Granny’s Irish Stew
A while back we moved to Wales for a couple of years while BH worked on a college program in documentary photography. Classes at the uni were one day a week. Many of the students lived at home in various parts of Europe and traveled each week for class.
Laughlin McKee came from Ireland each week. Often the late night flight back home was cancelled. We had a guest bedroom, so he stayed with us until his flight the next morning. When he did, he liked to cook dinner for us all. This Irish stew was a favorite that he learned to cook from his Granny in Dublin, Ireland.
Note: Feel free to use sweet potatoes instead of white potatoes. And yes, I need to put a picture of the real dish in the post. Next time I make this, I’ll get a photograph. I tend to forget, because I’m cooking these recipes for dinner, not for the web!
Granny’s Irish Stew
Ingredients
- 1 small yellow onion
- 1 medium parsnip
- 1 1/2 stalks celery
- 2 medium carrots
- Cooking oil (something that tolerates high heat such as coconut oil or ghee)
- 1 pound beef chunks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 4 fist sized (about 4-6 oz) white potatoes
- 1 heaping Tablespoon corn starch
- 1 heaping teaspoon Bisto gravy powder or Kitchen Bouquet (optional)
Instructions
- Finely chop onion, parsnip, and celery. Cut carrots into large circles (about 1/3 inch thick).
- Pour a couple of glugs (about 2 Tablespoons) cooking oil into a pot and heat until very hot. Add beef and stir until nicely brown. Add salt and pepper and stir well.
- Add chopped veggies (not the potatoes) to the pot and stir all together. Add water to the pot to cover everything. Bring to a boil, reduce, heat, cover, and simmer for 1 hour.
- Put the potatoes in a separate pot. Cover with water, bring to a boil, and boil for about 1/2 hour or until done.
- When the stew is finished cooking, stir the corn starch with 2 Tablespoons cold water and the Bisto or Kitchen Bouquet (if using). Mix until the corn starch is dissolved. Add the mix to the stew. Stir well. Cook and stir for about 2 minutes until gravy is thickened and smooth.
- Remove the potatoes from the pot and peel if desired. Put each potato in a bowl, chop it up a bit, and pour a serving of stew over the potato.
Notes
Our Irish friends cook the potatoes separate from the stew. If there are extra visitors for dinner, you can just cook enough potatoes so there is one for each person and divide the stew among everyone.
