St. Patrick's day is always a great celebration in our family. Not with green beer and corned beef, but with adaptations of wonderful, truly Irish recipes like Salmon with Colcannon, Braised Beef in Guinness and Rhubarb Fool with Oatmeal cookies for dessert. This year we had a wonderful and super easy Irish Stew.
Irish Stew is traditionally made with lamb, which is expensive and difficult to find in our area. And, since we don't buy lamb, it's an unusual taste to my palate. This year I tried a new recipe and the family loved it so much that they asked me to toss out my previous stew recipe and always use this one. Now that's saying something!
Slow Cooker Irish Stew
1- 1/2 pounds beef stew meat cut into 1-inch chunks
1/3 cup flour (save out 1 Tbsp for thickening at the end)
3 Tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, coarsely chopped
3 cloves minced garlic (1-1/2 teaspoons from a jar of minced garlic)
3 cups beef broth (3 cups water & 3 cubes beef bouillon)
3 or 4 medium potatoes, peeled & cut into 1-inch cubes
4 carrots, peeled & cut into 1-inch pieces
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
and added in the last 1/2 hour of cooking:
1 cup frozen peas
1 Tablespoon flour (saved above) blended into 2 Tablespoons cold water
Peel and dice the carrots and potatoes. Set aside.
I usually have to cut the stew meat from the butcher in half again to get 1-inch size pieces. Toss the beef stew meat in flour to completely coat the beef chunks. Discard excess flour that has touched raw meat. Heat olive oil in a frying pan. It is totally worth the extra effort to brown the meat, onions and garlic in a frying pan with the olive oil before putting them into your slow cooker.
Add seasonings and Worcestershire sauce to the beef broth. Deglaze the frying pan with the beef broth and pour it all over the meat in the slow cooker.
Add potatoes and carrots to the slow cooker. Give everything a stir to blend. Add up to another cup of beef broth if needed to just barely cover the stew ingredients.
Cover and cook on low heat all day, about 8 hours. Stir once or twice if desired.
A half-hour before serving, add peas and flour/water mixture. Set cooking temperature to high to bring the gravy to a boil to thicken. Stir as needed.
Serve with freshly baked Irish Soda Bread and butter.
May you always be blessed with
Walls for the wind, A roof for the rain,
A warm cup of tea by the fire.
Laughter to cheer you,
Those you love near you,
And all that your heart may desire.
