Charge your glass with a pint of the black stuff and grab your shamrocks for St Patrick’s Day tomorrow, Saturday March 17.
Irish or not, the patron saint’s day has become a major cause for celebration the world over and as well as raising a glass of Guinness or two people will be tucking into hearty Irish stews and other Gaelic goodies.
Why not try one of these Emerald Isle-themed recipes yourself?
Choose from a comforting Irish stew, a hearty beef and Guinness pie and a boozy chocolate cake.
St Patrick’s Day Stew
Ingredients
300g lamb leg steaks
2 medium onions, finely chopped
250g carrots, chopped
200g swede, chopped
300g white potatoes, chopped
2 sticks of celery, chopped
2 medium leeks
30ml vegetable oil
1½ litres water
2 beef stock cubes
1 tsp dried thyme
Salt and pepper
Fresh parsley
Method
- Trim any fat from the lamb steaks and cut into small chunks. Put the lamb chunks and the onion in a large saucepan with the oil and sauté until the lamb is browned.
- Add the water, crumble over the stock cubes and bring to the boil.
- Add the carrots, swede, potatoes and celery to the pan.
- Meanwhile, wash the leeks well, cut in half lengthways, slice and add to the pan. Sprinkle over the thyme and season with some salt and pepper.
- Cover the saucepan and simmer for 45-50 minutes. Check the seasoning then ladle into bowls.
- Chop the parsley and sprinkle over the soup.
Steak and Guinness pie
Serves 6
Ingredients
1kg ox cheeks, cut into large cubes
300ml Guinness
150ml full-bodied red wine
2 bay leaves
4 Cooks’ Ingredients thyme sprigs
2 tbsp plain flour
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 onions, roughly chopped
100g smoked lardons
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
250g chestnut mushrooms, quartered
10g unsalted butter
400g frozen all butter puff pastry, defrosted
1 egg, beaten
Method:
- Marinate the meat, Guinness, wine and herbs in the fridge for at least 6 hours.
- Drain the meat (keep the marinade), coat in the flour; season. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a pan; brown half the ox cheeks. Set aside, wipe the pan, then brown the rest.
- Heat 1 tbsp oil in a casserole; cook the onions and lardons for 10 minutes. Stir in the meat, marinade and herbs, tomato purée and Worcestershire sauce; season. Cover; simmer for 2 hours 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Allow to cool.
- Preheat the oven to 200c, gas mark 6. Fry the mushrooms in the butter over a high heat for 4 minutes. Spoon, with the stew, into a 20cm x 30cm pie dish. On a floured surface, roll the pastry out a bit larger than the dish; top the pie with the pastry and cut a cross in it. Trim away the excess and press down around around the edges. Brush with egg.
- Bake for 45 minutes until the pastry is puffed and gravy bubbles at the edges. Let it sit for 5 minutes before serving.
Chocolate Guinness cake
Serves 10-12
Ingredients
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter
100g cocoa powder
300g caster sugar
2 medium Waitrose British Blacktail Free Range Eggs
1 tbsp vanilla essence
150ml buttermilk
300g plain flour
2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
For the frosting:
150g unsalted butter, softened
150g icing sugar
½ tsp vanilla essence
420g full-fat cream cheese (such as Philadelphia)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 170°C, Gas Mark 3. Line the base and sides of a loose-bottomed, deep, 20cm cake tin.
- Pour the Guinness into a medium saucepan with the butter and gently heat until melted. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cocoa powder and caster sugar.
- Mix the eggs, vanilla essence and buttermilk in a bowl, then add this to the mixture in the pan.
- Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda together into a large bowl or into the bowl of a freestanding electric mixer with a paddle attachment. Using a hand-held electric whisk or the mixer set on a low speed, pour in the contents of the pan. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue to mix thoroughly until all the ingredients are incorporated.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for approximately 55-60 minutes or until the sponge bounces back when lightly pressed and a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean.
- Set aside to cool, then remove from the tin onto a wire rack, making sure the cake is cold to the touch before you frost it.
- To make the frosting, use the electric whisk or the freestanding mixer with paddle attachment to mix the butter, icing sugar and vanilla together until it is fully combined in a smooth mixture. Add the cream cheese and mix on a low speed, then increase the speed to medium and beat until the frosting is light and fluffy.
- Place the cooled cake on a serving dish and spread the top generously with the vanilla cream cheese frosting.