Drunken Irish Stew
Ingredients
2 lbs of Lamb or beef stew meat
2 bottles of your favorite Irish Ale
6-8 cups of stock (I used beef)
3 large carrots peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery chopped
1 lb of baby red skin potatoes halved
1 large yellow onion diced
2 cloves of minced garlic
1 herb bouquet
1/2 lb of bacon chopped
3/4 a cup of Barley (quick cooking)
2 tbs of tomato paste
1 ham hock (optional)
1/2 cup of flour
Directions
In a Dutch Oven fry your bacon pieces until crispy. Remove from pan and lay on a paper towel to cool and drain.
Pat your stew meat dry with paper towels. Then dredge through your flour. Toss into you Dutch Oven with the left over bacon grease. Fry meat on medium heat until it has browned and is lightly crisp on the outside. Remove meat from the pan.
Toss all of your vegetables into the dutch oven, saute in drippings until the onions are starting to caramelize (about 15 minutes).
Add 1 bottle off your ale into the pan, stir with a wooden spoon to get all of the little bits of the bottom of the pan. Add your meat and bacon back into the dutch oven. Pour second bottle of ale and 4 cups of your stock into the pan. Add in ham hock, minced garlic, tomato paste, and herbs.
Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium/low and simmer for 3-4 hours. Stir every half hour or so. You can add the additional stock if it thickens too much while cooking.
About 20 minutes before serving add in your barley.
Remove ham hock and herb bouquet. Serve with freshly snipped herbs on top. (I had a bit of dill and chive).
