.irish stew.

This is a recipe I make around St. Patrick's Day every year. It is comfort food for me. I had planned on making corned beef, cabbage, and potatoes this year, but we were right in the middle of remodeling our master bathroom and I just didn't feel like making it, and I hadn't gone to the store early enough to buy the ingredients to make it.

So... I decided to make the stew.

Years ago when we lived in Virginia, we used to go to Busch Gardens Williamsburg all the time and in their little village of "Ireland", there's a cafe there that sells Irish Stew. They serve it in Irish soda bread bowls. Pretty amazing stuff for a theme park. This is my adaptation of theirs however I use lamb vs. their beef.

Ingredients you'll need:

lamb chops

baby carrots

baby dutch yellow potatoes

pearl onions

frozen peas

sage

bay leaf

broth (chicken or lamb)

burgundy wine

milk

flour


Trim the lamb chops of fat and cut the meat away from the bones. Cut into small pieces. Cut your carrots in half. Peel a strip away on the potatoes and then cut in half. Peel the pearl onions by first dunking them in boiling water for a minute, then pulling out and putting in a bowl of ice water to stop the cooking. Cut off the root end and squeeze the onion out.

Throw the lamb bones and fat into a pot. Add some carrots, onion, garlic cloves, celery, and a bay leaf. Add enough water to cover everything and then put on the stove. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and let simmer for an hour. This is the broth you want to use for this stew. After the hour is up, strain to take all the veggies and bones out. Set aside.

Lightly coat your pieces of lamb with some flour and salt and pepper.

In a soup pot, heat a little olive oil and 2 Tbsp butter. Add your floured lamb pieces and sear the meat on all sides.

Halfway through the searing process, add the carrots, potatoes, and a bay leaf. Cook until the outsides of the potato become a little glossy looking and translucent. Add 1 tsp sage.

At this stage, add 1 1/2 cups wine, the lamb broth and some chicken stock if you need it. Also add the pearl onions. Cover the pot and let cook until the potatoes become fork tender.

In a bowl, mix together 2 1/2 cups milk and 1/3 cup flour. Whisk until all lumps are gone.

While stirring, add the soup/flour mix to the soup. Stir until the soup starts thickening.

Oh and now would be a god time to take that bay leaf out. You don't want someone to accidently eat it!

Add a little bit of this stuff to your stew. It's called Kitchen Bouquet and it's a browning liquid that gives your soups and gravies great color. We want our Irish Stew to be nice and brown so don't leave this out.

Re-season with salt and pepper. Serve your soup with rolls, or Irish soda bread.

Printable version:

http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dg2vfjqm_16d37zjzdp