Irish Stew for St. Patrick’s Day
(recipe: courtesy of my Irish friend Tim M.)
Ingredients:
3 pounds of beef (for stew)
1 bottle of Guinness
3 potatoes, peeled and chopped into large cubes
3 onions, (1/2 finely chopped for roux, rest chopped into larger pieces)
3 large carrots, chopped into large pieces
1 tea spoon of dry thyme
salt and pepper
2 cups of beef broth
2 table spoons of butter
2 table spoons of vegetable oil
2 table spoons of flour
2 table spoons of fresh parsley to garnish
Trim fat of the meat and cut into small cubes. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place all meat in a large container and pour dark beer all over it, close with cover or foil and marinade in refrigerator overnight.
In a large cast iron pan melt butter with oil and add finely chopped half onion and stir on low-medium heat until soft. Add flour and stir to create roux. Let it cook for a minute. Add layer of potatoes, all the meat, onions, carrots and remaining potatoes. Pour over the broth and all the marinating beer.
Cover and bring to boil, then reduce the heat to low and simmer for about two hours. Add more broth if required.
Taste and add more salt and pepper, if desired. When I made it for the first time, I added 2 pressed garlic cloves at the end. It made the sauce taste richer.
Add chopped green parsley and serve.(4 – 6 generous servings)
Wine pairing suggestion:
For the St. Patrick’s Day I started with Irish whiskey (just to keep the tradition). Did you ever try Feckin’ Whiskey? Yeah,
I know, sounds a little funky, but this Irish Whiskey is actually really good – even though it’s not single malt, it almost taste like one.
Somebody would probably prefer Guinness beer with this dish (since it’s cooked with it), I paired it with Australian Peter Lehmann’s red blend called Clancy’s (apology to Irish friends) and it worked pretty well. Not overwhelming, yet it complimented the richness of this stew.
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