[Hasbinbad]

In recognition that saint patties day is coming up, here is a good irish stew:

You will need a sturdy dutch oven to make this properly, although you can fake it by browning the meat first in a cast iron skillet if you only have a pot..

2lb some sort of beef, cut up into cubes (i like to use a super thick bone in ribeye personally, coz the bone adds a lot to the stock).
a bunch of onions, carrots, potatoes and celery (as much as your pot will hold, after prepping the meat, in roughly equal proportions)
fresh garlic (i like to use 8-10 cloves, use as much as you think appropriate for your taste buds)
salt, pepper
bacon grease
Irish Butter (enough to toast the garlic)
a 4-pack of Guinness Pub Draught Cans.
bisquick & milk in equal volume (1 cup each usually does it) and some extra bisquick

Crush, then superfine mince the garlic (both of these steps are essential). In a small saucepan, toast the garlic with the butter.. you want the garlic to cook to get rid of the sharp flavors and bring out the nutty flavors. If you burn it, it's wrong, but you want it almost to that point.

Coat the cubed meat in salt and pepper to taste

cut the potatoes into cubes around half the size of the meat cubes
slice the carrots into 1/4-/13 inch thick slices (on a bias if you're fancy)
cut the celery into 3/4-1 inch thick pieces (on a bias if you're fancy)

french the onions (french cut onions taste better, dontchya know?), or just cut them into 1/2 inch square pieces

while doing that, heat the dutch over on HIGH heat until it reaches the smoke point (when the seasoning begins to smoke).. ..if you are using an enamel dutch over (you suck) then give your HOT dutch oven a tablespoon or so coating of bacon grease or other high heat oil, wait for this to start to smoke. once your pot is hot enough to smoke oil, give it another 2-3 tbsp of bacon grease, let that melt and heat to the smoke point, and add the cubes of meat. It is essential that all of the above steps are followed, you want the bottom of the pot hot as shit, THEN add the oil, THEN let it heat up the cold oil in a SHORT amount of time.. you'd have to be a chemist to understand why, just do it. This is a critical point. Quickly spread the meat on the bottom of the pan so that most of the meat has full contact with the cooking surface, and then LEAVE IT THERE UNTIL IT BURNS (almost). Then turn each piece over to burn it on the other side. repeat until each piece of meat is nice and crispy. Reduce the heat to MEDIUM. Add the onions, let the meat and onions cook until the onions are damn near caramellized (yes, your meat is overcooked by now)reduce heat to LOW.

add the garlic on top of the meat, spread out nicely.

Add the bone to the pot (if you has one).

add the potatoes, in a solid layer, above the meatonions/garlic/bone
add the carrots, in a solid layer, above the potatoes

add enough Water & Guinness mixture (adjust to your taste, I use ~50/50) so that you can see it come up to the bottom of the carrots, above the potatoes.

add the celery on top

IMPORTANT STEP (also, this is why you need a dutch oven)
Put the HEAVY top on the pot, and DO NOT TAKE IT OFF TO SMELL.

Let cook for ~5 hours on LOW heat.

Take the top off, and stir the stew well but carefully - scraping the shit out of the bottom, to get the good shit up into the stew - without breaking up the cooked potatoes (as much as possible). Add more water until the stew is covered, turn heat to medium/high and let come to a slow boil

Leave the top off.

Make bisquick dumplings by making a dough with 1/2 bisquick and 1/2 milk, spoon that out onto a cutting board coated generously with bisquick, and roll into a little ball. Take these dumplings and make a top layer over the stirred stew.

cover again, let this cook for another 30 minutes or so, then serve.

No pictures this time! :P