Irish Cottage Pie (or just a stew)

What is more Irish than Guinness or potato? well, Guinness and Potato

I first made this dish as a casserole, fully intending to eat it with buttered crusty white bread. In anticipatory delight, I hummed some gentle poetry¹ as I prepared myself to dig in...

Between my finger and my thumb, 

I held a buttered crusty white roll.  

In my right hand, my squat fork rested, 

ready to dig into this meal.

But beneath the kitchen sink, came forth

a cold guttural and raspy sound

I stooped bent low, to open the cabinet door

where there, behind the bin

the ghost of Seamus Heaney sat crouched within

He was not digging it no more, and said

"Shovel, spoon, fork, or pen?  Do you fancy an Irish stew without potato then?"

I quickly realised the horror of that thing I had done

Irish stew can be no Irish thing,

unless you can dig for potatoes therein.

Unless the ghost of Seamus Heaney also basement-dwells in your mind, you can easily make and serve this stew without potatoes. But it is truly fantastic as an “Irish Cottage Pie”. Follow the recipe below, and then place the stew into an ovenproof dish, cover with mashed potatoes (blended with some milk and butter), sprinkle some cheddar cheese on top and then bake for about 25-30 minutes at 180C Fan until the potatoes are golden.

Ingredients

• 40g flour

• timian and rosemary

• bay leaf

• approx 600g chuck roast (høyrygg)

• 4 celery sticks

• 2 carrots

• 1 teaspoon mustard powder

• salt and pepper

• a can of Guinness

• 2 onions

• 1 leek (optional if you have, I can imagine leeks are popular in Ireland and in their stews)

• 3 cloves garlic

Method

• Sift the flour onto a plate, add salt and pepper and then dip the beef into the flour, covering it on all sides.

• In olive oil fry the beef on both sides for approximately a minute in total. Set the beef aside.

• Reduce the heat and fry the onions until softened, add the celery, leek, carrots and garlic and fry for approximately another 5 minutes.

• Transfer the vegetables to the oven proof casserole dish and deglaze the frying pan with some of the Guinness and transfer excess to the oven proof casserole dish.

• In the casserole add the mustard powder, timian, rosemary, bay leaf and then finally the beef.

• Add the Guinness until beef is reached (but not entirely covered). Add beef stock if required.

• Transfer to oven with lid at 100 C for 10-12 hours.

• Check every while after 8 hours or so. If liquid has not reduced significantly then remove lid. Alternatively, if too thick add some water.

• Around 30 minutes before serving taste and season with salt and pepper.

• If the liquid sauce remains too thick then gently remove beef from casserole (should be easy since this is in one large steak) and the vegetables. Increase the heat and allow the sauce to reduce.

• Once satisfied with thickness remove from oven, return beef and vegetables and allow to cool for 10 minutes before serving with crispy white bread or salad or mash potatoes.

1. I know, a quite poor imitation of “Digging” by Seamus Heaney. One of the few poems about potatoes but which, knowing what these poem guys are like, probably actually has nothing to do with potatoes at all.