I really enjoy the warmer, not yet hot, weather we experience here in southern California during the spring. But fall and winter are undoubtedly my favorite seasons for cooking. I love making cozy comforting soups, stews, and casseroles. Sure, there’s no reason why I can’t make these sorts of dishes during spring and summer, but it just doesn’t feel quite the same.
A few months ago, during one of our colder January spells, I got a craving for Irish stew. But I’d never made it before. I starting scouring cookbooks and websites for good recipes. I couldn’t find any single recipe I really liked, so I selected what I did like from each one and came up with my own:
Colleen’s Irish Guinness Stew
Ingredients
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* kosher salt and fresh black pepper to taste
* 1 pound lamb stew meat
* 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
* 2 tablespoons minced garlic
* 4 medium potatoes, cubed (I like to keep the skins on)
* 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced
* 1/2 large onion, chopped in big chunks
* 2 cans Guinness
* 1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
* 1/4 teaspoon dried basil
* 1 bay leaf
* 1 cup water
* 2 teaspoons beef bouillon granules
* cornstarch mixed in water, to thickenMethod
Preheat oven to 350 deegres.
Pat lamb dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle lamb generously with salt and pepper. In a Dutch Oven, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat until very hot, but not smoking.
Add the lamb in a single layer and brown well on all sides, about 10 minutes total. Transfer nicely browned pieces to a bowl.
Melt the butter in the pot. Saute onions until translucent, stirring occasionally.
Add the garlic, continue stirring, and cook 1 minute more.Return meat to the pot. Add the potatoes, carrots, thyme, basil, and bay leaf. Pour the Guinness over the pot mixture. Dissolve the been bouillon granules in the 1 cup of water (this is twice the normal concentration), and add to the stew.
Cover and bake 1-1/2 to 2 hours, or until vegetables are tender.
Check the stew with 30 minutes remaining. If the broth isn’t a thick enough consistency for you, dissolve cornstarch in a small glass of water and add it to the stew. Continue until it’s the consistency you like.
Remove the bay leaf before serving.
Serves: 4-6
Preparation Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 2 hours
I opted to go a little heavy on the Guinness, but I happen to love the stuff. You might want to start off with just 1 can, and add more according to your taste during the baking process.
This is excellent with warm sourdough bread. Oh, and with another Guinness of course.
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Article by Colleen Greene
I am a librarian, web developer, and technologist, who is into cooking, hiking, quilting and stitching, genealogy and local history.
Colleen has written 159 articles for The Taste Place.
