My Irish Stew Recipe

This is a spin off of my Mom's Irish stew with is really much nicer...but this one is quick and easy and very tasty. I really believe that Stew was the food of the masses....poor people put everything they had into a pot with water and boiled it..so please do not be ridged with the cooking of this meal. I feel that you can't go wrong with the flavor if the start of it is done right. read all the way through before starting to cook this meal.

Ingredients:

1lb of stewing meat (preferably lamb, but beef is ok ).

4-5 large carrots unpeeled.

1 large yellow onion.

4-5 large potato's.

a cube of beef stock (Knorr is a good brand)

4 cloves of garlic.

Thyme, black pepper, salt, parsley, sage(optional)

Prep work, wash the carrots and cut them up into circles, not length-wise. Dice up the onion, and finely chop up the garlic. Stewing meat usually already comes in chunks and it does not have to be lean, in fact a little fatty is good. Crumble the beef stock into a pyrex measuring jug with 2 cups of water, microwave it until the water is hot, the stock should be mainly dissolved, stir if not.

Cooking

In a Large!! pot that has a lid, sprinkle some oil, salt, pepper, thyme and put over heat. When hot enough drop in the meat and fry until the meat is just starting to brown on the outside. (for me thats about 30-60 sec). then add the carrots,onions, garlic, keep stirring. Add some thyme and keep sirring, after about 2/3 min it will seem that the ingredients is oily(from the fat/carrots) then add the hot broth. Stir again, the level of water should be able to float the meat, if not add more water. You can always boil down the water, so less is bad and too much is fixable. Cover and reduce the heat so that its a slow simmer. After about 10 min add thyme/sage/parsley, add water if necessary. Simmer for 2 hours. ( the meat should not be cooked while frying , it is to cook while boiling and simmering...this makes the meat very tender...it will puff up after two hours but will be crumbly by the end). While simmering happens, I recommend a nice Irish whiskey over ice ( Jameson/Powers) maybe even a "Hot Toddy". Also while simmering peel the potato's and cut them up into chunks. After about 2 hours check the water level, there should be enough to boil the potato's in. Add the potato's and add more thyme. Now its just a waiting game, boil down to the right consistency (your choice). I like my potato's well done...thats another 45-hour. Serve in a bowl with some dipping bread, buttered bread also works nicely...with real butter not the marg.

I hope you enjoy.

Gavin Waters.