Irish Stew

Just to recap a little, we made Irish Stew last night to commemorate the 160th anniversary of my Great Great Great Grandfather John Curtin’s arrival in Sydney, Australia from Cork City, Cork Ireland onboard the Scotia on 4th April, 1854.

I forgot to mention earlier that we are all fighting off chest infections and given my low-immunity status, we are wearing masks around the house. Well, we couldn’t eat with the masks on so we probably undid all our protective precautions. I must say these masks feel very uncomfortable. Your face heats up. Geoff’s glasses fog up. Then there’s just the whole psychological aversion to wearing a mask and feeling rather freakish. I’m not some kind of germophobe. At least, I never used to be. This is my new way of life perhaps.. at least, in winter. Need to find myself some fancy versions so I can poke a bit of fun at this stupid device. That said, just because you need to do something that doesn’t mean I need to like it!

Anyway, back to the Irish Stew.

Irish Tears

While frying up the onions, I found out why the Irish are crying. My goodness! Those vapours really got to me!

Mister cooking the chops with face mask on.

This recipe provided enough stew to feed our family for two nights and once I’d recovered from peeling all those potatoes, was a pretty easy meal to cook. Just left it on the stove to cook itself.

We will definitely be eating this stew on a regular basis from now on.

xx Rowena

Irish Stew=adding the veggies to the meat.

Irish Stew

Based on a recipe from taste.com.au

¼ Cup plain flour

1.25kg lamb chops, trim off fat.

¼ cup olive oil

1 brown onion finely chopped

1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

2 carrots, sliced

1 kg desiree potatoes, cut into 2 cm pieces

6 cups of beef stock

Thyme sprigs to serve

 

Directions

1)    Wash, peel and dice potatoes and wash and slice carrots and put aside.

2)    Finely cut onion.

3)    Heat 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a large heavy frying pan on medium heat and when bubbling add onion and thyme leaves. Cook stirring for 3 or 4 minutes or until tender and transfer to a bowl.

4)    Place flour and chops in a bag. Shake until chops are coated.

5)    Increase heat to high. Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in pan. Add half the chops. Cook for two minutes on each side and transfer to a plate. Repeat with remaining oil and chops.

6)    Leave half the chops on the bottom and cover with half the onion mix, half the potatoes and carrots and then cover with the remaining chops and cover these with the remaining onion mix, potatoes and carrots.

7)    Pour over stock.

8)    Bring to the boil, skimming off fat where necessary. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour 30 minutes.

9)    Remove lid and simmer until sauce has thickened to desired consistency. I ended up simmering it for at least an hour and the sauce became more of a gravy, which we preferred to a watery soup.

10)  Serve with buttered slices of Irish soda bread straight from the oven.

 

An Irish feast