Chef John’s Irish Pork Stew

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Description

I’m sure you’ve heard by now that corned beef and cabbage is not authentic St. Patrick’s Day food. I decided to do a little mash-up and this Irish pork stew with baby cabbage was the result. By the way, baby cabbage can be a little hard to find, but you can use Brussels sprouts, and no one will know the difference, mostly because there isn’t one.

Ingredients

  • 1 (2 1/2 pound) boneless pork shoulder, cut into 2-inch cubes
  • salt and ground black pepper to taste
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 tablespoon butter
  • 1 large onion, chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 bay leaf
  • ¾ teaspoon caraway seed
  • 1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle dark beer (such as Guinness®)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 3 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • 2 stalks celery, cut into 1-inch pieces
  • ¼ cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
  • 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 12 Brussels sprouts, halved
  • 3 cups mashed potatoes, or as needed
  • 1 teaspoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, or to taste

Instructions

  1. Season pork cubes with salt and black pepper.
  2. Heat vegetable oil in a pot over high heat. Working in batches
  3. cook and stir pork in hot oil until browned on all sides
  4. 5 to 10 minutes. Transfer pork to a bowl and reduce heat to medium.
  5. Melt butter in the pot. Cook and stir onion with a pinch of salt in hot butter until onion is softened and translucent
  6. 7 to 10 minutes. Add garlic; saute until fragrant
  7. about 30 seconds.
  8. Stir flour into onion mixture; cook and stir until flour is completely incorporated
  9. about 2 minutes. Add bay leaf and caraway seed; cook for 2 minutes more. Pour beer into onion mixture. Cook and stir until thickened
  10. 1 to 3 minutes.
  11. Stir pork
  12. chicken broth
  13. carrots
  14. and celery into beer mixture; bring to simmer. Stir 1/4 cup parsley and balsamic vinegar into stew
  15. reduce heat to medium-low
  16. and simmer until pork is fork-tender
  17. about 2 hours.
  18. Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the Brussels sprouts and cook uncovered until almost tender
  19. about 5 minutes. Drain.
  20. Stir Brussels sprouts into stew and simmer until heated through
  21. about 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Divide mashed potatoes between 6 bowls. Ladle stew over potatoes and top each with a pinch of parsley.

Prep Time: 25 mins

Cook Time: 2 hrs 25 mins

Total Time: 2 hrs 50 mins

Servings: 6

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