Irish Lamb Stew Recipe

[Arlin_MacRae]

A bunch of friends and our wives got together last weekend for a belated St. Paddy's Day party and we each took a dish. I looked around for something authentic and I found it. Then I made it my own. I'm like Mista: gotta tweak on things.

Instead of a straight-up lamb stew I smoked the meat, of course. The men and women alike really liked it. If the two cups of leftovers out of a six quart pot of the stuff are any indication, I think I have a hit here. Here's the recipe:

Smoked Irish Lamb Stew

(For about 6 quarts)

1/2 lb. thickly sliced bacon, diced
5 lbs. boneless lamb shoulder, trimmed and cubed into 1-inch pieces
1 tbsp. salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 c. all-purpose flour
2 cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 lg. yellow onions, peeled and finely chopped
1/2 c. Irish Stout beer
3 c. Beef Stock or use canned
2 tsp. sugar
4 c. carrots, cut into 1 inch pieces
3 lbs. potatoes, peeled, quartered, and cut into 1/2 inch pieces
1 tsp. dried thyme
1/2 c. dry white wine
Corn Starch, as needed, as a thickening agent
Chopped parsley (garnish when served)


Smoke the cubed lamb for 1 hour at ~ 225° using a light wood (e.g. pecan)

Sauté the bacon in a large frying pan. Remove the bacon from the grease, leaving the grease in the pan on low heat.

In a large mixing bowl, mix the salt, pepper, and flour. Dredge the lamb through it a few pieces at a time. Turn up heat under frying pan and brown the meat in the reserved bacon fat.

Transfer the browned meat into a large (10 - 12 quart) pot, leaving as much of the bacon grease in the frying pan as you can. If you run out of grease, use a little vegetable oil.

Add the garlic and yellow onion to the pan and sauté until the onion begins to color a bit. Deglaze the frying pan with 1/2 cup of beer and add the garlic-onion mixture to the pot along with the reserved bacon pieces and all remaining ingredients minus the parsley. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours or until tender.

Add equal amounts of corn starch and water to thicken the gravy, as necessary. Start with two tbsps of each.

Check for salt and pepper before serving, then top with the parsley garnish.

To go with this dish, I recommend a thick Irish bread for dippin'.


Arlin

[BobBrisket]

Sounds like some good stew there!! Nothing like sopping up the juice with some bread.

[deepsouth]

i'm going to try this today. thanks for the recipe.

[fantomlord]

That sounds good! Parsnips and some dried lavender also make a great addition to lamb stew.

[chicagokp]

Bookmarking! Thanks. Definitely will try this soon.

[peeps]

Sounds like it would be great! Thanks for sharing!

[Ron_L]

Holy resurrection, Batman!

[Happy Hapgood]

Yep, thats a bookmark here too! Thanks for sharing.