St Patrick's Day Irish Stew

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Cooking time:  1 hour
Total time: 1.5 hours
Servings: 6

It's St Patrick's Day! They say that Irish blood runs in many of us (and even those who don't have any Irish in them claim to have some Irish ancestry on St Patrick's Day!)

Apart from donning a silly green hat, and pretending to like Guinness, this year I'll be having a go at making this Irish Stew.

Irish Stew is rather simple to make, you just need a good chunk of cooking time. That's the art of the stew, allowing it to have the time for all the flavors of the meat and vegetables to combine, until you're left with what tastes like home on a plate!

I got this recipe from an Irish bar owner who insisted this was how his own grandmother used to make stew in 1930s Ireland. He did, however, mention that the herb butter was added by his mother after she moved over to the State (herbs were in short supply in Ireland a few decades ago!)

So give it a go, and may the luck of the Irish be with you on St Patrick's Day!

Your Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter
8 large potatoes
4 carrots
2 onions
2 1/2 pounds of lamb (steak or mince)
Fresh parsley
Fresh chives
Fresh thyme
Salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper

How to make your St Patrick's Day Irish Stew

Take the butter out of the fridge to soften.

Peel the potatoes and cut them into halves.

Wash and scrub carrots clean and then cut into chunks. Keep the chunks nice and big.

If using lamb steak, cut into chunks using a knife, or use a pair of kitchen shears. If using mince, use your hands to roll into medium sized meatballs.

Chop the onions (again, keep them nice and big, like the carrots).

Fill a large Dutch Oven with water, and then throw in the potatoes and meat.

Place the Dutch Oven onto the stove and heat until it is boiling.

Now add in the onions and the carrots.

Turn the heat down to medium and keep the stew at a simmer till all the vegetables are cooked.

In the meantime, finely snip some fresh parsley, chives and thyme into a small bowl.

Add the softened butter to the bowl and mix with a fork.

To serve, spoon ladles of Irish Stew onto plates, and then spoon over some of the Herb

Butter. Add salt and black pepper to taste.

Happy St Patrick's Day!