I know there are going to be many people enjoying the "traditional" Irish dish of corned beef and cabbage tomorrow. But did you know it might not be as traditional as you think? Here is some fun information about Traditional Irish food and where is comes from and why they ate it.
Irish immigrants started eating Corned Beef and Cabbage with Potatoes when they came to the United States... and it was most likely Jewish Corned Beef they they were eating from Kosher butchers.
My parents had their meal of corned beef, cabbage and potatoes yesterday after church. We had Irish Stew. It is actually much more traditional to the Ireland because it used Lamb as the meat instead of beef.
If you think your family might be a little skeptical about eating lamb, you can't find, or you can't afford it - beef is an easy substitute and it will still be incredibly delicious!
The recipe is from www.donalskehan.com and he has some amazing Very traditional recipes.
I am going to go ahead and convert it to our units of measurement.
Ingredients
2 tblsp grapeseed oil - (you can use canola or vegetable oil )
2lb 3oz lamb shoulder, trimmed and cut into 1in chunks (if you are using beef, just buy stew meat)
2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
3 celery stalks, trimmed and sliced
1 bay leaf
4 large carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
1¾ pints beef or lamb stock (lamb stock is nearly impossible to find. I used beef)
2lb potatoes, peeled and cut into ½in slices
good knob of butter
sea salt and ground black pepper
slices of white bread, to serve
Place a large, flameproof casserole pot over a high heat, add 1 tablespoon of the oil and brown the lamb pieces in two batches. Remove and set aside on a plate. Reduce the heat to medium–high, add another tablespoon of oil and fry the onion, celery and carrot for 4–6 minutes or until the onions have softened.
Preheat the oven to 325°F.
Return the meat to the pot, along with the bay leaf and stock, season with sea salt and ground black pepper and bring to the boil.
Remove from the heat and push the slices of potato down into and across the top of the stew, dot with a little butter and give a final seasoning of sea salt and ground black pepper.
Cover and place in the oven to cook for about 1½ hours or until the meat is tender, then remove the lid and cook for a further 10 minutes until the potatoes have colored.
You can serve the stew straight away or leave it covered overnight in the fridge for the flavors to develop.
Serve in deep bowls with slices of white bread to soak up the liquid.
To make this a Cook once, Eat twice. I peeled and boiled extra potatoes and mashed them. Two days late we used the stew as a meaty gravy over our mashed potatoes.
