Irish Stew

Irish stew is a traditional folk stew that dates back to the early nineteenth century and was created out of a need to cook a meal using leftover ingredients. Mutton, onions, potatoes, and occasionally barley were used to make the stew at first, with lamb meat and other root vegetables like carrots, turnips, and parsnips added later.

Goat meat was allegedly utilized in the past, but beef is a prominent ingredient in today's dishes. The stew is cooked slowly for a couple of hours since the meat used in the meal is chewy and hard, generally bone-in, so that the flesh becomes soft and releases the fat into the stew, improving the taste of the entire dish.

Cooking a stew may be fairly liquid, so some people thicken it up by adding pearl barley, diced potatoes, and a teaspoon of roux.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided; 1 pound lamb cutlets or mutton (bones removed, cut into 2-inch/5-centimeter chunks), divided; 2 pounds potatoes (peeled and cut into quarters), divided; 1 cup roughly chopped carrots, divided; 1 cup roughly chopped onion, divided; 1 cup finely sliced leeks, cleaned and divided; 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour; 3 cups dark beef stock (1 1/2 pints); 2 or 3 cabbage leaves, thinly sliced, optional; Salt, to taste; Pepper, to taste.

Instructions:

• Gather the ingredients. Preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C/Gas Mark 4

• In a large frying pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil until hot but not smoking. Add half of the lamb pieces and brown all over by turning in the hot oil.

• Remove the lamb pieces with tongs and place them in a Dutch oven or ovenproof stockpot.

• Cover with half of the potatoes, half of the carrots, half of the onion, and half of the leeks.

• Add the remaining oil to the frying pan and heat. Add the remaining lamb and brown all over as before and add to the Dutch oven.

• Cover with the remaining potatoes, remaining onion, remaining leeks, and remaining carrots.

• Add the flour to the still-hot frying pan and stir really well to soak up any fat and juices. Cook over low heat for 3 minutes.

• Add the stock a ladle at a time and mix until you have a thick, lump-free sauce. You will not add all of the stock.

• Pour this sauce over the lamb and vegetables.

• Add the remaining stock to the Dutch oven, cover with a tight-fitting lid, and cook in the preheated oven for 1 hour.

• Add the cabbage (if using), replace the lid, and cook for another hour. Check from time to time to make sure the stock hasn't been reduced too much. If it has, adds a little boiling water. The meat and vegetables should always be covered in liquid. If the sauce is too runny at the end, you can always cook the stew a little longer with the lid removed.

• Season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve piping hot and enjoy.