Hearty and filling, this is the perfect entree to ward off a late winter chill. The rich flavor of stout adds a warm complexity to this Irish Stew. Served in a Bread Bowl and topped with a puff pastry shamrock it makes a festive centerpiece for a St. Patrick’s Day dinner.
Sharing Recipes
My friend Alanna and I have been sharing recipes for close to twenty-five years now. From back in the day when we copied recipes by hand, I have cards for Nana’s Shortbread, Gourmet Mocha Cookies, and Orzo with Spinach. These are written in Alanna’s handwriting and filed in my personal recipe box. They are still favorite recipes and used regularly in my kitchen.
When I worked on my Family Heirloom Cookbook several years ago, it turned out that Alanna was working on a similar project. By then we lived thousands of miles apart. Still we connected through our passion for sharing recipes and food histories.
At that time, there were still unfinished pages in my cookbook. I had some stories that centered around my family’s kitchen but the recipes had been lost along the way. Alanna helped me find recipes that matched those stories in style and era of origin. In time her recipe for Old Bill’s Beaten Fudge was paired with my grandmother’s story of a Little Lost Boy. It helped me make a tangible connection with my great grandmother, a woman I never met, through a recipe that could easily have come from her kitchen.
What We Have in Common
In many ways Alanna’s tastes are different from mine. She is influenced by traditions from Canada and the midwest. On the other hand, my cooking heritage is German and southern. Still one of the things I love most about cooking is, where food is concerned, I think that any two people can find common ground. Alanna was responsible for my reluctant introduction to Brussels sprouts and I made my Cheese Grits Casserole for her consideration. She made Corn Chowder topped with cottage cheese and I made Gazpacho with croutons.
We found that we both loved to bake cookies. Often the same recipe caught both our eyes and still they turned out differently. Like the gingerbread cookie recipe we found we were both baking one winter. Alanna’s cookies turning out uniform and delicious. Mine were carefully decorated with royal icing; pretty but best dipped in a cup of coffee. And at Kitchen Parade you will find a recipe for an herbed seafood stew that began with the same recipe as my Northwest Cioppino. The recipe has evolved a bit differently in both of our lives and we have both posted about our take on it.
A Good Stew for Sharing
This St. Patrick’s Day, I am once again posting a recipe that is also found at Alanna’s Kitchen Parade. This Irish Stew began as a recipe I found in Southern Living magazine in the 1990s. We have each changed the recipe, at least a little since then, to make it better suit our own style and taste. Still, at its core, it is the same – a dependably rich stew made with stout. You can use beef, lamb, or a combination for the meat base. I usually make it with beef though I think that seems less authentic for an Irish stew. For my part, I rely on the stout to give it a compelling Irish touch.
Hearty and filling this is a great dish for warding off any late winter chill. Served in a Potato Bread Bowl, followed by a Triple Chocolate Guinness Brownie and a cup of Irish Coffee, A Good Irish Stew makes a festive St. Patrick’s Day dinner. It is a recipe that is well worth sharing with friends.
A Good Irish Stew
Course: Main Dish, SoupCuisine: Irish, AmericanDifficulty: Medium8
servings40
minutes1
hour40
minutes2
hours20
minutesIngredients
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
3 to 4 pounds boneless beef sirloin (or a mixture of beef and lamb), cut into 1 inch cubes
2 large onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 12-ounce bottle of stout beer *
4 bay leaves
1 (10 1/2 ounce) can condensed beef broth, undiluted
2 cups water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 pound bag of baby carrots, or thickly sliced carrots
1 pound small new potatoes, or cubed potatoes
2 to 3 teaspoons dried tarragon
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1 (17 1/4 ounce) package frozen puff pastry, thawed
Directions
- Heat oil in a large pot or Dutch oven. When hot, brown the sirloin cubes on all sides. (This is best done in batches, adding more oil if needed, so that the heat in the pan stays high enough to brown the meat efficiently.)
- When all the meat is browned put it back into the pot and add the onion, garlic, stout, bay leaves, beef broth, water, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
- Add carrots, potatoes and tarragon. Cover and simmer 30 minutes more. Remove bay leaves.
- Combine 1/4 cup water and the flour until smooth. Pour into the stew in a thin stream stirring constantly. Cook stew over medium heat for 3 minutes, until thickened.
- Meanwhile cut puff pastry sheets into shamrock shapes using a cookie cutter and following package directions.
- Place the shamrocks on an ungreased baking sheet and bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes or until lightly browned.
- Ladle stew into bowls and garnish with a puff pastry shamrock.
- Sláinte!
Notes
- Recipe Source: Found in an old issue of Southern Living Magazine where it was called Emerald Isle Stew.
- *Rogue’s Shakespeare Stout is my favorite but in the interest of celebrating the Irish you may want to use Guinness.
I have used this recipe for many years. I make it every St. Patrick’s Day!!
This looks so good!
I have blogged about a couple Irish stew recipes myself and was on the quest for THE perfect Irish Stew for ,yself and a firend. I am so excited to try your recipe.
WOW..This looks absolutely perfect. I love your presentation of the stew. Thanks for coming over for a visit and I hope to see you back soon.
Fabulous stew like this always welcome in my family, especially with that beautiful clover decoration on top.
Cheers,
elra
obviously, the stew is phenomenal, but i can’t get past the cuteness of your puff pastry clover. adorable. 🙂
Hi, I’m blog hopping 🙂
The stew sounds delicious!
i have this simmering on my stove right now!!!!
That is really neat that you have a friend that you have been swapping recipes with for so many years. I like the way you both take a recipe and tweak it for your own tastes. The stew sounds great and dying for some Irish food I made some Cornbeef tonight for dinner. We had supper club last Sat and had a St. Pat’s Day feast. Oh and loved your golden cookies too. I have seen them done with white chocolate but the idea of butterscotch sounds really delicious. You have a lovely writing style and I enjoy reading your posts. Oh what Orlando Bloom has done for elves!
This looks like it would go great in a dutch oven over campfire coals at brown hollow. Maybe with a good red wine.
Looks nice…love the shamrock.
I love a good hearty stew, especially on these cold, rainy days we are getting. Your shamrock buicuits are perfect for St. Paddy’s Day.
Corn chowder with cottage cheese? Surely not! (Ha!)
My recipe box is much the same, lots of recipes from your kitchen, many copied while I sat at your kitchen table.
Here’s to many more years of swapping recipes!
xxoo AK
What a great time to post a recipe for an Irish stew. This looks delicious.
This stew sounds fabulous, just fabulous! It looks warm and comforting and flavorful, and if two of you have posted the recipe, then I know it must be good. What beautiful photographs. Love your blog!