When we were little, every sunday we used to go to our grandparents Granny and Jack’s house and this was always our favourite dish. It just felt like a warm hug. This is our plantbased take on it, where we use compressed oyster mushrooms in place of lamb which is traditionally used. It is the most perfect dish for a rainy or cold day!

Granny’s Irish Stew!

Name: Granny's Irish Stew!
Total time: 60 min
Ingredients: 1 large onion; 3 cloves garlic; 1/2 head celery; 3 carrots; 1 parsnip; 1 tomato (large); 2 bay leaves; 1 tbsp dried thyme; 1 leek; 1/2 tsp black pepper; 1 tsp salt; 2 tbsp tamari; 2 litre water; 100 ml water (for sweating veg); 250 g oyster mushrooms (any mushrooms ); 3 tbsp tamari; 1 tbsp maple syrup; 1/4 lemon (juice); 1.5 kg potato; 50 ml oat milk; 2 tbsp oil

Takes 1 hour

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 large onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 head celery
3 carrots
1 parsnip
1 tomato large
2 bay leaves
1 tbsp dried thyme
1 leek
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp tamari
2 litre water
100 ml water for sweating veg
250 g oyster mushrooms any mushrooms
3 tbsp tamari
1 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 lemon juice
1.5 kg potato
50 ml oat milk
2 tbsp oil

Instructions

Fill and boil the kettle
Peel and finely dice the onion and garlic.
Finley dice 1 carrot and 4 stalks of celery this will be for our base flavours to function as our mirepoix. Dice up 5 of the celery leaves.
Dice parsnip into approx 1 cm cubes. Dice the tomato into small pieces.
Wash the potatoes if dirty and cut into even sized pieces leaving the skin on (the skin is the most nutritious part of the potato). Fill a large saucepan with boiling water, add a generous pinch of salt and add in the potatoes. Bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer until cooked, this should take approx 20 mins. Drain them well and put back in the pot along with the oat milk & oil, and mash until smooth. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Heat a large saucepan on high heat and add in 1 tsp of oil. Once hot add in the onions, finely diced carrot, celery and leek, bay leaves and a generous pinch of salt. Cook for 4-5 mins stirring occasionally until the onions start to brown slightly. Add 100 ml of water along with 2 tbsp of tamari, the diced garlic, the diced celery leaves, the dried thyme and give a good stir and put the lid on in order to sweat the veg. This will change the cooking process from frying to steaming. Leave the lid on and the veg to steam for 6-7 mins. Remove the lid and give a good stir.
Add in the carrot rounds, parsnip, tomato, the 2 litre of water, salt and black pepper and with the lid off, bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and leave to cook for 20 mins stirring occasionally so that the flavours can start to marry and the sauce can reduce and develop more flavour.
While the stew is cooking, let's compress and cook our mushrooms. Heat a griddle pan or frying pan on high heat. Rip up the mushrooms into chunks. Once hot add 1bsp of oil and 1 ⁄ 2 of the mushrooms (you will have to cook them in 2 batches so that they cook evenly). Ensure you only have a single layer of mushrooms and that each mushroom is touching the pan. Using another clean saucepan press it down on the mushrooms. This will encourage more moisture from the mushrooms to evaporate and also it will encourage more charring or grilling and intensify the texture. Cook like this, for 2-3 mins on each side until evenly golden. Mix together the dressing and add half of it to the pan. Stir well so that each mushroom is well coated in the dressing. Remove the mushrooms and repeat with the rest of the mushrooms. Once cooked, set the mushrooms aside. Deglaze the pan by adding 3 tbsp of water and stirring in any stuck sauce, allow it to reduce and add it to the main stew.
Add in half of the mushrooms to the stew and leave the remainder for garnish.
Taste the stew and season it to your liking with salt and black pepper. If you think it needs more base flavours add 1 more tbsp of tamari. If the sauce is too thin give it a few more mins to reduce more and if it is too thick add in a little more water. It should taste sweet, umami and just delicious, quite like a belly hug!
Serve with a good dollop of potatoes, a generous serving of stew and some mushrooms on top – i hope you enjoy this as much as we adore this!