Good on day one, better on day two and unctuous on day three – that’s beef stew. Like all of us and good wine it gets better with age.
The last time I ambitiously put a ‘bouquet garni’ together (it has to mean pleasant smelling garnish or something close to that) I entwined together some sprigs of herbs and bay leaves. Nice and cheffy but that leaves you with surplus sprigs and a container of bay leaves that in all probability will never truly find love. My latest find is a container of what looks like several teabags labelled as ‘bouquet garni’ , nice and handy, that will do nicely thank you very much.
It would probably make a very interesting cuppa
Don’t forget to add the bouquet garni for extra depth of flavour
And do remember to take the bouquet garni out!
Beef & Guinness Stew
(An extra large frying pan or hob proof large casserole pot is best for the first stage, I like to transfer to a large tagine for the oven stage)
You will need:
2 tbsp any cooking oil you like
1 kg stewing beef pieces
2 fat onions
4 chubby cloves
1 tbsp dried thyme
4 tbsp tomato puree
2 heaped tbsp flour
1 tin whole peeled plum tomatoes
1 500ml can Guinness
1kg carrots chopped
Bouquet Garni
Method :
Preheat the fan oven to 140C
Heat the oil in a large pan and brown the beef (do in batches if pan not big enough)
While beef browns chop your onion – whatever way you like it
Set the beef aside
Soften the onion in the pan for 5 minutes
Add the chopped garlic, thyme and tomato purée , stir well to coat the onions
Add back in the meat , sprinkle the flour over the top and stir well to cook the flour for a few minutes
Add the tinned tomatoes and the Guinness , raise the heat , stirring to combine everything until there is a gentle bubble of heat
Add chopped carrots
If you have a tagine transfer the stew to that and then place in the oven
Cook on 150C fan oven for one hour
Reduce to 140C and cook for further two hours at least
Great with any type of potatoes but particularly comforting with buttery mashed potatoes. (remove the bouquet garni!)
The summer of 2026 in Ireland was incredible. Heat, heat more heat and in the end an expectancy that this was it for real, we were at last having a great summer. Heat naturally means outdoor dining, long evenings and barbecues at every opportunity. Which in turn of course means salad.
So ladies & gentlemen of the summer of ’26 I give you the winner. THAT Salad. Credit goes firstly to me for switching the radio to Claire Byrne on Newstalk with perfect timing and hitting the food slot and then of course to the Chef Brian McDermott for sharing the recipe over the airwaves.
When I am inevitably asked for this recipe I say the key thing to remember is that there are 5 ingredients – and then you rack your brain to remember what they are, but they will come eventually. You will remember the Butter Beans first because they are an unusual enough feature in a salad (in Eire anyway) and they take this dish to more of a mains than salad territory with their substantiveness. Next you will remember the Coriander with it’s unmistakable fragrance & next level freshness (if it tastes like soap to you I am truly sorry for you, but also leave now – today is not your recipe day.) What else was there? Red Onion, Juicy Ripe Cherry Tomatoes & finally the juice of a Lemon.
Optional (my preference): I highly recommend to begin your salad prep with the red onion : slice it thinly, put it aside in a bowl dousing it generously with Red Wine Vinegar, and let it wait until it is called up for duty after all the other prep is done. This processing will render the onion a little softer in texture, and you will remove it from the vinegar when you add it in. Something else I did like to do on our particularly warm days was to store my can of butter beans in the fridge for the day and rinse them with really cold water when prepping the salad for a little welcome Chill – a step not necessary of course in the Autumn months. This salad is coming with me into cosy season. Simple to prep, so tasty and good for you.
I like the tomato presence to out-balance the quantity of butter beans so I generally use approximately 2 punnets of tomatoes.
Essential: Your tomatoes must be bright red, plump, juicy and slightly softening. There is a very fine line when choosing tomatoes – steer clear of the watery ones. Make sure they are ripe, ripe, ripe and flavoursome.
