Last year we went to an Irish cooking class. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much, but thought it would be a fun social event. This class surprised me. It was delicious, comforting, and exceeded our expectations. On a side note, I’m only 3/4 Italian heritage; the rest is a mix of Scotch, Irish, English, and it was fun embracing this cuisine.

The menu included Irish Stew, Colcannon, Shamrock Salad and a delicious Irish soda bread. I’ll share the recipe for the Irish stew and the Irish soda bread. This makes a great snow day meal, and that’s exactly what we did last week.

Irish Stew – What is it?

So what is Irish Stew anyway? It’s a true meat and potatoes dish, but a little different from a typical beef stew. Often known as Mulligan Stew, it developed as a meat and vegetable dish sometime in the 17th or 18th century, for farmers and shepherds who would welcome a simply made, hot meal on a damp, cold day.

Irish stew is typically made with beer, and usually no thickener is used to make a more gravy-like stew. Since we are major soup and broth lovers in this house, we love it more broth-like.

The Irish also relied on cabbage, turnips, and onions, in addition to milk, cheese and beef from cows. You could replace the potatoes with turnips for a low carb stew, but cook only at last twenty to thirty minutes because they cook fast and will turn to a bitter mush.

Beef or Lamb Irish Stew

Lamb is more typical in Ireland, but beef is used more in the states. If you love the idea of a lamb stew, you have to make this Hunger Games Lamb Stew I made years ago.

Or go ahead and use lamb for this recipe. Many people don’t give lamb a fighting chance, and a leg of lamb can be very tasty and affordable (Costco has a good price).

Beer for Irish Stew

The typical beer for the best Irish Stew is Guinness. I was snowed in and used what this beer I found in the fridge. It worked fine. You could also sub with a cup of red wine, but this is Irish stew, so use beer if you can.

If you can’t use beer for whatever reason, substitute with more beef broth, and 2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce.

Process for Making the Best Irish Stew

Just like all other stew recipes, the meat should be a little marbled, seasoned with salt and pepper and browned really well before adding it to the broth. This stew doesn’t require flouring first, but if you want a thicker stew you can do that.

Once the meat is browned add garlic and cook for just a minute to bring flavor. Add in remaining vegetables (except potatoes), broth and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat, add in the beer. Cook for 30 minutes. Add in bite-sized potatoes and cook for another 60 minutes. I keep the carrots in quite large pieces and put them in from the beginning. If you are going to substitute turnips for potatoes, add them in at the last 30 minutes of cooking or you will have mush.

Tips for Best Irish Stew

• Irish stew is typically brothy. You can thicken, but our family likes the brothiness.
• Keep carrots in large pieces so they don’t get mushy.
• Add potatoes at last 30 minutes. I prefer golden yukons.
• Make sure to brown the meat on all sides.

Finish: Taste for seasoning. Add chopped parsley. Serve immediately.

Irish Soda Bread in the Oven

This recipe for soda bread is glorious. Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside and just a tad sweet with golden raisins. Feel free to use brown raisins, currents, or dried fruit of choice.

Traditional Vs. This Recipe for Soda Bread

• Traditional Recipe: No Butter, Egg or Sugar. Made on top of the stove. (per my Irish Cookbook)
• This Recipe: Baked on oven. Butter in recipe similar to American biscuits.
• Both recipes use flour, buttermilk and baking soda.

Tips for Irish Soda Bread

• If you don’t weigh out the flour, please spoon in your measuring cup.
• Keep ingredients cold, especially butter.
• Mix egg into the buttermilk first.
• Make your own buttermilk: add a teaspoon distilled vinegar or lemon juice, and wait about 10 minutes.
• Keep dough sticky and don’t over-mix. Treat soda bread same way you would treat American biscuits. Sticky is good.
• Cold butter (pea size) that doesn’t get smeared into the flour. Makes for fluffy inside.
• Raisins: I prefer golden raisins, but you can leave them out or replace with other dried fruit.
• Best eaten same day, and out of the oven, but can be reheated up to two days.

Don’t wait until St. Patrick’s Day to try these recipes. They are perfect for comfort and chasing away the winter blues. Please leave me a comment, letting me know if you have ever made Irish Stew, and if you have a different version, I’d love to hear about it.

