Beef, lamb or mutton? What kind of meat goes into a typical Irish stew? Dublin chef Dave Power reveals his very own recipe for the universally-loved specialty from Ireland.
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00:00 This is one of Ireland's most popular dishes.
00:05 Irish stew is super easy to make.
00:08 But there are a few things to pay attention to.
00:11 Can you use beef?
00:13 Hi, I'm Dave Bauer from Galahers Box Tea House and Temple Bar in Dublin,
00:18 and I'm going to show you exactly how to get it right.
00:20 The first steps are finding the right ingredients.
00:23 Dave gets his vegetables at a local Dublin market.
00:27 Root vegetables serve as the foundation for a classic Irish stew.
00:33 These include onions, leeks, carrots and potatoes.
00:38 What we're looking for from the vegetables is to add colour to the dish
00:41 and also bring a little bit of sweetness and flavour,
00:43 because they've all got a slight sweet flavour,
00:46 which will go nicely with the fattiness of the lamb.
00:48 Rooster with reddish skin and Maris Piper are the potato varieties Dave chooses for his stew.
00:55 The Irish are well known for loving potatoes,
00:57 ever since they washed up on our shores many, many years ago.
01:00 They're a great crop to grow, they're very nutritious,
01:03 and they're great at bulking out a meal.
01:05 They taste fantastic in an Irish stew and they have two purposes in there.
01:08 One is to provide that lovely potato flavour, but also to thicken the broth as well.
01:13 Next up, Dave looks for the right piece of lamb from the local butcher.
01:19 So what we're looking for here, we've got a lovely piece of mutton.
01:22 Mutton is a bit of an older lamb, it's a bit tougher,
01:25 it's got a stronger flavour, but the toughness is going to be taken away
01:28 when we slow cook it in the Irish stew.
01:31 There's a logical explanation for using older lamb in the stew.
01:35 The older meat was generally, because back in the day,
01:37 the sheep would have been worked on the farm,
01:39 they would have taken its wool and they would have kept it around,
01:41 it wouldn't have been slaughtered straight away, they simply couldn't afford to.
01:45 And the cooking begins.
01:47 Dave carefully prepares all the ingredients before he starts the stew.
01:53 Just remember when cutting, there's two very important things to remember.
01:57 Sharp knife, work at your own speed, and if you see red, you've probably made a mistake.
02:02 And what about substitutes for lamb?
02:05 Can you use beef?
02:08 I prefer not to. Lamb is the more traditional meat that we'd use in this,
02:11 but for vegetarians, you can use mushrooms.
02:15 So there is a definite order to making the Irish stew.
02:19 We're going to start by browning off the lamb.
02:21 We'll then take that out of the pan, but using the same one,
02:24 we'll then cook our carrots, our onions and our pearl barley.
02:28 A popular option is to add barley to your stew.
02:31 This will help the texture and it'll also add a nice little bit of thickness to your stock.
02:35 Once the carrots and onions are lightly sautéed,
02:38 Dave adds the lamb and chicken stock for the broth.
02:41 You don't want to add the potatoes until near the end,
02:44 because with the meat taking so long, if we put the potatoes in early,
02:47 they'll just turn to mush.
02:49 So we're going to bring this up to the boil just for a little bit,
02:52 and then we're going to reduce it down to a simmer.
02:54 And we're going to leave that for about two hours,
02:56 and that's going to allow that lamb to cook and get lovely and tender.
02:59 The Temple Bar District in Dublin is a traditional place to have stew.
03:03 The dish was originally made to feed the masses,
03:06 because it was cheap and hearty enough to get the workers through a hard day's labour.
03:10 Gallagher's Box Steahouse is a popular go-to spot for Irish lamb stew.
03:15 It runs about 22 euros per portion.
03:18 We're now going to add our potatoes.
03:20 We add them at the end so they don't break up,
03:22 and they still retain a bit of their body during the cooking process.
03:25 After the potatoes come the leeks.
03:28 Irish stew is a wonderful representation of Irish cookery,
03:32 because it uses ingredients that really are from the land.
03:34 It almost tells a story in itself.
03:36 Its popularity was ensured because it's simple to make,
03:39 but it tastes really good.
03:41 After about two hours, the stew is ready to be served.
03:45 Typically we serve Irish stew with soda bread and a wonderful Irish stout.
03:53 Cheers, or as they say in Irish, sláinte.
03:56 A taste of Ireland in one hearty meal.
04:00 (upbeat music)