By MICHAEL HASTINGS
Winston-Salem Journal
2008-03-03 00:00:00
Once upon a time, Irish stew was as plain as plain could be, a basic meat-and-potatoes dish.
Traditional Irish stew has only lamb, potatoes, onions, salt, pepper and water. To make it "fancy," some sprinkle the top with parsley.
That's the Irish stew I ate in my youth. It's the recipe in my 1970s edition of "The Joy of Cooking" and in such books as the "Larousse Treasury of Country Cooking," first printed in 1968.
Traditional Irish stew is so plain that the lamb isn't even browned before it's simmered. It reminds me of the "gray" beef stews my grandfather liked when I was a child.
Part of the appeal, actually, is that traditional Irish stew takes so little work. Layer sliced potatoes and onions with chunks of lamb in a pot, add water, salt and pepper, and simmer it until everything is tender.
It doesn't get much easier than that. For me, it's simple but satisfying. Critics, though, could fairly argue that it's a bit on the bland side.
Enter new and improved Irish stews, which generally take a lot more work but also have something to show for it.
Darina Allen included a more colorful and complicated Irish stew in her book, "Traditional Irish Cooking," first published in 1980 and again, in paperback, in 2005.
Allen, the founder of the Ballymaloe Cookery School near Cork, Ireland, is perhaps the most popular author of Irish cookbooks. Given such credentials, I can hardly accuse her of creating an inauthentic Irish stew, even if it does have browned meat, carrots, thyme and a French roux, a mixture of butter and flour that thickens the stew.
At the Web site of Bord Bia (http://www.bordbia.ie/), the Irish Food Board, I found an even more unusual Irish stew from a Cork chef named Michael Clifford. His has carrots, celery, leek and even shredded cabbage -- the cabbage being unheard of, as far I know, even in a country that loves cabbage. He also boosts the flavor with a little Worcestershire sauce (a condiment of English-Indian origin) and enriches it with cream.
Cream in Irish stew! What will they think of next?
Why, Guinness stout, of course. This one's kind of a no-brainer, and it shows up in a recipe in the cooking section of the About.com Web site clearly labeled as Irish-American. But I'd actually be surprised if the Irish didn't think up this new addition to Irish stew.
The recipe with stout also uses cream, or rather half-and-half, and it adds such new vegetables as peas and mushrooms. It suggests serving the stew over mashed potatoes or champ, which is the Irish version of mashed potatoes with spring onions thrown in.
This St. Patrick's Day, it's nice knowing that one has a choice of Irish stews, from plain to fancy.
BASIC IRISH STEW
2-1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced 1/2-inch thick
Salt and pepper
2 onions, sliced
2-1/2 pounds lamb, trimmed of excess fat, cut into 1-inch cubes
Water
Chopped fresh parsley
Heat oven to 325 degrees. In a Dutch oven or casserole dish, spread a single layer of potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Top with a layer of onions. Add a layer of lamb, and season with salt and pepper. Repeat layers, ending with potatoes. Add enough water to barely cover.
Bring pot to a boil on the stove. Skim surface.
Cover pot and transfer to oven. Cook until meat and potatoes are tender, about 2 hours. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed. Serve garnished with chopped parsley.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
BALLYMALOE IRISH STEW
Adapted from "Traditional Irish Cooking" by Darina Allen, the founder of Ballymaloe Cookery School near Cork, Ireland.
2-1/2 to 3 pounds lamb chops, not less than 1-inch thick
8 medium or 12 baby carrots
3 to 4 medium or 12 baby onions
8 medium or 12 small potatoes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
3 to 3-3/4 cups lamb stock or water
1 sprig fresh thyme (or 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme)
1/4 pound (1 stick) butter
1 scant cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon freshly chopped parsley
1 tablespoon freshly chopped chives
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Remove excess fat from chops and place fat in a heavy pan over low to medium-low heat to render (liquefy) the fat. Discard any remaining fat solids.
Cut trimmed chops in half, discarding any bones. (Bones can be used to make lamb stock.)
Peel onions and scrape or peel carrots. If onions are large, quarter them through the root; if small, leave them whole. If large, cut carrots into chunks; if small, leave them whole. Set aside.
