Ballymaloe Beef Stew

One of the first dishes I learned to cook from the famous Irish chef, Darina Allen!

Discovering Darina Allen’s “The Forgotten Skills of Cooking”

 In 2009, I was freshly graduated from college and ambling along the Oregon coast, visiting a friend who had moved to a small logging town to study Northern Spotted Owls. We had made our way to the idyllic town of Astoria and found ourselves in a bookshop on a rainy afternoon. Tucked into a display of cookbooks was a teal blue tome over two inches thick. I pulled it out of the shelf and went home with it that day.

 I remember the approximate $45 price tag was steep for a recent college grad with no real job, but I had to have it. Darina Allen’s “The Forgotten Skills of Cooking: 700 Recipes To Show You Why The Time-Honored Ways Are The Best” was the first cookbook I bought for myself. For years, it was just about the only cookbook I cooked from.

 If you’re not familiar with her work, Darina Allen is sometimes called the Julia Child of Irish cuisine. This book was my first foray into time-honored traditional forms of cooking that I’d never had the chance to learn growing up. I made butter, clotted cream, preserved eggs in lard, and even tried making preserved sausages. The love affair I already had with cooking became a more profoundly impassioned relationship - inspired by seasonality and traditional techniques.

 For St. Patrick’s Day, I wanted to celebrate the legend that is Darina Allen by featuring one of her most iconic dishes - Ballymaloe Beef Stew. This hearty and comforting stew is made with beef chuck, root vegetables, and a delicious broth made with beef stock and a generous amount of red wine.

Ballymaloe Beef Stew

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Category

Dinner

One of the first dishes I learned to cook from the famous Irish chef, Darina Allen!

Author:

Darina Allen

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 3 pounds beef stew meat

• 4 large carrots, cut into ½” slices

• 2 parsnips, cut into ¾” dice

• 1 large white onion, sliced

• 1 heaped tablespoon flour

• ½ cup red wine (or substitute beef stock)

• 1 can pureed tomatoes

• 6 ounces sliced mushrooms

• 1 tablespoon chopped parsley

• Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot such as a dutch oven over medium-low heat. Sweat the sliced onion, carrots and parsnips with a lid on for about 10 minutes. Remove from the pan.

2. Turn the heat up to medium-high and add a little more olive oil. When the oil is shimmering, brown the beef by searing on all sides. Once browned, reduce heat, stir in the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the wine or stock and tomato puree and scrape the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon to get all the brown bits up. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 2 ½ to 3 hours. You can do this on the stovetop or in the oven (325º). While the stew is cooking, saute the mushrooms until lightly browned and set aside.

4. Approximately 30 minutes before the end of cooking, add the sauteed mushrooms and parsley to the pot. You’ll know the stew is done when the beef practically melts in your mouth.

5. Serve with mashed potatoes, colcannon, or noodes.

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