Irish Stew for the All Blacks!

Yes, I know that sounds daft but that's how it is!

Last night we all went to watch the Wallabies play the All Blacks and being a Pommie family we wanted to keep things well balanced and show no favouritism. Having produced the Green and Gold cake for pudding, I wanted to do something black for the mains. Granny had posted her Irish Stew as part of the Pantry Challenge and I thought that if I used stout instead of stock then that would be my 'black' content. It was also pretty cold last night so I wanted something that would act as decent central heating too! I made Granny's Wholemeal Soda Bread to mop up the juices and have to say that it all disappeared rather quickly!!

Now, I'm going to post Granny's recipe and then put the ingredients that I used and see if you can spot the difference!

IRISH STEW (My version everyone has their own)

Approx 1lb/500gms lamb cut into cubes (or beef) 500g beef

6-8 potatoes cut up into pieces or less whatever your taste.

2 carrots roughly chopped

2 parsnips roughly chopped 2 sticks of celery, chopped

1 large leek roughly sliced no leeks!

2 onions chopped

oil for browning

Worcester sauce 4 tbsp maple syrup

chicken stock (2or 3 stock cubes) a small bottle of stout

Dried herbs as desired. a sprig or 2 of thyme and a bay leaf

Salt and pepper

Water

Brown Lamb and add onions in a large pot Stir around and add leeks leave a few mins and add about 1/2 pint water and 1 stock cube herbs and Worcester sauce. Leave to simmer until lamb is tender. Add more water as desired. In another pot boil up potatoes carrot and parsnip in stock. Leave in stock until lamb is cooked. When lamb is tender add cooked potatoes etc, with stock Stir all around and keep heat low. The potatoes should be a bit mushy now Taste and add more stock as desired. Season to taste Turn heat off and leave to absorb flavour

Serve with Brown Soda Bread......What else?

I just layered everything in my slow cooker putting the vegetables in first and the meat in last and left it to cook for 4 or so hours. I thickened up the gravy with a little cornflour.

Soda Bread is something that I've always wanted to try but never done so last night was a first. This time I stuck to the recipe pretty much but used oatmeal and bran instead of the porridge oats and used milk with lemon juice as I'd no buttermilk. I did find that I needed to use less milk as a result. The bread was really lovely and just the thing to mop up the gravy!

Brown Soda/Wheaten bread

8 ozs/225gms Wholemeal Flour

4 ozs/100gms Plain Flour

4ozs/100gms Porridge Oats Or 2oz/50gms Oats and 2oz/50gms bran Approx.

One pint/575mls Butter Milk

1oz/25gms Butter

1 teasp Bicarbonate of Soda/Baking Soda

1 teasp sugar or honey

1 teasp. salt

Greased and floured round sandwich tin

Oven temp 350F 180.C Gas 4

In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients. Cut the butter into small pieces and rub through. Add enough buttermilk to form a soft but easily handled dough. It should not be runny. Knead lightly and quickly into a round and place in prepared tin. (It is essential you use light hands) Cut a deep cross in the bread. Sprinkle with oats if desired Bake for approx 40 Minutes Tastes great straight from the oven so don't hold back

Notes: If you do not have or cannot get Buttermilk add a couple of tablespoons of lemon juice or vinegar to ordinary milk and leave for ten minutes or so.

Cover with a tea towel when it comes out of the oven to stop the crust getting too hard

The whole meal was rather lovely as was the game! Well done the Wallabies!

Thanks Granny for some lovely recipes and also for my second award. I'm not sure what I did to deserve it but I'm glad I did and many thanks!!