Toss meat into hot rendered fat in pan over medium heat. Brown slightly, then remove from pan. Toss the carrots and onions in the hot pan just long enough to coat them with fat. In a Dutch oven or casserole dish, layer the meat, carrots and onions, seasoning each layer with salt and pepper.
Pour lamb stock or water into the pan used to brown the meat and deglaze it, scraping up any browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Then pour the liquid into the pot with the meat and vegetables. Peel the potatoes. Cut into chunks if medium or leave whole if small. Place potatoes on top. Add sprig of thyme and bring contents of pot to a boil on the stove. Cover pot with aluminum foil, then the pot's lid. Place in oven and cook until meat and vegetables are tender, 1 to 1-1/2 hours.
Pour liquid from casserole dish. Let rest 5 minutes, then skim off any fat and discard. Place defatted liquid in a pot and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile, melt the butter over low heat in a small saucepan and stir in the flour. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes. Stir some of the roux, a tablespoon or two at a time, into stew's liquid until thickened as much as desired. (Expect to have plenty of roux left over.) Place thickened liquid back in stew pot. Serve stew garnished with chopped parsley and chives.
Makes 8 servings.
CLIFFORD'S GOURMET IRISH STEW
Adapted from one posted on http://www.bordbia.ie/ by chef Michael Clifford of Cork, Ireland.
2 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed of fat and diced (bones reserved)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 small white turnips, peeled and chopped
2 sticks celery
1 leek, well washed and sliced
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 scant cup finely shredded cabbage
Dash Worcestershire sauce
Fresh chopped parsley
Place lamb in large pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil. Immediately remove from heat and drain and rinse lamb.
Place lamb in a clean pot. Add bones and 1 quart fresh water. Add carrots, onion, turnips, celery and leek. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a simmer, then lower heat, cover and cook gently for about 1 hour, or until meat is tender. Remove bones and discard.
Scoop out about 1 cup containing some liquid and some vegetables (but no meat) and puree with the heavy cream in a food processor or blender. Return cream mixture to stew with the cabbage and dash of Worcestershire. Simmer 5 to 10 minutes, or until cabbage is tender. Taste for salt and pepper and add more if needed. Serve garnished with parsley.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
IRISH-AMERICAN LAMB STEW (WITH STOUT)
Adapted from the home-cooking section of the About.com Web site, http://www.homecooking.about.com/, attributed to Peggy Trowbridge Filippone. To save time, buy frozen pearl onions, which are already blanched and peeled.
2 teaspoons butter
3 pounds boneless leg of lamb, trimmed of fat and cubed
12 ounces Guinness stout
1-3/4 cups (or 1 14-ounce can) reduced-sodium beef broth
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 pound white pearl onions, blanched and peeled
1-1/2 cup frozen baby peas
1 pound white mushrooms, halved if large
1 cup half-and-half
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
Prepared mashed potatoes or champ (recipe below), optional.
Heat butter over medium heat in Dutch oven or other large pot. Add meat and brown. Pour in stout and bring to a boil. Add broth, tomato sauce, salt, pepper, thyme and onions. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer 45 minutes.
Skim off any fat from surface of stew. Add peas and mushrooms. Cover and simmer 15 minutes or more, until lamb and vegetables are tender.
In a small bowl, whisk together half-and-half and flour. Stir into stew and simmer 3 to 5 minutes, until stew thickens and loses any taste of raw flour. Taste and add salt and pepper if needed.
Serve over mashed potatoes, if desired.
Makes 6 servings.
CHAMP
Recipe from http://www.homecooking.about.com/.
4 pounds potatoes
1 cup milk
1 cup chopped spring onions (green onions)
1/2 cup (4 tablespoons) butter, divided use
Salt and black pepper
Peel potatoes. Place in pot and cover by 1 inch with water. Boil until tender, then drain.
Simmer milk with spring onions for 5 minutes. Mash potatoes and combine with milk and spring onions. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the butter until melted. Season with salt and pepper.
Spoon potato mixture onto plates and create a small well in the center. Place a dab of remaining butter in well of each mound of potatoes.
Makes 8 servings.
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.scrippsnews.com/.)
