I have no picture for this recipe, which is unfortunate because it was REALLY good. I was intending to get a photo, but by the time I got home from work, the Irish Pub Stew was gone - eaten by the hoarde of boys here at home.
This is a very easy, great tasting tomato based beef stew. It is also a crockpot recipe which doubles it's appeal for me. It does require that you brown the beef chunks first, which is not too much work if you are in a rush. And it does actually call for a can of tomato soup, but don't hold that against this irish stew.
For the stewing beef in this recipe, I used a small outside round roast (on sale for $1.49lb) and cut it into bite sized chunks. Any tough cut of beef, roast or steak, will work for this recipe. Of course, you can always buy stewing beef already cut up at the grocery store, and that would work just fine for this recipe.
Irish Pub Stew
4 to 6 hours in the crockpot
Serves 4
1 to 1 1/2 lb beef, cut into chunks (stewing beef)
2 Tbsp butter or hard margarine
1 Tbsp cooking oil (Olive oil, canola oil, whatever your preference)
1/4 cup sherry
1 can tomato soup
1 1/4 cup water or beef broth
3 medium carrots, cut into chunks
2 small onions, chopped
3 medium potatoes, cut into chunks
1 tsp. salt
2 Bay leaves
1/2 tsp dried rosemary, crumbled
few cracks of pepper
Heat a saute pan (frying pan to the rest of us) over medium high heat until hot. Add the oil and margarine/butter into the pan, and once melted add half the beef chunks. Brown the beef in two batches, which gets the beef well browned without it turning grey and losing it's juices. Once the beef is browned, transfer to a crockpot and turn the crockpot to low or high (whichever temperature you plan to use).
Put the saute pan back on medium heat and deglaze the pan with the sherry. What does deglaze mean? It means pour the sherry into the warm pan, stir it until it starts to bubble, and then pour this pan glaze over your dish. Which is what you want to do. So, deglaze with the sherry, and pour the mixture over the beef in the crockpot. (Now you can put the pan aside.)
To the beef mixture in the crockpot, add the rest of the ingredients. Stir well. My advice is don't taste the sauce at this point - it really needs some time for the flavours to blend. Cook for 4 hours on high, and 6 to 8 hours on high. Serve with crusty bread and a nice tossed salad, and you have a fantastic, easy meal.
Comments