinness Stout is just too....stout - and I was concerned that its bitter or hoppy qualities might affect the taste of the stew. I had this happen once when making a similar stew from the The Low Countries called carbonade Flamande:

http://foodsoftheworld.activeboards.net/carbonade-flamande_topic274.html

Since I knew that the Black Lager was much more smooth and mellow, providing all of the flavour with none of the pain, I reasoned that this would be an excellent choice for this stew, lending a rich depth and a little pinch of Irish brogue.

The recipe says to add enough liquid to just cover the vegetables, and that's what I did:

In this case, it took just under 4 bottles, leaving a swig for the chef.

Then, I covered the Dutch oven and, rather than simmer on the stove-top, I placed it into the oven at 300 degrees for somewhere in the neighbourhood of 2.5 hours (3 would probably be just fine, as well).  The length of time was to ensure the nice, slow cooking that would provide wonderful qualities to the beef, making it mouth-wateringly tender and flavourful. For lamb, which is a different kettle of fish, such long, slow cooking might not be quite so necessary. If you prepare this with lamb, I would suggest following the cooking instructions outlined in the recipe above.

It wasn't long before the house really started to smell nice, which was just fine on this cool, grey, rainy day. It was a real temptation to wait until the beef was fully tender, but well worth it. When I judged the time was right, I lifted the lid, and this was the first thing that I saw:

One of the great things about cooking in cast iron is its heat-retaining properties, wrapping your food in a wonderful blanket of loving, even warmth and really transforming the ingredients into something special.

I stood there for a moment, mesmerized by the deep: 

Rich: 

Bubbling wonder:

 
And then snapped out of it and got myself to serving this treasure to my starving family.

I kept it simple, serving the stew with only some bread on which I had toasted a little sharp Cheddar cheese:

And then we gave it a try.

The stew was really, really good - just as deep and rich as the pictures make it appear:

The Guinness was a great choice for this, working with the beef, onions and other flavours to provide a savory warmth that took the chill off the day. I can only imagine how good this would have been with cubes of tender lamb bobbing around in the bubbling gravy - but having said that, the beef was incredible.

The addition of the carrots was a good one, to be sure, but I'm not so sure about the parsnips. For me, their spicy, peppery accent wasn't what I was expecting for the stew, and while I am fully confident that they would be great in other soups or stews, or as an accompaniment for many dishes (especially northern European specialties), they just didn't seem to work here, for me. One of the kids thought they were pretty darn good, and I am sure they would fit right in for the tastes of many people, especially those who are used to the unique qualities of the parsnip; but for me, it didn't quite work. The good news was that the stew was so good anyway, it really didn't ruin anything at all - it just made me consider that the results would have been more to my taste if I hadn't used them. No worries, I will try them again in other dishes until I find a few that work well for me.

In any case, this Irish stew really was something I enjoyed over-all, and so did the family. It is a very versatile dish that can be as easy as originally written in the recipe or modified a bit as I did in order to try a few new things or accommodate available ingredients. As long as you cover the basics and the method, you are going to find yourself on the Emerald Isle, enjoying a hearty, satisfying meal that will surely bring a twinkle to your eye and joy to your heart.

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Aspen Hill View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Aspen Hill Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 March 2012 at 18:34
I think venison would be a great substitute!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marissa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 March 2012 at 18:58
Good idea on the Guinness!

I can't wait to get to the British Isles cookbook but hubby thinks all British food is nasty...though he's never really tried much of it. I LOVE a full English breakfast, a good Irish stew, Ploughman's lunch, all of that.

