The Irish Stew my Grandmother Used to Make!
A happy St Patrick's day to one and all!
On my last visit to England last Fall, I found that my father had turned up at the OP a very old and unusual cooking device, that I remember my grandmother using. This device is probably 90 to 100 years old. So I brought it back here.
We lived with my mother's parents from the time I was born until I was five. At that time we moved into the OP which was an early 18th century vicarage in ruins my father had bought from the Church Commissioners for shirt buttons, and restored.
I used to be with my grandmother a lot in the kitchen. She was a very good cook and I remember her cooking very well. She was definitely my first cooking teacher.
Anyhow one of the dishes she used to cook in this device was Irish Stew.
Like a lot of national dishes Irish stew is a dish of poverty. We still had ration books then, as the Labor government under Clement Attlee kept the rationing going long after there was any need. As is usual with the left they are control freaks. The first thing Churchill did when he came back to power was to get rid of the ration books. Attlee was the a one termer he deserved to be.
Anyhow Irish Stew is nothing like what restaurants dish up for it here.
It is a lamb dish in a clear stock cooked with an assortment of fresh vegetables. Meat being scarce, mainly vegetables.
This is my grandmother's pot.
The water is boiled in the lower pot, there is an opening on the side to add water, the tube goes below the water level so steam does not escape.
There is a tube on the upper pot that feeds the steam to the upper pot.
There is a crude slide choke valve that controls the flow of steam.
Here is the bottom of the upper pot.
To make the Irish stew I placed a couple of organic loin lamb chops in the upper pot, added carrots, an onion, a leek, a couple of medium sliced potatoes, cabbage, four diced cloves of garlic, a little finely chopped Parsley, Sage Rosemary and Thyme. Then added some salt and pepper.
I let the water boil and steam come up the tube for two hours, I added a little water once.
Early in the cooking.
Later in the cooking and you can see the steam has condensed in the upper pot and made the stock as it cooks.
You can see I closed the choke valve when enough water had condensed.
The finished dish and it was delicious.
I used lots of vegetables and so I have vegetable soup for tomorrow!
I trust one and all have eaten and drunk well.
