I have to admit, I did indulge in, perhaps, a few more recipes and a few more beverages than I should have over the holiday season. I’m not going to lie, either: I didn’t take a picture of a single one of them to share with you folks.
There was the traditional turkey dinner with all of the fixings, a few charcuterie boards, some perogies and cabbage rolls, a nice steak and caesar, some wonderful salmon, of course the usual turkey leftovers, including soup, plus many mandarin oranges and pieces of chocolate.
As I’m writing this, we are in the middle of the (recent) cold snap and I’m looking at going back to work and hoping that my favourite jeans still fit me after two weeks of sweat pants and ‘I wonder what day it is’!
For our New Year’s dinner I made an amazing rack of lamb that we purchased from one of our local farms. I did that up with brussels sprouts and baked potato but, alas, again I totally missed the opportunity to take pictures to share with you. I’ll redo all of these to share in the future. I’m using the leftover lamb for this stew. It’s one of the only stews that I don’t start with a mirepoix. If you are using uncooked lamb, you’ll need to brown and sear it first. The best way to do that is to cook some bacon in a frying pan and then after cubing your lamb, sear and brown it in the bacon drippings. Alternatively you could sear and brown it in olive oil with some salt and pepper.
Savoury Irish Lamb Stew
Ingredients
- Lamb
- Potatoes
- Carrots
- Frozen peas
- Onions
- Beef or lamb broth
- Salt
- Pepper
- Rosemary
- Beef Bisto gravy mix
- Flour
- Beer
- Red wine
Instructions
- Start by cubing your lamb and either cook it as mentioned above or if already cooked, place it in a bowl.
- Peel and slice your carrots, onions and potatoes. Keep the peels unless you are using beef broth from the store.
- I created my lamb broth by boiling the bones and potato, onion and carrot peels rapidly for about 20 minutes. Strain out the bones and peels using a colander and return the broth to your stew pot. Add about as much water and beer/wine as you have broth to the pot. I use 50-50 water and beer with about a 1/2 cup of red wine. Guinness is highly recommended, but you can use whatever you have available, or just use water. I used a Yukon Brewing Lead Dog Ale for this one. If you are using store bought broth, use 50-50 broth and water/beer/wine mixture.
- Bring your base up to a medium boil and add in your carrots, onions, potatoes and cooked lamb. Leave it at a medium boil until potatoes and carrots are cooked through then reduce to a low boil. Add water as necessary to maintain enough liquid for the stew.
- Put in about a cup of frozen peas and stir well. Season generously with rosemary and add salt and pepper to taste.
- Whisk about 1 1/2 tablespoons each of Bisto and flour into about 2 cups of water then add to the stew.
- Stirring the stew constantly, let it thicken until you’ve achieved your desired consistency.