More Stews from Spinach Tiger

• Hunger Games Lamb Stew
• Italian Beef Stew
• Veal Stew with Onion Sauce
• Beef Bourguinon
• Veal Stew with Turnips and Purple Potatoes

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Irish Stew, Irish Soda Bread

Easy Irish Stew made with beef, carrots, potatoes with Irish Soda Bread Recipe

Course Stew

Cuisine Irish

Keyword Irish Soda Bread, Irish Stew

Prep Time 20 minutes minutes

Cook Time 2 hours hours

Servings 6

Ingredients

IRISH STEW

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 pounds Beef chuck stew meat
• salt, pepper
• 1 onion diced
• 2 carrots
• 2 stalks celery
• 3 garlic cloves minced
• 4 cups beef broth
• 1 16 ounce bottle Beer (Guiness or Your Choice)
• 6 sprigs fresh thyme or 2 t dried thyme
• chopped parsley for garnish
• 3 cups cubed (large) yellow yukon potatoes or russet

IRISH SODA BREAD

• 1 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 large egg
• 4 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar optional
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 5 tablespoons unsalted cold butter
• 1/2 cup raisins optional

Instructions

• Heat olive oil in dutch oven you will be making stew in.
• Season cubed meat with salt and pepper and brown on all sides. You may need to work in batches so as to not steam the meat. Transfer to a plate. Meat does NOT need to be cooked through. It will cook in the stew broth,
  
• Add more oil if needed and cook onion, carrots and celery for about five minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Add thyme.
• Add meat back.
• Add broth and beer.
  
• Cook on very low for about two hours. Add potatoes in during the last 30 minutes.
  
• Garnish with parsley. Serve.

IRISH SODA BREAD

• Mix flour with salt, sugar, baking soda.
• Add raisins if using.
• Cut in butter. Butter should be cold and pea size.
• Add buttermilk (can make with regular milk and teaspoon of white vinegar).
• Use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix. It should be sticky dough. Use some extra flour to form into a round. DO NOT OVER MIX.
• Bake in cast pan or griddle at 375 degrees F. for 35-50 minutes. My oven cooked very fast. Internal temperature should be 208 degrees F.

The post Best Irish Stew, Oven Baked Soda Bread appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

Post Edit: This recipe won Hunger Games Lamb Stew recipe contest with Stapleton-Spence and published in Huffington Post for Best Children’s Book Food.

In the third book of the Hunger Games Trilogy,  The Mockingjay, Katniss Everdeen, by this point, a heroine who is mentally and physically flattened, yet not defeated, delivers a powerful commentary on the wonderfulness of comfort food:

“I’m starving and the stew is so delicious—beef, potatoes, turnips, and onions in a thick gravy—that I have to force myself to slow down. All around the dining hall, you can feel the rejuvenating effect that a good meal can bring on. The way it can make people kinder, funnier, more optimistic, and remind them it’s not a mistake to go on living. It’s better than any medicine.”  –Katniss Everdeen.

Collins, Suzanne (2010). Mockingjay (The Final Book of The Hunger Games) (pp. 238-239). Scholastic Books. Kindle Edition.

By now  you have heard of the Hunger Games trilogy written by Suzanne Collins. Originally written for teenagers and young adults,  as a futuristic boy meets girl with a gladiator theme, the Hunger Games have swept the country.  The above quote from the third book isn’t about this lamb stew but it was to me the most poignant statement regarding the allure of food.

I had avoided the books for a long time because, reading anything with gruesome violence and blatant injustice is not my thing. As an artist and writer, I become too affected by fictional details to remember it’s fiction. Once I saw that the first movie was coming out this month, and people were already buying tickets, I downloaded it to my iPad and  was hooked on page one , reading all three books in a few days. But not for the reasons you may think.

The theme is domination. A new government (the Capitol) now exists in  Panem, what used to be the United States, and is divided into 12 regions. A previous attempt to rebel against the harsh domination and control of a big brother type regime  has resulted in the cruelest reality television the world has ever seen. The Hunger Games.

Every year, a boy and girl between the ages of 12 and 18 will be chosen from each region and put into a technologically manipulated arena equipped with mutated creatures and incredible unexpected hardships all employed by the gamemakers behind the force field, which keeps the tributes from escape.

It is mandatory that every citizen must watch the games. Twenty four tributes go in.  One tribute comes out alive. Many are killed in the first hour by the mass hysteria to grab weapons from the landing point and run. Some are killed by the gruesome manipulation of nature that the gamemakers have rigged up. Some lose their soul. Some find their soul, although any mention of God or any higher being is noticeably silent.

