In Honor of St. Patrick’s Day: A Tex-Mex Stew

Ireland is famous the world over for its Irish stew, a traditional folk dish. There is some disagreement over the required ingredients, but it usually consists of lamb, potatoes, carrots, onions, and parsley. People began cooking the dish back around 1800.

So, in honor of upcoming St. Patrick’s Day – the patron saint of Ireland – we are going to present a recipe for a stew of our own, Tex-Mex style. You can find this recipe at FoodNetwork.com.

Stews have been around since ancient times. Amazonian tribes used turtle shells to cook their stews, boiling the turtle meat and other ingredients inside the shell. Other indigenous peoples used the shells of large mollusks to boil the stew. It is believed that people began making these types of stews as far back as 8,000 years ago. The Romans had lamb and fish stews.

White stews, also known as fricassees, are made with lamb or veal that is seared just a little before cooking it in a stock. Brown stews are made with red meat that is also browned before being put into a stock.

For this Tex-Mex stew, you will need:

• One and one-half pounds of lean ground beef
• One cup of frozen, chopped sweet green and red peppers
• One 15-ounce can of black beans, drained and rinsed
• One eleven-ounce can of corn niblets, drained
• One four-ounce jar of diced green chiles
• One packet of onion soup mix
• Two and one-fourth cups of water
• One tablespoon of ground cumin
• One-half teaspoon of salt
• One half-teaspoon of dried oregano
• One-fourth teaspoon of cayenne pepper
• Two tablespoons of flour

Here’s what you need to do:

First, brown the beef in a five or six-quart pot. Do this over medium-high heat. This will take about five minutes. Break up the beef with a wooden spoon, but leave a few large pieces. Add the peppers, beans, corn, chiles, soup mix, two cups of water, cumin, salt, oregano, and cayenne pepper. Cover the pot and simmer the mixture for about 10 minutes.

Take the other one-fourth cup of water and stir it into the flour in a small cup until the mixture is smooth. Then, add it to the stew. Cook the stew until the broth is thickened. This will take about one minute.

You can make this dish in about 30 minutes. It makes about six servings.

Whether it’s a celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, your anniversary, a graduation – anything! – if you want to celebrate, do so at Mattito’s. Check out the location nearest you and get your party hat on!