Recipe: Farmers Market Irish Stew

Spring and St. Patrick's Day are in the air at the Manhattan Beach Farmers Market, taking place until 4 p.m. today downtown at 13th Street and Morningside Drive.

Shoppers today will find beautiful lettuces and herbs, according to Susan Hillyer, market manager, as well as purple artichokes, rutabagas, citrus, blood oranges, a good selection of pasta, trail mix with dried fruit and lots of other treasures.

The MB Farmers Market is in its fourth week of supporting the city's plastic bag ban by not providing single-use bags and notes that doing so is "all part of working toward being green."

Said Hillyer, "The community has been great bringing their bags with them."

Here's a recipe, Farmers Market Irish Stew, featuring food sourced from the market with parentheses noting which vendor can supply the ingredient.

Farmers Market Irish Stew - St. Patrick's Day
Total Time: 2 hr., 5 min.
Prep: 35 min. Cook: 1 hr., 30 min.
Yield: 4 to 6 servings

Ingredients
2 to 3 pounds of boneless Chuck (Novy grass feed beef)
5 medium or 12 baby carrots (JR Organics)
5 medium or 12 baby onions (Jae Farms)
8 potatoes (Gama Farms)
3 to 3 3/4 cups beef stock or water
1 sprig fresh thyme (ABC Rhubarb's Herbs)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon roux, optional. Recipe follows

Garnish:
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly chopped parsley (ABC Rhubarb's Herbs)
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon freshly chopped chives (ABC Rhubarb's Herbs)

Roux:
1 stick butter
Scant 1 cup flour

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
Peel the onions and scrape or thinly peel the carrots (if they are young, you could leave some of the green stalk on the onion and carrot). Cut the carrots into large chunks, or if they are young leave them whole. If the onions are large, cut them small; if they are small, they are best left whole.
Toss the meat in the hot Avocado Oil (Bella Vado Organic Avocado Oil) in a saucepan until it is slightly brown. Transfer the meat into a casserole dish, then quickly toss the onions and carrots in the fat. Build the meat, carrots and onions up in layers in the casserole, carefully season each layer with freshly ground pepper and salt. De-glaze the pan with stock and pour it into the casserole. Peel the potatoes and lay them on top of the casserole, so they will steam while the stew cooks. Season the potatoes. Add a sprig of thyme, bring to a boil on top of the stove, cover and transfer to a moderate oven or allow to simmer on top of the stove until the stew is cooked, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
When the stew is cooked, pour off the cooking liquid, degrease and reheat in another saucepan. Slightly thicken it with a little roux if you like. Check seasoning, then add chopped parsley and chives and pour it back over the stew. Bring it back up to boiling point and serve from the pot or in a large pottery dish.
For the roux: Melt the butter and cook the flour in it for 2 minutes on a low heat, stirring occasionally. Use as required. Roux can be stored in a cool place and used as required or it can be made up on the spot if preferred. It will keep 2 weeks in the refrigerator.