Irish Stew

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Hey Alicia again with another recipe from our culinary travels around the world. If you're new to 3 Winks, each month my family is picking a country from our heritage and making one meal a week from that country. So far we have done Germany, Ecuador, and Ireland. To see all the food I've made in this experiment so far, look through the slideshow below. If something looks delicious, clicking on the picture will take you to the post with the recipe. Enjoy!

This week I made Irish stew. I made it before St Patrick's Day actually because we were going out of town over the weekend. It was very delicious!

Irish Stew

To make this Irish dish, I looked up a lot of recipes. They all varied in some ways, but all had one thing in common; you have to use lamb. It's not Irish stew if it doesn't use lamb. Lamb is a must for Irish stew. Never beef! In my area lamb isn't something they have in plenty year round. But now that Easter is coming the stores are stocking up. This could be a great dish to make with your leftover Easter lamb! (If that's what you eat on Easter).

Because this is meant to be a meal that feeds a crowd, it's very filling itself and doesn't really need any side bread etc. Every version of this stew I saw used slightly different vegetables. Some used turnips, rutabagas, and even beets! I used more traditional stew ingredients such as carrots, celery, onion, and, of course, potato. 

Some of recipes baked their stew in the oven for about 90 minutes. While others let theirs simmer for at least 3 days on the stove! I decided a few hours would be good for my stew and let it simmer (covered) for 3 hours. 

The leftovers were delicious! It reheats really well! Everyone in my family loves this stew. My husband was skeptical at first because he doesn't really like lamb. But as he was eating he kept telling me how good it was. He also was sad to find the leftovers were all gone. My 3 year old had 2 helpings of this stew! He almost never does that. So that will tell you something. He is also the culprit for eating the leftovers before Dad could get any.

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Irish Stew

I hope you give this stew a go. It was really so delicious and perfect for the rainy weather we've been having in the Bay lately. I think I would really be enjoying it in the early spring snows I know are happening around the world now too!

Tomorrow I'll be sharing my last Irish recipe for Cottage Pie! Be sure to come check it out!