My Wild Irish Stew Rose

NATIONAL DISH OF IRELAND - Irish Stew

Oh the Irish! I feel that sometimes the world looks at them unfairly and with judging eyes, but that is not the case here at The GGJ. We LOVE the Irish! What with their roguish charm, stunning women, fondness for good times (read: drinking), sexy accents and of course their contributions to the world (they gave us Johnny Logan the Eurovision superstar!, and the ejector seat!)

And they also gave us St Patrick's Day! St Patrick, although a British chap, was kidnapped by Irish raiders and forced into slavery. After escaping and returning home, he became an ordained bishop and returned to Ireland to spread the word of the Lord. Add the tales of legend and St Patrick seemed to have an interesting life. He used the shamrock to teach people about the Holy Trinity. His ash walking stick, when plunged into the ground, grew into a tree. And his greatest achievement, he banished all the snakes from Ireland by chasing them into the sea. Across the world people liturgically celebrate his life on March 17th. Others choose more to celebrate Ireland as a whole by dressing in green and consuming their weight in Guinness. Here at The GGJ we fall into the latter category.




I needed a drinking buddy to help me devour the hearty helping of Irish Stew, so over came Moleface Theresa. We spent a lovely Irish evening just eating, drinking, talking, laughing and general merriment. To cap off the evening, for dessert I made a rich Chocolate Guinness Pudding. The dark chocolate forms the Guinness portion, whilst the whipped cream forms the head. Was absolutely delicious, but very, very rich.



Enjoy, or as they say in Ireland, Enjoy! (unless you speak Gaeilge then Bainigí sult as bhur mbéile!)



A recipe link that will bring you the luck of the Irish: http://recipes.kaboose.com/traditional-irish-stew.html

Difficulty:         5

Appearance:   4

Taste:              4 

TOTAL:           13

This has to be one of the easiest recipes to make that has the best pay off! Just chop those vegetables and meat, throw them in the pot and cook for several hours.

I gave Irish Stew a rate of 4 for appearance, but if it was a freezing winter day and I came home to this spectacular sight it certainly would have received a large 5! The colour of the chunky style vegetables offset the meat perfectly, and the garnish/flavouring of the parsley gave it some green of the Irish.

Man this stew was all kinds of awesome!!! I knew it would be good, because I love Irish stew, but this was something different. There wasn't a lot of broth or soup, but the flavours of the vegetables and condiments infused wonderfully in the oven. But the best part was the tender lamb. So succulent that it fell apart in your mouth. YUM much! Theresa and I felt as if we were on The Emerald Isle as we sat with our delicious stew and our pint of Guinness. The only thing missing was The Corrs.

(For those playing at home, guess who has the most Eurovision wins of all time? That's right, the Irish. Since participating in the first Eurovision, Ireland has sent 41 entries, winning the contest a staggering 7 times! (1970, 1980, 1987, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996), and finished in the top five 18 times. Note the 3 consecutive years from 92-94, the only time this has happened! Johnny Logan (Australian-born!) is known as Mr Eurovision, winning the contest twice (1980, 1987) and penning the winning Irish song of 1992. You may know his classic 1987 winning song "Hold Me Now". Of recent years Ireland haven't fared well at Eurovision, only making the finals once in the past 3 years. This year (PS. 2 months to go!) they hope to take it again with Jedward, the twins from UK's The X Factor in 2009. Good luck weird defying gravity haired boys!)