My Mum’s Traditional Irish Lamb Stew

I'm making my mum's Irish stew today. It's like a big gorgeous warm Irish hug. I make it with lamb cutlets just like she did but you could also make it with chicken or pork or beef. The first thing you want to do is get a nice big casserole pot and we're going to brown off the lamb cutlets. When I buy my lamb cutlets I buy them with the bone in because that adds so much gorgeous flavour. I'm going to get a little bit of butter melting and we're going to brown these off then we're going to brown off the vegetables after that. Okay my butter has melted I'm adding in my lamb cutlets and I'm going to brown them on each side until they're lovely and golden brown. It'll take a couple of minutes but as I said you could use chicken or you could use pork or beef if you want Okay I'm going to turn over my lamb cutlets and this is how I want them lovely and golden brown. That does two things it adds lovely texture they look lovely like that but it also seals in all the juices of the lamb so when this goes into the oven they don't get dry. Okay while my lamb is browning I'm going to prep all my vegetables. I've got gorgeous carrots, parsnips which I'm going to chop into small little pieces and I've got onions and potatoes and lovely thyme herbs. Okay my lamb is lovely and brown so I'm going to remove it to a clean plate and then I'm going to brown up all the vegetables once I have them prepped. I love the smell of this lamb, so gorgeous. Okay pop these to the side and then I've got carrots and parsnips, potatoes and onions which I'm going to add in. My carrots are peeled and I'm slicing them up into pieces like this. I'm going to get the carrots done first and then brown those off. I'm going to put another little bit of butter back into the pan, melt that down and then we're going to brown up all the vegetables. So first in are my carrots and I'm seasoning as I'm going along so lovely sea salt and pepper. While they're browning I'm going to get my parsnips prepped up. These are massive parsnips so I'm going to cut them into little pieces about that size and they give such a gorgeous nutty flavour. You could also add in some turnip if you want to, I love turnip. Okay so let's give the carrots a nice stir and scrape up all those gorgeous cooking juices and little bits of meat at the end of the pot. Make sure you coat those carrots well. Okay pop in the parsnips. I've got my onions peeled and halved and I'm going to cut them into quarters like this. We'll get them lovely and caramelised and then they're going to soak up all the gorgeous cooking juices and the stock as it cooks in the oven. They become like little pillows of flavour. This is a stew that I had growing up in Ireland and my mom would prep it either the night before or the morning before. She'd head off to work and we'd all go off to school and then it would be popped into the oven. There'd be a note left and we'd get back from school to turn on the oven and to pop it into the to cook and so we'd all be able to sit down for a meal around the table together as a family. So it's got such nostalgia for me and it's so hearty, it's so wholesome, it's so easy to make. Okay so we've got the carrots in here, we've got the onions and we've got the parsnips all browning up. A little bit more sea salt. If you love butter like I do, add a little bit more butter in. This will make it all so much more flavoursome and gorgeous and golden in colour. I'm going to put all my vegetable peels back in here because they are going to go for a piggy treat. Pigs will love them. Okay next up are my potatoes. You can't do an Irish stew without potato. Okay so peeling my potatoes like this. What I love about this pot is that it's a great one and done. Everything is in the one pot, there's no loads of dishes to clean up as you're preparing it and you can bring the pot straight to the table, open up the lid and everybody help themselves. Heaven. My potatoes are mega, they're massive so I'm going to cut those into smaller pieces about this size and they're going to sit on top of the stew. It's so nice coming back up to the pub to cook, it always makes me feel like I'm back in Ireland. I'm surrounded by all my little Irish things, I've even got my little sláinte mug which means cheers or help in Irish. Okay my vegetables are lovely and browned and then I'm going to add back in the browned lamb cutlets, just tucking them into the vegetables like so. Yum. And the bones in the lamb is really going to enhance the flavour of the stew. Okay now next I'm popping in pearl barley, this is really traditional in Ireland. Pearl barley was always used to kind of bulk up stews and it's having a real renaissance at the moment. It's very good for you, it's full of grains, whole grains and it's so delicious because it literally absorbs all the flavour from the stew and becomes really pulped with it. So in goes the pearl barley, sprinkle it on over the stew and you can use this in any stew that you're cooking. It's such a great store cupboard ingredient to have. And then next I'm putting in some gorgeous fresh thyme, just sprinkling it all in like that, just tearing up the stalks. This is a very rustic stew so I quite like leaving all the stalks in there like my mum used to. Okay another sprinkle of sea salt, keep that seasoning on point. And then I'm popping in some lamb stock, you could put in vegetable stock if you want to or you could do just put in water like my mother used to do. And then the last thing that goes in here are the potatoes. So you do a like how beautiful that looks already, you do a layer of potatoes on the top so it covers the whole dish and then they get steamed as it slow cooks underneath and that just prevents them from you know breaking down and getting too mushy. But how good is this as a one and done you know on a evening it's so hearty, just pop it on the table. I obviously love cooking this in the pot that I designed myself because it's made perfectly for something like this. It's got the dimples which is really brilliant for when it starts to steam and then the dimples make sure that all of the liquid is evenly distributed going back into the pan like that. And also because of the material that the pot is made with it's cast iron so it evenly distributes all of the heat while it's cooking inside the oven and it's a really great big pot it's 6.5 litres so it can really take a nice big stew like this. Okay guys that is it off it goes into the oven for an hour and a half and then dinner is served how easy. Ding! My mom's Irish stew is ready. Teddy's even come in. Hello Teddy you love granny stew? Oh I love this stew so much. Okay let's have a look inside. Okay let's get this into lovely bowls. Oh it's a deep dig look at all that delicious pearl barley that has just soaked up all of the stock and the meat juices and all those carrot flavours and everything. For me this is a bowl of pure Irish soul food. A taste of my mom. Oh it's so good the sweetness of the carrots the beautiful sweetness of the lamb and everything plumped up into the delicious pearl barley. This is so good you've got to make it promise me promise me you'll make it. A hug. A hug and a bowl.