Most Irish Stew recipes I have found online either call for slow-cooking the beef for several hours in the broth, which means you have to add potatoes in at the end, or for not having potatoes at all and serving over mashed potatoes. I figured I could get a head start on the beef instead. To that end, this recipe starts off with the beef getting nice and tender in your sous vide water bath before being added to the stew to take on a nice bit of color.
Irish Beef Stew
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
DUMPLINGS
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons Herbs de Provence
- 2 tablespoons butter cut into pieces
- 3/4 cup buttermilk
- 1 egg
STEW
- 2 pounds beef stew meat
- 1 medium onion
- 2 medium carrots
- 2 ribs celery
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 5 cloves roasted or fresh garlic minced
- 1 tablespoon Herbs de Provence
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
- 1 11 1/2-ounce bottle stout beer like Guinness
- 1 quart beef stock
- 1 1/2 pounds fingerling potatoes
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 1-pound 14 ounce can kidney beans rinsed and drained
Instructions
- Start the stew meat in a sous vide machine at 144° for 1 hour. Start on the stew after about 45 minutes of sous vide time.
STEW:
- Dice the onion, carrot, and celery to make roughly equal-sized pieces.
- Add oil and butter to the bottom of pan to heat. When hot, add diced vegetables and saute on medium heat for 5 minutes.
- Add garlic, herbs, and tomato paste, and cook for 2 more minutes until tomato paste takes on a deep vibrant color.
- After this is done, sprinkle flour over the vegetables. Cook 1 more minute to cook the flour.
- By this time the meat should be done. Add the meat and juices to the pan and cook for a few minutes to develop added flavor in the meat and fonde on the bottom of the pan.
- Deglaze with the beer, then add beef stock and potatoes, and cook on medium until the potatoes are fork tender, about 15 minutes. While this is happening is a good time to make the dumplings.
DUMPLINGS:
- Whisk together the flour, salt, baking powder, and herbs.
- Cut the cold butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or fork.
- Add the egg and buttermilk and stir to combine until all the flour has absorbed some liquid, but avoid overmixing the dough. If the mixture seems to dry, add a splash of water.
- Roll the dough into 12 equal-sized balls.
- Remove 1/4 cup of broth and stir in the cornstarch to use as a thickener later. Add the kidney beans then put the dumplings into the simmering broth.
- Thicken to desired consistency with the cornstarch slurry you created. Only do this now because the dumpliings will absorb liquid and cause the stew to thicken while they cook.
Make it? Love it?
