Ahhhhh...January

Yesterday for the first time in weeks, I had the house to myself. It wasn't planned, but following Christmas with my Maw here for a month's visit, plus a guest from New York for 3 weeks not to mention my immediate family and the cleaning lady - an empty house is a rare treat. It only lasted 1.5 hours but that's all I needed to recharge, de-stress and then I got lonely.

I like the chaos of my home and although we have a constant stream of guests and dinner parties and unexpected coffee or wine worshippers showing up at all times, I like it that way. I may not read as much as I might like to, but entertaining friends and family is my great hobby. It creates good memories.

During the holidays I cooked a lot. For me the memorable meal was this stew which I tried making for the first time. Easy and perfect for cold weather.

Irish Lamb Stew

Chop up a couple of white onions and fry in a slosh of oil in a big casserole pot (which must have a lid). While that is frying, put half a coffee cup of plain flour, with a pinch of salt and lots of ground pepper into a resealable plastic bag. Add enough cubed lamb to feed your crowd, close the bag and shake to coat all the meat. Add the lamb and all the flour to the pot and stir until the meat is getting browned. Add a drizzle more oil if there is too much flour though you should have a sticky gloopy mess. Add enough stock (vegetable or chicken) to cover the meat and then some. Stir it all together, turn down the heat to simmer, and cover.

Peel and chop into nice chunky pieces some carrots and some turnip and add these to the pot. Remove a generous amount of fresh thyme from its stalks and add that too. Then add a small handful per person of pearl barley to the pot. Stir and cover and let it simmer gently for 2 hours. Keep checking it doesn't get too thick and stir it from time to time to prevent the barley from sticking to the bottom. If it is too thick just add a little warm water or half a glass of white wine. Also check the seasoning and add as necessary.

I served this with boiled new potatoes and everyone had seconds.