This week, with the cold season, when stews and soups are so popular, almost gone, Roy decided he wanted to show you how to make a traditional stew. Many of the children he knows have soup or stew for dinner quite regularly, but often the flavourings come from a bottle or sachet of preprepared mix. He was sad when he learned this because soups and stews are so easy to make! As long as you have a few herbs, meat, vegies and time, they are hearty but simple meals. One stew which Roy particularly likes is very old, very traditional but very easy to make - Irish Stew. So this week, Roy creates Irish Stew.
Irish Stew is an old recipe, using simple ingredients to create a great, hearty meal. The main, non-negotiable ingredients are lamb, onions and potatoes. Traditionally, the stew would have been made with mutton, a tougher meat which comes from sheep which over two years old. If you can find mutton, it is a stronger flavour, but it isn't easy to find today! Potatoes were the main crop grown in Ireland before the potato famine, when the potato crop rotted and people starved. They are filling, and good for padding out a meal and traditionally there would be more potatoes than meat. Roy made a modern version of the dish with less potato (which is probably healthier!) Some Irish Stews use other root vegetables. You could add carrot, turnips, parsnip or swedes.
You Will Need:
- Lamb (or mutton if you can find it) - Roy likes using grilling chops, but you could use any cut, including the cheap ones which are very tough. If you can, leave the bones in because this is traditional and adds a lot of flavour.
- Potatoes - you will need quite a few. Roy used 1 large potato for each chop. Waxy potatoes are best for stews because they keep their shape, but any will do fine. Irish Stew isn't picky!
- At least 2 onions.
- 1 litre of liquid. Of course, stock is best (lamb stock or vegetable stock preferably) but water with a couple of stock cubes, or just water on its own is also fine.
- A small knob of butter (a knob of butter is just what you pick up on the knife, probably about 1 teaspoon)
- A couple of bay leaves - you can use fresh ones, or dry ones.
- Thyme - a sprig about 4-5 centimetres is perfect, or a teaspoon of dried will do fine (and it was what Roy used)
- Fresh parsely and mint - again you want quite a bit, somewhere between 3/4 cup and a cup combined. Roughly chop it (you can do this by putting it in a food processor and quickly pulsing it)
- Salt and pepper to taste (though if you use stock cubes, you might not want to use too much salt, they can be quite salty already)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celcius
- Trim the fat from the lamb.
- Roughly chop the onions.
- Peel the potatoes and cut them into pieces. Roy cut his potatoes into quarters.
- If you have a casserole dish which you can use on the stove, melt the butter in it over a medium high heat. Otherwise, use a large frying pan.
- Fry off the meat. You want to brown the meat, but not cook it completely so just let it seal, flip it over, let the other side seal and then remove it from the pan. If you used the casserole dish, put the meat on a plate, but if you used a frying pan you can put the meat straight into the casserole dish.
- Add the onions to the pan which you fried the meat off in. You want them to just soften, not quite brown. If you used a frying pan, transfer the onions to the casserole dish. If not, you can leave them in the pan for the next step.
- Add about 1/4 to 1/2 the stock to the pan and turn the heat to high. When the stock starts to boil, scrape the meat and onion juices stuck on the bottom up. These will add flavour to the stew. If it's a teflon coated pan make sure you only use a wooden spoon or similar - metal in particular will scratch the coating.
- If you were using the casserole dish to fry off your meat, put the meat back in. Otherwise, tranfer the hot stock to the casserole dish.
- Now, add your potato, thyme, bayleaf, salt, pepper and the rest of the stock to the casserole, put a lid on the casserole dish, and put the casserole in the oven.
- Cook the casserole for 3 and a half hours.
- Take the casserole out of the oven and give it a stir.
Now, there are two options to finish the dish.
- You can eat the Irish Stew on the day it is cooked. If the stew is looking a bit dry, add some more water. Return the casserole to the oven and cook for a further 30 minutes. Irish stew is quite fatty, so before you serve it, let it sit for about 15 minutes and then use a spoon to skim off the fat. Throw the fat out, stir through the chopped parsely and mint and serve the stew with crusty bread, salad or extra vegetables.
- Make the stew a day ahead. After removing the stew from the oven, put it in the fridge still in the casserole dish. Next day, use a spoon to skim the fat off the top of the stew. Then, put the casserole dish in the oven at 180. You might want to put the casserole dish into a cold oven and heat it slowly to prevent the dish cracking in sudden heat if you are using a glass casserole dish. Heat the stew for about 30 minutes, add the parsely and mint and serve.
Roy was so excited about this meal that unfortunately, he ate it all before there were any photos of the finished product as he was eating it! The meat was meltingly tender, the potatos soft and flavoursome and the stew was simply delicious. If you would like to know what it looked (and tasted like) though, you will just have to cook it for yourself!