Wish you were closer - our neighbor has some superb lamb. It has really helped me get over the idea of eating an animal - I actually saw that cut of lamb walking around a few months before. It actually felt good knowing EXACTLY where it came from...and it was tasty!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 03 March 2012 at 19:26
>>>hubby thinks all British food is nasty<<<
 
lol - i thought the same thing, until i got the book and saw a lot of it. there are a few "worrisome" things, but most look really, really good, including their breakfast spreads, of course!
 
we've got some of the best lamb in the world up here, too - some friends of the family have a great operation, and like you said, it's nice knowing exactly where the meat comes from from birth to freezer! the problem is that it is so darned expensive.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Hoser Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 March 2012 at 02:36
Nothing beats good old "bangers and mashed" for lunch...pure comfort food.
Go ahead...play with your food!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Marissa Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 05 March 2012 at 10:18
Ah, so you have it available, it's just affording the stuff! I know - most of the meat I buy is 3 or 4 times the grocery store price. We still don't eat that much so it's not impacting our food budget too badly, but it has gone noticeably higher in the last few months!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Margi Cintrano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 12 March 2012 at 11:39
Ron,
 
Enjoying the photos and recipes on the Irish Pub Bouncing Evening.
 
Thanks, lots of good stuff to try ...
It is always nice to see how driven by passion you are, your photos, recipes, the package. Always interesting with anecdotes too.
Margi.
Volamos a Mediterraneo, un paraiso que conquista su gente u su cocina.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Daikon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 August 2012 at 14:34
Looks pretty good!

For your future with parsnips, you'll do better dicing them smaller and more uniformly.  Especially the cores of parsnips can be quite a bit tougher than potatoes, so you either discard them or make sure that they get cut into smaller pieces than your potatoes so that they can cook fully in the same time.  Parsnips are a bit different than carrots in that a slightly under-cooked chunk of carrot isn't too offensive, but under-cooked parsnips are a bit too much -- they do mellow as they soften with cooking. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 August 2012 at 14:43
Thanks for the advice on the parsnips, Daikon - I will definitely keep it in mind as I try new things with them. I am not ready to give up on them, because they have some interesting qualities, and I am sure that there are many grand uses for this "humble" vegetable.
 
this one turned out pretty well, and I think that anyone who tries it will be quite satisfied. It's probably best as a fall or winter dish, or for a rainy spring day, but to be honest, any time would be a good time for it.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Daikon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 17 August 2012 at 14:57
You can mash parsnips much like you would potatoes.  Either alone or mixed with mashed potatoes, that's a good way to become more familiar with the flavor of parsnips and should give you ideas for where else you might want to use them. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Margi Cintrano Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 August 2012 at 04:32
Ron,
 
You always make me hungry for those fab stews or Hot Pots as called in UK ...
 
Delicious looking ...
 
Carrots and Potatoes or other veggies:
 
I boil until almost tender, and drain ...
 
Then, I add them to the stew, for the last 15 to 20 mins. so that  they do not get mushy and break up ... they are tender, without oversoft texture.
 
Looks fab,
Margi.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 21 August 2012 at 14:12
i'll have to try that with the parsnips, daikon - it's definitely a vegetable that i'd like to explore a little more.
 
>>>You always make me hungry for those fab stews<<<
 
well then, margi - you'll just have to try this!
 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (1) Thanks(1)   Quote Johnnypets Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 February 2013 at 18:19
That really looks amazing!
I'm definitely going to give this a try.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 13 February 2013 at 19:01
Hi, Johnny, and welcome to the FotW! Please feel free to drop into the New Members' Lounge and introduce yourself;
 
 
We hope we have a few things to share with you, and look forward to learning from you as well. Glad that you like the look of this, and can't wait to hear about your results and impressions. Snap a photo or two if you get the chance, so we can see how it turned out!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote gonefishin Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 22 February 2013 at 10:40
Originally posted by Johnnypets Johnnypets wrote:

That really looks amazing!
I'm definitely going to give this a try.


  Johnny, I feel the same way as you.  It's always nice when somebody posts to one of these older posts...you sometimes realize that you missed one heck of a nice recipe.  I'm going to be giving this one a whirl as well.  Welcome to the forum, Johnny!

   Tas, your pictorials and posts are always a joy to look at and read...you really do such a nice job in your recipe threads.

   Great recipe!

 Dan
Enjoy The Food!
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote TasunkaWitko Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 23 February 2013 at 17:19
Hi, Dan ~ this is indeed some great stuff, and highly recommended!
 
Thanks for the kind words about my pictorials. I try to make them all interesting, at least ~ even better when they come out looking great!
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