Ingredients

The following ingredients have 4 Servings
  • 1 leek
  • 2 stalk celery (diced)
  • 1 medium yellow onion (thinly sliced)
  • 3 carrots (peeled and cut into 1" pieces)
  • 4 slices bacon (chopped)
  • 3 pounds lamb chunks (from a leg of lamb, chunked into 1" pieces, excess fat and silver skin trimmed)
  • 2 parsnips (peeled and cut into 1" pieces)
  • 1/2 pound red skinned potatoes (cut into bite sized chunks)
  • 4 sprigs thyme (tied with a string)
  • 1 teaspoon freshly chopped rosemary
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cups beef broth or consomme (divided)
  • 2 11 ounce bottles Guinness or other irish stout (divided)
  • 10 ounces frozen pearl onions
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • 1/4 cup chopped parsley
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons butter
  • 1 1/2 tablespoons flour
  • 1 teaspoon browning sauce (optional)

Instruction

  • Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
  • In a large dutch oven, brown the chopped bacon over medium high heat. Transfer crisped bacon to a paper towel lined dish. Set aside.
  • In two or three batches, brown lamb in dutch oven, using bacon fat to sear the meat. Use tongs to turn the chunks of lamb over and brown all sides.
  • Add all the lamb back to the pot and stir in the leeks, celery onion, parsnips and carrots. Cook over medium heat for 3-4 minutes until vegetables begin to soften. Stir in the potatoes.
  • Tie the thyme bundle with a kitchen string and add to the pot. Add rosemary bay leaves, 1 cup of broth and 1 bottle of stout. Heat just to boiling, place the lid tightly on the pot and transfer to the oven. Braise for 1 1/2 hours. Add the pearl onions and braise for an additional hour.
  • Remove the stew from the oven. Let the lamb stew cool to room temperature and refrigerate overnight.
  • The next day, scoop any solid fats from the stew and discard.
  • Place the stew over medium heat to warm through. Stir in the remaining beef broth and Guinness stout, heat just to boiling.
  • While the lamb stew is reheating, combine the flour and butter in a small bowl. Mash together with the back of a fork to form a paste (aka beurre marnier). Once stew is simmering briskly, stir in the butter mixture until it dissolves in the stew and the stew thickens.
  • Stir in the browning sauce, if using. Add frozen peas and parsley and stir to combine. The heat from the stew will thaw the peas. Serve.