Jun
18
2008
In olden days, when the Irish stew originated, people lived in cabins and did not have the many different utensils we have today, much less the abundance of ingredients at hand that we have come to take for granted. The potato was the staple dish of the Irishman, and that fact is reflected in most of the traditional Irish cooking. This is a recipe for authentic Irish stew, however it calls for mutton and not kid which was used a lot in cooking because the sheep were to valuable to eat. The ratio of meat-potato-onion should always stay the same, 1-2-1/2
- 500 g stew mutton in large pieces
- 1 kg peeled potatoes
- 250 g onion
Place the mutton in the bottom of a large pot. Place the potatoes and onions on top, whole. Add about 6 dl water and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cover and cook on a low heat for about 2 hours. Serve with pickled red cabbage!
Jun
18
2008
I pretty much lifted this whole recipe from Simply Recipes. I only modified it a little, adding some more vegetables that I found in the fridge and using different meat, as dad invested 800 grammes of lovely top sirloin in the dish, meaning a pretty big reduction in cooking time. I think I would prefer stew beef in this dish over the fine sirloin as stew beef has much more fat in it. One thing, though, I didn’t have to skim off any fat at all because there was none. Yey. I didn’t have any red wine so I used a little balsamic vinegar instead, and that mum has a garden full of fresh herbs so I used fresh thyme instead of dried. Here is my take on this lovely dish:
Feeds five or six:
- 800 g top sirloin in 2 cm pieces
- 1 whole garlic, minced
- 1 large swede in 1cm pieces
- 4 small carrots in 1 cm pieces
- 8 new potatoes in 1 cm pieces
- 2 onions in 1 cm pieces
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1/2 can Guinness (I love using only half of things in food cause then I get to drink the rest! Chef’s juice!)
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce
- 1-2 L beef stock (only add as much as will fit in your pot - remember that the meat and vegetables take up a lot of space too)
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
- 2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
- 1 tbsp butter
First, brown the meat in a large pot on a medium-high heat until brown on all sides. Season the meat with salt and pepper. Then add the garlic and cook for about one minute. Then add the stock, the Guinness, the balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, the sugar and the thyme. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting. Cover and allow to barely simmer.
In a very large skillet, melt the butter on a medium heat and cook the vegetables until golden brown. This takes about 20 minutes. Then move the vegetables to the pot of stew, remove the lid and let it all simmer for another 30 minutes or so. When the vegetables are tender, the stew is ready.
