St Patrick's Day Special - Irish Stew!

It was my first attempt and I didn't expect it to be this good! I mean, my Irish friend, Brendan, told me about Irish stew and he told me how he hated it! So I thought of trying it, and then it was St. Patrick's day a few days ago, so it was perfect timing. So here it is, St. Patrick's Day special - Irish Stew!

I find it interesting how the meat doesn't need browning, instead all the ingredients are just put together in an ovenproof dish and cooked slowly for 2.5 hours.

Here is what I needed to buy from supermarket;

around 600gr Lamb forequarter chop

375ml beef stock / chicken stock

4 sprigs thyme

1 large parsnip

2 carrots

2 large potatoes

1 brown onion

a handful of parsley.

And from the pantry I only need;

2 tablespoon of tomato paste

a dash of worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

And all you have to do;

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees

2. Chop parsnip, carrots, potatoes and onion coarsely.

3. Place all the ingredients in an ovenproof dish, and cook for 2 hours, covered.

4. Uncover, cook for another half an hour, add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped parsley.

That's all. I was quite surprised with how simple it is, and yet all the ingredients made beautiful flavour combination. I used chicken stock because I think beef stock can be a little overpowering, but may be I should try it next time.

All the ingredients cost me $14, and that's $7 a portion. Not bad, I would cook this again next year in St. Patrick's day, and drink lots of beer. And I'll make Brendan eat my stew :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!