The winning  tribute will then become a mentor for the rest of their life, helping future tributes survive and mostly watching them die. Even if you win, you lose, because you can never escape your role in the Hunger Games.

Promoted as a teenage love triangle (as there is a boy meets girl meets another boy plot), I found that to be  quite secondary to the theme of survival, dominion, the brutality towards children and the devaluing of life and in a unexpected twist, the power of good food.

The love story for me was not the story here.  The story is man’s inhumanity to man, as the romance is clouded by the depths of darkness in which man will go to in order to gain and maintain power. They use hunger to weaken the people.

They use children to terrify them into submission. Those same terrified people get caught up in watching the games and cheering tributes on. They choose sides and each region needs its tribute to win, for there is a food payoff for the people for a whole year.  It’s the government’s way of slowly sucking the life out of any humanity that is left. Except one thing.

What perked me up along the pages of torture and deception, was the attention the author gave to food. The protagonist, Katniss, comes from what was formerly Appalachia, a poor region, where it was vital for her family’s survival to sneak into the woods and hunt rabbits, wild turkeys, squirrels and then some animals we may never consider food and either eat them or sell them in the black market. In such a culture, even strawberries can bring a nice bounty.

At times, the pains of hunger are drawn out over the pages, as meat is eaten raw, evergreens are used to make soup, tree bark becomes dinner and cubed rat becomes a good meal.

At other times, there are mouth watering descriptions of banquets in the Capitol where gluttony prevails as it did in the Roman Empire.

People gorge on vast amounts of rich,  succulent food, drink a vial of medicine,  throw it up and return to the feast.  During the preparation for the games, the twenty four tributes are treated like celebrities, dressed by a team of stylists and fed like kings and queens, because after all, for twenty three tributes, these are their last meals.

In between the starkness of not enough and the over indulgence of feasting on 30 different dishes, are the days Katniss  simply eats what I would call good comfort food, savors every bite and experiences momentary happiness.

Katniss has a favorite meal. During a macabre live interview to generate enthusiasm with the crowds, Katniss is asked a question.

“So, Katniss, the Capitol must be quite a change from District Twelve. What’s impressed you most since you arrived here?” asks Caesar. What? What did he say? It’s as if the words make no sense. My mouth has gone as dry as sawdust. I desperately find Cinna in the crowd and lock eyes with him. I imagine the words coming from his lips. “What’s impressed you most since you arrived here?” I rack my brain for something that made me happy here. Be honest, I think. Be honest. “The lamb stew,” I get out. Caesar laughs, and vaguely I realize some of the audience has joined in. “The one with the dried plums?” asks Caesar. I nod. “Oh, I eat it by the bucketful.”

Collins, Suzanne (2009). The Hunger Games (p. 127). Scholastic Books. Kindle Edition.

Lamb Stew with Dried Plums. It’s hard not to try to envision how this must taste to Katniss, because it’s one of the few times she seems to take pleasure in anything.

She is a tragic character, haunted by the terror forced upon her. Only when she is enjoying a meal, does the reader get any rest or reprieve from the intensity of  human sacrifice.

The lamb stew with dried plums shows up in all three books, as does attention to the details of food. We learn a lot about what they eat for breakfast lunch and dinner, whether it’s in their own home regions, before after or during the games.

The author understands the basic satisfaction that food provides, especially when it is prepared properly and elevated in flavor, and  she uses it to help the reader understand the pains of hunger, and the difference a good meal can make to the spirit of survival. The joy of good food that hits so many senses at once in the human body (many we probably don’t understand) can never be replaced by a pill, or a needle that might be able to keep one alive.

Good food transcends tragedy and brings the human spirit a sense of hope. I chose to make the lamb stew because it was the favorite meal in all three books, and when Katniss ate it, you could feel her momentary happiness.

The Stew and My Secret Ingredient

I have never made a lamb stew before, but I felt a kindred spirit with Katniss if only in what a pleasure a good meal could bring in a harsh time. Her descriptions of food tell me that if she were here today,  she would be called a nose to tail foodie who eats everything, fresh from the land, wasting nothing.

I have never cooked with dried plums before (prunes) and now I wonder why. The savory lamb with rosemary and thyme, sweetened by the dried plums created a very unique flavor, and I brought it all together with a bottle of beer in the stew.

I love this cast iron Dutch Oven.

