Lamb Recipe

It seems that a recurring theme on our blog these days is that we have nothing new to post about. We hate to lose all our readers by hardly ever posting anything so I think I will try to start talking about different things on here than just farm activities. Therefore, I thought I would share a recipe with you. We have had a couple meals so far using our lamb I butchered.

This recipe is for Irish Stew. I used just some random odds and ends pieces of the lamb to make this. You could use beef instead, or goat, or deer. I found this recipe online and adapted to fit the ingredients I had on hand. This is my altered recipe.

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 1/4 pounds meat, cut into 1-inch pieces
  
• 6 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 cups beef stock or canned beef broth
• I cup of Guinness beer
• 1 cup of red wine
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter
• 3 pounds potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch pieces (about 7 cups)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 2 cups 1/2-inch pieces peeled carrots
• Salt and Pepper

Method

1 Heat olive oil in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Lightly salt the meat pieces. Working in batches if necessary, add the meat (do not crowd the pan, or the meat will steam and not brown) and cook, without stirring, until nicely browned on one side, then use tongs to turn the pieces over. Continue to cook in this manner until all sides are browned, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté 1 minute. Add beef stock, Guinness, red wine, tomato paste, sugar, thyme, Worcestershire sauce. Stir to combine. Bring mixture to boil. Reduce heat to medium-low, then cover and simmer 1 hour, stirring occasionally.

2 While the meat and stock is simmering, melt butter in another large pot over medium heat. Add potatoes, onion and carrots. Sauté vegetables until golden, about 20 minutes. Set aside until the stew in step one has simmered for one hour.

3 Add vegetables to stew. Simmer uncovered until vegetables and meat are very tender, about 40 minutes. Tilt pan and spoon off fat. Transfer stew to serving bowl. Add salt and pepper to taste. (Can be prepared up to 2 days ahead. Cool slightly. Refrigerate uncovered until cold, then cover and refrigerate. Bring to simmer before serving.)

4 Serve with a cold glass of Guinness

Serves 4 to 6.

It turned out really good. I am definitely going to make this again.

The other lamb eating I wanted to tell you about as well. It is not really a recipe but it was so good, I had to talk about it. When I butchered the lamb I cut the lamb chops off but instead of separating each one, I left them in rack form. They were not real big since this lamb wasn't very big. Well, last night I decided to cook them. I just sprinkled them with some greek seasoning and grilled them. THEY WERE AMAZING. I think this is the best thing from the meat group I have had since Adam's steaks he made us and some friends like 6 years ago. I don't know why they were so good, but these chops were awesome. I am sad no one else got to share them with me to see how good they were. Here is a picture of them after I grilled them.