Johnny McEldoo and Some Irish Stew

Before I dive in on last week's dishes, I would like to take a minute to say a big THANK YOU to all of you who keep reading!  My blog has gone from a twinkle in my eye to a bit of a driving force, not only for me, but for some of you!  I love when I hear things like, "Your blog has inspired me to plant a garden," or that some of you are pushing yourselves to try new recipes and shop at your respective local farmers markets.

I started this little experiment just two months ago and in that time, my page has been viewed over 1,200 times with an average or 64 views per post.  I've written 18 posts that contain all sorts of silly stories, pictures and recipes, been to the farmers market the last ten Saturdays, and have reached nine countries on four continents with my little blog-that-could!  Holy cow!  Thank you my wonderful readers!  Keep reading...I'm just getting warmed up.

Okay--back to our regularly scheduled programming:

Last Wednesday was a cold and drizzly day (much like today) and nothing sounded better than some Irish Beef Stew.  Traditionally, Irish stew consists of lamb shoulder or other cuts of lamb, but as you may have read, I used all of my lamb for my dinner party the previous Saturday (insert moment of silence to remember that insanely good dinner).  Instead, I pulled out one package of beef stewing meat from the freezer and decided, "That'll do."

Irish Beef Stew (adapted from SimplyRecipes.com)

1 pound stew beef
1 tablespoon olive oil
6 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups beef broth
1 cup Guinness beer
1 cup red wine (trust me)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon dried thyme
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
2 bay leaves
2 tablespoons butter
3 pounds russet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 large onion, diced
2 cups peeled carrots, chopped into 1/2" pieces (about 3 or 4 small or medium carrots)
salt and pepper
2 tablespoons fresh parsley, chopped

Preparation
Heat olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat and brown meat on all sides.  This will take about 6 minutes.  Add garlic and saute for one minute.  Add beef broth, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce and bay leaves. Stir to combine and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to medium-low heat, then cover and simmer for one hour, stirring occasionally.

While the meat and stock is simmering, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside until the beef stew in step one has simmered for one hour. On a side note, they had rainbow carrots at the farmers market this past weekend.  They were in all these fun colors: purple, white, red, green and yellow.  They taste just like the orange ones we all love, but they were so much more festive!  I picked up one white and one yellow for this recipe.

After one hour, add the vegetables to the beef mixture and stir to combine.  Simmer for another 40 minutes until the vegetables are tender.  There was some fat that I had to spoon off, so you will want to check the pot and tilt to spoon off any fat (from olive oil and beef).  Serve hot and sprinkle chopped parsley on top for garnish.  Yum!

A perfect accompaniment to this stew is, of course, Irish Soda Bread.  The first time I ever tried this bread was in Ms. Maza's third grade class.  We were fortunate to have a kitchenette in our classroom and on occasion we got to actually use it!  Don't knock the hair.  I was going through a Dorothy Hamill phase. Okay seriously, stop laughing hysterically.  Back to baking...

Oh ya--1985 was a super duper fashion year for me.

 The Irish Soda Bread I remember from my childhood was a white bread that had raisins in it...but I had a feeling the plowman's version of the real soda bread shared little resemblance with our "Americanized" version.  Funny, I was actually right!  The version we know is more closely related to an English bread called Spotted Dick.  I don't make this stuff up.  So, in an effort to try and stick to something more authentic, I decided to go with a whole wheat version loaded with all sorts of other good-for-you things and it was really yummy! One kind of cool thing that happened wghen I baked this was that the skins of the sunflowers seeds turned green.  There are enzymes in the seeds that react with the alkaline environment created by the baking soda and heat from the oven, causing them to turn green. huh!  Don't you love chemistry?

Irish Soda Bread (from Noreen Kinney)

1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour, plus more for shaping
3 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-sized pieces
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 3/4 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/4 cup wheat bran
1/4 cup oat bran
1/4 cup untoasted wheat germ
2 tablespoons flaxseed
1/3 cup raw sunflower seeds (not traditional, but so fun)
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Coat a heavy baking sheet with vegetable cooking spray or line it with a silicone baking pan liner or aluminum foil.  In a large bowl, stir together the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour.



See the little bits of butter in there?

Add the butter and work it into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the fat particles are very fine. Stir in the baking soda, salt, sugar, wheat bran, oat bran, wheat germ, flaxseed, and sunflower seeds. 

Beat the egg lightly with a fork in a 2-cup glass measure. Add enough buttermilk to come to the 2-cup line and stir with the fork to combine well. Add the liquid to the dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until the dough gathers into a thick, wet-looking mass. 

Scrape dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Shape into a 7" disc about 2" tall.  Don't be concerned about evenness—the loaf should look rustic. Make a cross-shaped indentation on top of the loaf going right to the edges. I use a plastic bench scraper and press it into the dough very gently; don't actually cut the dough. During baking the indentation expands, giving the top of the loaf an attractive pattern.

Bake the bread for about 40 minutes, until it is well browned and sounds hollow when rapped on the bottom. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf should register 195° to 200°F. Cool the loaf on a wire cooling rack, and serve warm or at room temperature. Cut into quarters and slice each quarter with a sharp serrated knife. Delicious with butter. 

 This turned out far better than I thought it would...and it's good for you too!