I decided to load the stew with slices of onions, not diced, and build my flavors from there. I used fresh rosemary and thyme from own garden (two herbs that I can enjoy year round.) I minced  some of the herbs into the flour that I used to dredge the lamb before browning.  I added ingredients in stages and went back and forth about how to address the dried plums.

I had a discussion with other foodie types. Once thought I should mince the dried plums and one thought I should quarter them. I decided to leave them whole because they are so beautiful in the pot. This is a winning dish and one that deserved to be mentioned in all three books. I pulled it all together with a bottle of beer.

Tell me have you read the Hunger Games  and did it ever make you crave your favorite comfort food?

So tell me are you a fan of the Hunger Games? Once I got started, I couldn’t get enough.

If you love this lamb stew, you are going to love this beef stew, and this veal stew. 

Beef Bourguinon

Veal Stew with Sage, Onion Sauce,  Purple Potatoes

Veal and Turnip Stew

Let’s Connect. I really want to connect with you. I’m at Instagram.

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Hunger Games Lamb Stew with Dried Plums

Lamb Stew with Dried Plums appears throughout the trilogy of the Hunger Games. Slowly braised with beer, and herbs there is a special earthiness that makes this dish belong to the book’s main character, Katniss.

Servings 6

Ingredients

• 4 pound leg of lamb
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 teaspoons finely fresh thyme
• 2 teaspoons finely chopped fresh parsely
• ½ cup all-purpose flour
• 4 tablespoons grapeseed oil or canola oil
• 4 cloves garlic minced
• 2 large onion sliced into long slivers about 1/4 inch wide
• 2 cups diced celery
• 1 bottle beer see note
• 4 cups beef stock
• 12 ounces of dried plums
• 2 large sprigs of rosemary
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme
• handful fresh Italian Parsley
• 2 cups diced carrots
• 3 potatoes cubed

Instructions

• Trim fat and any grizzle off of the lamb. Cut into two inch cubes.
• In a shallow bowl add the finely chopped herbs to the flour.
• Season the meat with salt and pepper.
• Dredge the lamb in the herb-flavored flour.
• Heat a heavy pan with enough oil to brown lamb.
• You may have to do several batches so the lamb browns easily. Don’t crowd pan.
• Slice onions into long slivers. Heat a dutch oven or large sauce pan with oil. Add onions and mix cook over medium heat for about five minutes until softened. Add in celery.
• Add in garlic. Mix well. Add meat back in.
• Add in 1/2 cup of beef broth. Add in 1 bottle of porter beer. Cook down for about five minutes. Add remaining beef broth.
• Add in dried plums (seeded and cut in half, which is how they are often purchased)
• Cover and place in oven at 350 degrees for 1 1/2 hours.
• Add in chopped carrots and potato and cook until potatoes and carrots are soft.
• Remove herbs. Taste and season with salt and pepper if necessary.
• Serve over wild rice or as it.

Notes

You can use a stout beer or if you want to try something lighter a wheat ale. I made two batches, one with wheat ale (which turned out sweeter) and one with Porter, which turned out a little richer. Both were good.

The post Hunger Games Lamb Stew with Dried Plums appeared first on Spinach Tiger.

This flourless Mexican Chocolate Cake with a Meringue Topping was the winner of a recent dinner party that I didn’t really want to have because I didn’t want the event to happen.

It was in honor of a friend and a neighbor who quickly, less than 30 days quickly, packed her entire house and moved to another state, another job, another house, another life.

I dream of being a minimalist, but not with people. This is the second person out of my life permanently in the past two months and this is the 15th anniversary of leaving California where I still have memories of crying as I crossed the state line. I didn’t want to leave my friends. My life had so much loss in the early 1990’s, and I just don’t do well with it.

My friend stayed with us the night before she left and I envisioned coffee and goodbyes at the door. I got up early, tip toed around waiting for her to wake up. An hour later, I found a note. She had gotten up early and left. She probably couldn’t know that’s not a good way for me to say goodbye.

How do you say goodbye to someone? Is it easier to not say goodbye and just leave? How do you deal with people leaving your life? A recent relative through marriage stormed out of our life last month.  The end of May was so difficult. The end of June brought a second loss. My head hurt so badly on Saturday, after I got the note, because it was holding back tears of sadness, probably a composite of all of the loss.

