Tag: stew

Irish stew recipe

Irish stew (Irish: stobhach/Stobhach Gaelach) is a Lamb (or Mutton) and root vegetable stew native to Ireland.

As in all traditional folk dishes, the exact recipe is not consistent from time to time, or place to place.

Basic ingredients include lamb, or mutton (mutton is used as it comes from less tender sheep over a year old, is fattier, and has a stronger flavour, and was generally more common in less-affluent times), as well as potatoes, onions, and parsley.It may sometimes also include carrots.

Irish stew is also made with kid goat. Irish Stew is not made with Beef.

Ingredients (serves 4)

  • Oil, for cooking
  • 150g smoked bacon, I find streaky works best
  • 600g diced lamb shoulder
  • 3 or 4 onions, sliced
  • 3-4 carrots, sliced into halves
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 20-30g fresh thyme
  • 100g pearl barley
  • 700-800ml lamb stock
  • 4-5 potatoes, not too big, cut into chunks

Prep and cooking (2-3+ hours)

  1. First heat the oven to 160°c (fan).
  2. Whilst it’s warming up heat some oil in a frying pan on a medium-high heat. cut the bacon into small strips and cook for 3-5 minutes until slightly crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and put into a casserole dish.
  3. Now turn the heat up and add the lamb, cook for about 5 minutes until the outside is nicely browned. Remove from the pan into the casserole dish.
  4. Now cook the onion and carrots in the same frying pan for another 5 minutes or so and add to the casserole dish.
  5. Put the pearl barley in the frying pans and add the stock and fresh thyme, as it comes to the boil pour it all in the casserole dish and mix well.
  6. Place the potato on top of everything and put a lid on or cover with tin foil. Cook for about 2 hours or until the potatoes are nice and soft.
  7. Serve, eat, enjoy!

Costing

The whole dish is a bit on the pricey side coming in at about £7.22

The above recipe will serve 4, making it about £1.80 a portion, it could possibly be stretched to 6 Working out at £1.20 a serving.

The main cost is in the lamb (not cheap!) and shoulder is generally the cheapest cut you’ll find.

You could take the bacon out to save another quid but it’s not quite the same.

Nutrition

Per serving (based on 4 servings)

Nutrition info per serving (around 400g)

Dumplings recipe


I could probably eat them all day given the chance.

DUMPLINGS!

Yes, we all love a good dumpling, or at least we should (I think?)

This recipe is a request from @helenknowles on the Facebook page, hope you can get it to work!

Ingredients (makes about 8)

  • 150g self raising flour
  • 75g beef/veg suet (I recommend beef)
  • 1 tsp baking powder (optional but fluffs them up a bit more)
  • Either; a stew/casserole or chicken/beef stock and some gravy granules to thicken (I like to use 1 chicken and 1 beef stock cube together)
  • Salt & pepper
  • Water
  • (optional) fresh or dried herb(s) of your choice

Equipment

  • Mixing bowl
  • Scales
  • A saucepan, or if putting in a stew make sure the dish is big enough to hold them
  • Knife and chopping board if using fresh herbs
  • Tablespoon
  • Sieve (optional)

Prep and cooking (25-35 minutes)

  1. Weigh out 150g of flour with the baking powder and sieve into a mixing bowl.
  2. Add 75g of suet, salt and pepper (I usually use a fair amount) and any herbs if using and mix around with a spoon.
  3. Add 1 tbsp of water and mix well, keep doing this until you have a firm dough, it doesn’t need a lot of water, usually only 3-5 tbsp so don’t overdo it or you have to start adding flour to balance it out and the whole thing goes out of proportion.
  4. Cut the dough in 6-8 pieces and roll them into balls, they might look a bit small but the absorb a lot of liquid and grow.
  5. If you have a stew in the oven, add the dumplings 20-30 minutes before you plan to serve.
  6. If you don’t have a stew, get some stock on to boil, when it’s boiling add some gravy granules to thicken the liquid, then add the dumplings, put a lid on the pan and reduce the heat to low and cook for 20-30 minutes. We add the gravy granules as it help the dumplings hold their shape, but if cooking in a saucepan be sure to keep an eye on them.
  7. Eat and try not to become a dumpling addict

All of that, and dim-sum

No it was just a headline, no dim-sum here, but they are a kind of dumpling and I’ll get a recipe up for them soon.

Costwise these little balls of joy cost between 7-15p each depending if you use herbs, and which herbs, making 8 cost somewhere between 56p-£1.20.

Compared with the packet mix which costs about 80p and says it makes 8, so it might cost an extra 20-40p depending what you put in them, but you can’t beat homemade!

Give it some cheese

A variation I like to do it cut some cubes of cheddar or any other cheese and place them in the centre of the dumpling before cooking, though it can be fairly thick to get it to stay in there while it’s cooking!

More recipes to come

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