Traditional recipes for Irish stew use a tough, fatty cut of lamb and only potatoes, onions and herbs. This up-to-date version with lamb leg steaks is leaner, and more colourful with the addition of carrots, but still retains its comforting, homely flavour.
Ready in
2 hours 40 mins
Saved by 129 cook(s)
Ingredients
Serves: 4
4 boneless lean lamb leg steaks, about 500 g (1 lb 2 oz) in total, trimmed of fat and each steak cut into 4 pieces
1 kg (2¼ lb) floury potatoes, peeled and thickly sliced
Preheat the oven to 160°C (325°F, gas mark 3). In a large casserole, make layers of the lamb, potatoes, onion and carrots, sprinkling each layer with parsley, thyme, chives, and salt and pepper to taste. Finish with a layer of potatoes, then pour over the stock.
2.
Cover the casserole with a tight-fitting lid and place in the oven to cook for about 2 hours or until both the meat and vegetables feel tender when tested with a skewer.
3.
Increase the oven temperature to 200°C (400°F, gas mark 6). Remove the casserole lid and cook for a further 20 minutes or until the potatoes on top are golden brown and crisp. Serve hot, sprinkled with more thyme and parsley.
Some more ideas
Lamb best end of neck cutlets are traditional in Irish stew and you can use 8 of them if you like, but make sure they are well trimmed of fat before layering them in the casserole. * If you want the cooking liquid to be slightly thickened, sprinkle 1 tbsp pearl barley between the first few layers along with the herbs. * Use turnips instead of carrots. * Add 125 g (4 1/2 oz) whole small button mushrooms, layering them in the casserole with the onion and carrots. * For a real taste of Ireland, replace half of the stock with Guinness.
Plus points
Carrots are not traditional in Irish stew, but they are well worth including, both for their colour and flavour and from a nutritional point of view.
Very good, the cooking method left the lamb so tender! I suspected this would be a bit bland from the ingredients and reviews so I did use much more of the fresh herbs, almost a handful of each. I also added some crushed rosemary and garlic. Perfectly seasoned and delicious!
I went to 4 stores and none of them had *any* lamb! So, I cut my losses and got some nice, lean beef. While the flavors were simple, it was still a very good stew. It went great with some homemade bread and a Guinness! Next time I make this, I *will* find some nice lamb!
I really liked this. This is an old recipe when people were making do with what they had on hand. It is of course by nature going to be a little bland. If you want spicy you need to look up curry recipes.
This was just ok. We thought it was a bit bland and it was definitely lacking something. There wasn't anything about it that would make me want to make it again.
Something else.
Cooked it in the slow cooker for 7hrs on low - the meat was so tender! Stirred in a spoonful of cornflour in the last 30 mins to thicken the sauce.
