Cooking Part 2: Irish Pub Food Part1

My 38th birthday saw a host of cooking books that really look exciting. (okay, it’s not my birthday yet, I opened them early) Spanish, Asian and Irish Pub are their themes. I’ve made plenty of Asian food in my day, so it went to the bottom of the pile. I know little to nothing about Spanish or Irish Pub food, but I do about something in Irish Pubs….Guinness! Since Guinness is my favorite beer I decided to hit the Irish Pub cookbook first. I’ve already placed a dozen or so markers for the recipes I want to try, I’m pretty excited.
For the first meal out of this book, I went with stuff that sounded similar to food I’ve eaten in my life, but unique enough to have a bit of risk in it. That decision really paid off! I learned my lesson from German day a few weeks ago…or whenever that was. I will not make a zillion things ever again. A relatively simple meal is the way to go; not a grand feast. The only over extension I went with this time was that I made a dessert; but you’ll have to forgive me once you hear what’s in it.
Tonight’s meal was Guinness Beef Stew, Cheddar and Herb biscuits and Irish Cream Cheesecake. The Beef stew is served over mashed potatoes. I’ve never, until now, eaten a turnip or a parsnip as far as I’m aware of, but the recipe called for both. The sauce of the stew is made from beef stock and Guinness (I suppose you could technically use any stout, but I’m a Guinness man and the recipe did ask for it by name!). Two pounds of sirloin that’s been cubed is dusted in flour and sautéed in oil and butter. You then remove the beef and cook down four medium onions. At first the thought of four onions sounded a bit too much for me, but I decided to follow the recipe and I could always adjust it the second time I make it if need be. I think I will leave the four onions, the other ingredients hold their own no problem. The beef and the onions stew in the beef stock and Guinness for over an hour before the other ingredients are added. Carrots, parsnips and a turnip are the other vegetables and they’re added about 40 minutes before you’re ready to serve. I think my stew was supposed to be thicker than it was, but I enjoyed it as is. Since one of the serving suggestions was over mashed potatoes I decided to go that route. The stew not being too thick made for a nice gravy for the potatoes and I enjoyed this recipe enough that it’s going in the card box; an honor that hasn’t been bestowed on many recipes.
The cheddar herb biscuits were interesting and worked differently from a standard southern biscuit. The batter, that’s right, I said batter, is poured into muffin tins instead of a typical American biscuit that would need a cutter and a rolling pin. The recipe called for parsley, tarragon and rosemary as the herbs to use, but didn’t state in what proportion. I evenly used all three but it turns out that rosemary is far more intense than the other two and that’s all I tasted and smelled. Now don’t get me wrong, I really enjoyed these and found them much easier to make than regular biscuits. I will also be adding these to the old recipe box, but with a little note to go easy on the rosemary. I’ll have to figure out what the best portioning is; of course I don’t actually know what tarragon tastes like, but maybe I will eventually.
The final item of the meal is still in the fridge. I didn’t read the recipe completely and didn’t realize that the “no bake” cheesecake still needs four hours in the fridge to set up. I will be attacking it shortly, but I figure any cake with Bailey’s in it can’t be too bad. I would say this is definitely not a family cake since it has ¾ cup of Bailey’s in it and is not baked to get some of the alcohol out of it. The crust was made from a cookie that took a long time to find, what they call a “digestive cookie” in Ireland. After I bought them, ground them up and make the crust, I tasted one. They’re just graham crackers! If I like this cake, I will probably purchase crust in the future. Not that making crust is too difficult, but when you go to cut the cake I won’t have to worry about scratching my good 9 inch cake pan. I’m still not sure how I’m going to get it out.
Since wine with Stew and biscuits would be silly, I didn’t the obvious and most appropriate thing; we had Irish beer with our meal. Actually I had Irish beer and my wife had a British Ale can in the picture that was never opened! Since Guinness was in the stew, I guess it would have been the obvious choice for a drink, but I went with Murphy’s to expand my horizons.
My first experience with Irish Pub cooking went well, very well, and I can’t wait to try it again. Like I mentioned earlier I have a dozen plus recipes I identified that I’d like to make, so this is definitely part one of many.