You will need: Tin of Butter Beans (chilled optional) Bunch of Coriander Cherry tomatoes, 2 punnets 1 Red onion (pickled optional) 1 Lemon (optional Red Wine Vinegar if pickling your onions yourself) Salt & a little olive oil (my add on)
Method: If you are me you will begin by peeling and cutting your red onion in half, slice it thinly, then place it into a bowl with red wine vinegar – to use at the end of prep. Into a beautiful salad bowl you will add drained butter beans. Next up, rinse and cut your tomatoes to just the right size for a small bite (so maybe halved or quartered, you judge). Your lush bunch of fresh coriander is to be rinsed and chopped finely, using the stalks, (lots of flavour in the stalks and they bother no-one if chopped finely) Your bowl will now be filled with butter beans, tomatoes and coriander. Add in your red onion thinly sliced (if you skipped the pickling step) and if you did pickle it at the start now is the time to just add the onion (without the vinegar) Lastly, you will juice the lemon and combine everything together. Tomatoes need salt in my opinion so I do recommend a good seasoning and also a little splash of olive oil just to loosen things up a little bit.
Enjoy!
p.s. the Bonus – the present the foodie in your life will love you for. Let me say firstly I am not here to promote anyone else’s wares so I shall not be linking to where to buy this from, I’m sure a quick search will find one for you. I bought mine in a mixed hardware store and if you want to know exactly where do message me via insta.
What you are looking for is a ‘Herb Cutter Rocker with Board‘ , be warned the blades are sharp so handle with care. They make chopping herbs an absolute breeze.
A nice creamy Irish Brie, not a French salty one. An Irish buffalo mozzarella. An extra mature Irish cheddar with almost detectable salt crystals. Also partial to a youthful Durrus and give me one of those from Gubbeen but not the smoked lads. How about that soft goats cheese with cranberry, I haven’t seen that for a while. Then there’s Templegall, yum.
If your day doesn’t include some good Irish cheese then what are you at. Go get some. Grate it, melt it, slice it. Love it up with some relish or pickled onion. Eat the cheese, people, eat the cheese.
As I stroll the country laneways of West Cork I cannot help but notice the prevalence of the colour purple in the flora of our Irish hedgerows. I stroll in freedom. The summer is a time when work quietens down and I chose to sit close to the sea as much as possible. It is tranquil and peaceful.
Yet every day I am reminded of my brothers and sisters worldwide who do not have this freedom, this peace.
I think of those who are helping and I wonder what I can do. I do not want to shout into the void.
I have gathered 7 Irish wildflowers and 7 Irish recipes. I give these to you with dochás – hope.
I hope that you will join me in supporting those who are putting their lives on the line, worldwide but particularly in Gaza. I have included a link to MSF but of course donate to whoever is your preferred aid provider.
Can you please give 7 euro or whatever your want.
Ar scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine – literally translates as people live in each others shadows, meaning that it is in the shelter of each other that we survive.
Please Note – in order that all of your money can go directly to Médecins Sans Frontieres – Doctors without Borders – I am providing ‘Seven Wildflowers’ in pdf file format, this should open on your device and you can read on any pdf reader or add to kindle (the kindle app is free).
My lovely Dad, Conor, got to sample a cinnamon swirl at The Garden Cafe in Mallow on the 23rd of January 2025 and thoroughly enjoyed it. He was usually a coffee man when we were out but that day he had tea. It was the morning of the day before the big storm Éowyn was to hit Ireland and cause chaos into the following days. Sadly he passed away a week later and we did not get to return there together again. The Garden cafe has a very special place for me at the moment as it was our last outing together.
Our last outing, 23.01.25
Interestingly the history of cinnamon in Europe began 2000 years ago in Rome when Roman traders had brought it back from Sri Lanka via the silk road. My father was christened Cornelius who in the bible was the first Roman soldier / centurion to be baptised. We can find connections in everything – the spice, the origin, the name – if we look and at times of loss we look harder than ever and it brings comfort, creates a tapestry of sorts for us.
My dad’s coffee of choice was usually a cappuccino or as he used to say to me ‘I’ll have a small monk please.’ Dad had a quirky sense of humour and loved a pun and a joke. I always thought the name cappuccino was because of the colouring of the capuchin monks robes however on looking it up online just now I’m seeing…… ‘the name “cappuccino” comes from the Italian word “cappuccio,” literally the hood or hat. Why this name? According to the legend, the first to “invent” this beverage was a friar of the Capuchin order, Marco da Aviano, sent in 1683 by the Pope in Vienna.’
So there you go, a little bit of trivia to accompany your next coffee. Dad would have liked that and most likely already knew it.
