Kelsey’s Irish Stew

By Paul Briand

An Irish stew without potatoes is not the oxymoron you might think.

We associate Irish food with potatoes, indeed, but this Irish stew recipe -- created in honor of stepdaughter Kelsey Murphy’s birthday this week -- has no potato.

Jane -- my wife and Kelsey’s mom -- and I went searching for an Irish stew made with Guinness Stout, and many of the recipes we found don’t have potato. Kelsey’s Irish Stew is an amalgamation of the best of what we found.

We served it at a combination Kelsey’s birthday party/St. Patrick’s Day party and doubled this recipe -- cooking two stews in two big pots -- so that we could feed a dozen revelers. And yes there was potato: Twice baked potatoes filled with garlic smashed potatoes served as a side.

Ingredients

6 tablespoons oil

Black pepper

All-purpose flour for dredging

3 pounds stew beef

6 gloves garlic minced

1 onion chopped

1 cup cut carrots

1 cup diced celery

1 package sliced mushrooms

1 can (14.9 ounces) Guinness Stout

1 can tomato paste

24 ounces of beef broth (no salt or low salt preferred)

Parsley, thyme, rosemary

Directions

1. In a large storage Zip-lock type bag, add three cups of flour and season with a generous amount of black pepper. Add the stew beef and work the bag in the meat to fully dredge each piece with flour;

2. In a large Dutch oven, heat 3 tablespoons of the oil over medium high heat and brown the beef, stirring occasionally until all pieces and all sides are browned. Remove and set aside;

3. Add the remaining oil then add the onion, garlic, celery and mushroom. Saute until onion becomes limp, 3 to 5 minutes;

4. Stir in the tomato paste and then add the Guinness, stirring as you pour. Make sure you are stirring to de-glaze the bottom of the pot of all the beef bits;

5. Add a palmful each of the parsley, thyme and rosemary and thoroughly stir;

6. Add the beef back to the pot;

7. Stir in the beef broth to fully cover the mixture;

8. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 90 minutes and serve.

Print here for recipe card.