How to make an Irish beef stew

As traditional foods go, nothing says a taste of Ireland like a good old-fashioned Irish stew. Irish supermarket SuperValu asked talented chef, Kevin Dundon – of Dunbrody House, one of Ireland’s Blue Book luxurious properties in County Wexford – to rustle up an easy-to follow recipe for Irish beef stew. The result, a delicious taste of Ireland wherever you are in the world! And perhaps the perfect dish to celebrate St Patrick’s Day!

FAST FACTS:
– Although we love tucking into an Irish stew now, its heritage comes from necessity and harsher times in Ireland. According to The Culture Trip, stewing came to prominence in Ireland during the early 19th century, during a period of economic turmoil that led to mass poverty. With only a hanging pot, an open fire and a few fairly easily attainable ingredients, even poor families were able to survive on Irish stew.
– With ingredients from SuperValu, Kevin’s delicious stew is made with beef, while others are made with lamb, perhaps with some Guinness stout added for a deeper, richer flavour. However, the original Irish Stew used mutton – or the toughest cut from the sheep. Food historian Alan Davidson says: “mutton was so commonly used for stew because sheep were kept into old age for their wool and milk at the time, meaning the meat was so tough that subjecting it to slow, extended periods of stewing was one of the only ways to make it edible.”
– Kevin Dundon has some tasty advice about cooking stew, too: “A stew, in the cold winter months is such a nourishing family meal.
– The beauty behind it is that you can pop it on top of the cooker or in the oven and just forget about it for an hour or two and it will happily cook away.”
– Where to tuck into Irish stew? Plenty of places, including pubs, such as The Brazen Head in Dublin, Kelly’s Cellars in Belfast, and The Farmgate Café in Cork… to name just a few!
– Don’t expect your stew to taste the same anywhere you go in Ireland… the basic ingredients are the same, but remember, for a dish invented for necessity, it’s been refined in many ways over the centuries! In fact, it could just be onions, potatoes and meat in the pot, such is the nature of the food.

We’ve got lots more traditional foods for you to try out in Ireland. All delicious and with stories of their own. For more information, visit https://www.ireland.com