Irish Stew (St. Patrick's Day Special Edition)

I have been remiss in keeping this blog updated over the last few months - things have been busy, and although I've been cooking as much as normal I haven't been trying a lot of new recipes.

Today of course is St. Patrick's Day, and in honor of the holiday and its innate Irishness I am making a hearty lamb stew.  Why not corned beef and cabbage, you ask?  Well for one thing, the stew is a lot tastier, but also - it's actually Irish, whereas corned beef and cabbage is Irish-American immigrant food.

Software:
2.5 - 3 lbs boneless lamb shoulder, cut into bite size chunks
12oz bacon, diced
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 cloves garlic; minced or crushed
1/4 cup beef broth
2 cups beef broth
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
teaspoon kosher salt
teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon sugar
2 cups diced carrot
2 cups diced potato
1 cup diced onion
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup white wine

Brown the bacon in a skillet over medium-high heat; remove to large stock pot, reserving the fat.  Whisk together the flour, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl; add the lamb chunks and toss until evenly coated.  Working in batches, brown the lamb chunks in the bacon fat in the skillet over medium-high heat, adding to the stock pot once done.  Saute the onion, celery and garlic in the skillet and add to the stock pot.  Deglaze the pan with the 1/4 cup broth, add this, the 2 cups broth, and the sugar to the stock pot.  Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 2 hours.

After 2 hours add the carrot, potato, onion, thyme, and wine; cook for an additional 20-30 minutes or until the vegetables are cooked to desired tenderness.

This recipe should serve 6 people (and hungry ones at that) but can easily be scaled up or down.

Serve with bread (irish soda bread if you want to be extra authentic, but I actually prefer french country style bread myself)