Everything is changing every minute isn’t it? We’re always fighting off weeds in the garden, decay on the deck, and loss. I am a true optimist. I do believe losses leave empty spaces to be filled, but I can’t dismiss people out of my life that easily. It’s probably why I grieve a little harder and will stay married a little longer. It’s probably why I’m with the same workout team for the past seven years, and still have the laundry basket I bought twenty five years ago at Ikea.   I kept all the antique tables I inherited, and painted them white to make them more “me” but I’m holding onto them for life. I can’t let go of what’s important. Those tables connect me to loved ones I’ve lost.

I ask again, how do you cope with grief, loss, letting go? Do you walk through it, realizing it’s a part of life or do you deny yourself and cover it up?

I’m a little crazy. I turn to God and then I turn to six Big Bang Theory episodes. I wish I was more together, but I’m clearly an emotional mess sometimes.

The Flourless Mexican Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping

On this rather thought provoking note, let’s talk about this Mexican chocolate cake. I made it because my friend who moved had made it a month ago and we all loved it. I changed the flavors by adding cinnamon and cayenne pepper for an amazing Mexican creamy dense, chocolate cake. The Meringue is delightful and helps to offset the dark, richness of the chocolate. I used a Porter beer. The beer does something magical to this cake, adds another layer of depth.

The cake is delicious, even better than it looks.  One person ate two servings and I had to send it home so I wouldn’t do the same.

This is the cake I’m taking to the next important pot luck. It’s good enough to show off. It’s a perfect way to say hello or sadly, goodbye.

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Flourless Mexican Chocolate Cake with Meringue Topping

Flourless chocolate cake with cinnamon and cayenne, topped with Meringue. A Mexican Adaption on a Food Network Recipe.

Course Dessert

Cuisine Mexican

Prep Time 30 minutes minutes

Cook Time 1 hour hour

Total Time 1 hour hour 30 minutes minutes

Servings 10

Author Angela Roberts

Ingredients

Cake

• 2 1/2 sticks unsalted butter cut into pieces, plus more for the pan
• 12 ounces dark chocolate chopped
• 6 large eggs
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup stout beer such as Guinness; If going gluten free, change this to red wine
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Meringue

• 2 ounces semisweet chocolate chopped
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
• 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3 large egg whites
• 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Instructions

Cake

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch springform pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. I used a cake pan with parchment and lifted it out.
• Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set over a saucepan of simmering water.
• Stir until the chocolate melts, then remove the bowl from the pan.
• Mix the sugar with the cinnamon and cayenne pepper. You can start with less of each, and add more at the end as you taste it. See notes.
• Put the eggs, sugar and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Set the bowl over the same pan of simmering water and whisk until the mixture is warm, about 2 minutes.
• Transfer the bowl to the stand mixer; beat with the whisk attachment on medium speed until tripled in volume, about 5 minutes.
• Boil beer and vanilla in small saucepan until it reaches a low boil.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low; beat in the beer mixture, then the melted chocolate, until combined, about 2 minutes. Gradually beat in the softened butter until incorporated.
• Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs, about 35 minutes. Do not overbake.
• Cool in the pan on a rack 1 hour, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove the ring. Let cool completely.

Meringue

• Make the meringue: Put chocolate, butter and corn syrup in a small heatproof bowl, place over simmering pot of water until chocolate melts.
• Whisk the granulated sugar, egg whites, cream of tartar, salt and 1/3 cup water in a heatproof bowl. Put the stand mixing bowl over a saucepan of simmering water to heat to warm.
• Return bowl to mixer and mix on low, gradually increase the speed to high and beat until soft peaks form, about 5 minutes. Remove the bowl from the pan; continue beating until the meringue is cool and fluffy. Fold in the vanilla.
• Spread the meringue on the cake.
• Swirl in the melted chocolate.
• Refrigerate. Remove from refrigerator ten minutes before serving.

Notes

Regarding the amount of cinnamon and cayenne, here is my trick for tasting. Start with smaller amounts of each. Once the cake is batter, microwave a tablespoon of batter. Let it cool a few minutes and give a taste test. It won’t be the same texture, but you’ll know if you need to add in more cinnamon and cayenne pepper. Adjust to your taste. The cayenne does mellow a bit in the baking process.
Use good chocolate. My recommendations are the Belgium 70% chocolate at Trader Joe’s or Ghiradelli 60% bittersweet.

You can skip the cinnamon and cayenne altogether and this is still a fantastic cake!

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