Hi all. It’s Nelson here today. It’s March break and everyone seems a little happier! Don’t believe me, let me explain… I don’t have to make school lunches, I don’t have to get our little guy up early, and I don’t have to take him to school. I can sleep in a little longer and stay up a little later. There are fewer cars on the road and more parking spots at work. Lots of people are enjoying vacations and staycations and I was able to take a day off this week to have a fun day out with the kids. Yup…March break is a good thing in my opinion.
As if that wasn’t enough fun…has anyone noticed splashes of green in and around the city? We have… It’s St. Patricks day tomorrow and lots of people are getting ready for the celebration. The city of Toronto and surrounding areas celebrate this day quite a bit. Toronto has a massive parade for St. Paddy’s day that’s been a tradition for many years. Along with this celebration comes green beer and great food. Every pub in the city will likely be busy tomorrow.
With all this excitement, I just had too cook up something connected to the celebration. I decided to make an Irish stew. To make it Irish, I used Guinness and made it extra thick! Since it’s a weekday, I didn’t have much time to let it cook slowly, so I opted for the pressure cooker.
I used our handy dandy Salton pressure cooker sent to us by our friends at Salton. As I’ve mentioned in the past, I used to be nervous about using the older style pressure cookers. The beauty of this electric pressure cooker is that it has tons of safe-guards in place to make sure the only thing you have to worry about is whether or not you used the right ingredients.
The Irish stew came out amazing! The dish was a hit with the entire family.
It’s March…enjoy the break, get out there and celebrate something, and always eat well friends!
- 4 Tbs vegetable oil
- 2½ lbs (1.13 kg) inside round oven roast (or stewing beef), cut in 1½ inch cubes
- 2½ lbs potatoes.
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut on an angle about ½ thick (about ¾ lbs or .034 kg)
- 1 can (16.9 fl oz or 500 ml) Guinness Beer (or other stout)
- ½ cup red wine
- 1 Tbs Worcestershire sauce
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tsp dried thyme leaves
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ⅓ cup of fresh flat leaf parsley (Italian parsley), chopped
- 3 Tbs all-purpose flour
- ½ cup of water
- Add 2 Tbs of vegetable oil to the pressure cooker and heat (medium high or sear setting on electric pressure cookers).
- Sear the meat. Do this in two batches to avoid over crowding the pot.
- Set the meat aside.
- Add remaining oil to the pressure cooker and add the onions and garlic.
- Sauté until the onions are translucent, about 3 minutes.
- Add the carrots, seared meat, Worcestershire sauce, bay leaves, salt, pepper, potatoes, wine and beer. Stir.
- Close the pressure cooker lid and set to high for 25 minutes. If you're using a stove top pressure cooker, start the 25 minute count once the pressure cooker has reached high pressure.
- Completely release pressure before opening the lid.
- Add the parsley and stir.
- In a small bowl, whisk the flour and water until the flour is completely dissolved.
- Add the flour mixture to the pot and stir well. The sauce will thicken.
- Let sit for about 5 minutes and serve... don't forget the bread!
Always use extra care when working with kitchen appliances under pressure. Make sure to read the manufacturer's instructions.
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