Irish Comfort (Beef & Guinness Stew)
On Raglan Road
On Raglan Road, in DECEMBER…I sat on the soft, blue upholstered seats of the Ballsbridge bus from central Dublin. I picked it up across the street from the Trinity College wall facing, Westmoreland Street? The one that connected the main way of Dame Street to the twinkling lights of Grafton Street, at least so my memory tells me.
Sunset
Starting in early fall, the Irish light fell into darkness earlier. Unlike in New York, my birthplace, the light here went black not at 4:30 or near 5pm, but often not long after 3pm once November came into being. I looked back on the internet to see when the sun sets in Ireland, and it didn’t look any different than here in New York. I’m wondering if my memory is mistaken, or if the feeling of light does not equal the facts.
On nights such as these, I would wait…a very long time for the Ballsbridge bus. Ballsbridge was the home of small town strips of pubs, restaurants, parks, the American Embassy, a very 1970’s shaped building (something like an octagon with wide windows, perched on a triangular plot where two streets joined), and the home of Raglan Road, where “grief be a falling leaf at the dawning of the day.“
Irish American
It was also where I lived from September 1997 through June of 1998, while I attended the graduate program at the Samuel Beckett Center for Drama at Trinity College Dublin. Ballsbridge was in Dublin 6, its postal code. Irish locals had told me that having a dog box in Dublin 6 was living a dream. It was on the Southside of Dublin, and primarily residential.
Raglan Road was as one would expect it to be in December. I would ride the 15 or so minutes on the bus, always sitting on the top level of the bus because I could, and because it offered a brand new vantage point to me, the American on a Dublin bus. Once we’d arrive near Elgin Road, with the U.S. Embassy in view, I’d hop off into the quick autumn darkness, often with a stomach full of at least a few pints of Guinness.
During my walks down Raglan Road during this time of year, the amber streetlights would illuminate the brittle leaves whipping around their trees. The cold click of my footsteps on the road cut into the waves of leaves dancing with each other. The moon would find its way into the scene as I’d arrive at the door to of the house where I rented a flat, at 26 Irish pounds a week.
Red Door/Red Carpet
The red door and bay windows were unique to this house. An older Irish woman owned the house and rented the top flat to me. It was smaller than the other flat she had showed me, but this flat had a blood red rug stuck onto a thinner, older rug, which affected my decision.
I had no bathroom – it was just outside my door in the hall. It was always cold. My kitchen consisted of a refrigerator box about 12″ x 16″, a singular electric portable cooktop, sink, and small microwave, all along a wall shorter than a queen size bed.
I did not have a queen size bed. The one room apartment, other than the kitchen area, consisted of a dark blue futon, which was very soft and uninspired, a small oval wooden coffee table, a matching two level shelf that I overflowed with books, and my little twin bed.
The best part of the room was the bay window. It was a main window flanked by Georgian style window panels, all framed in overly painted white. After a night out, I would make this collegiate dish of chopped onion in olive oil, chopped tomatoes, garlic, and rice. Some of my New York oregano and red pepper flake often accompanied the dinner. It was my home cooked meal.
After Dinner
I would sit afterwards on the one of two chairs that went with the little white table, the only other piece of furniture in the room, and look out of that big window. I could see the tops of houses and trees in Ballsbridge and even the far off outskirts of Dublin proper. It rained often as one would expect, but rarely snowed. One day during December, it did snow. It was gentle, then always like a hail, as the late fall colors of the sky above Raglan Road blended into a blue grey.
I stared into the oncoming snow as if looking into a holiday snow globe or a crystal ball, trying my best to look into the future. I loved living here, even though I felt unmistakingly American here to my chagrin. The Irish often commented that I did not seem American. I always said thank you. My Croatian parents, immigrant background, and general un-Americanness had left its mark. Still, I didn’t feel Irish. I often loved places more than the people in them.
Irish Poem
I loved my rented home.
I loved walking on Raglan Road, in day or night, with the leaves, the snow, or the soft sun.
I loved the bus and the corny American Embassy.
I loved my kooky landlady.
I loved my red carpet.
I loved my makeshift kitchen.
I loved my little bed and my repetitive rice and onion meals. I would have chosen for comfort the famous Beef and Guinness Stew, which I make regularly in my big kitchen in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, where I live with my boyfriend, over 20 years later.
I had stared out of that bay window over Raglan Road and intended to stay in Ireland after I graduated. It did not happen. I was happy to be where I was, and happy to be where I am now. I will, however, think of that light, rare snow falling towards me in my lonely youth from a big grey sky in Dublin. The meal was incidental. The comfort was the reason I hold the memory so clearly in my mind.
A small piece of that memory comes in the form of an Irish Beef and Guinness Stew, cooked on a cold-weather Sunday.
Irish Beef and Guinness Sunday Stew
Ingredients
- 2.5 pounds beef cubes (chuck has the best fat content)
- flour for dusting the beef cubes
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 carrots, rough chopped
- 3 stalks celery, rough chopped
- 1 Cup Guinness
- Bouquet Garni of fresh thyme, parsley, rosemary, and bay leaf
- 2-3 Cup beef stock
- Salt & Pepper
- Irish Champ as side dish: 5-6 potatoes (mashed), butter, and chopped scallions
Instructions
- Add some olive oil and butter to a heavy stockpot. Salt and pepper, then flour, the cubes of meat. Over medium heat, brown the cubes in two batches until seared on all sides. Set aside.
- In same pot, add onion and some salt and combine until translucent. Add garlic, carrots, and celery and cook until softer.
- Turn up the heat and add in the Guinness, allowing to bubble and evaporate as you scrape up any bits stuck to the bottom of the pot. Add the meat back in, and add the stock after which seasoning and placing the bouquet garni. Once the stew boils,lower to a simmer and cook, stirring often, for at least two hours.
- For the Irish Champ: Peel and quarter the potatoes, bring to a boil in a separate pot and cook until soft, then mashing with cream and butter. Season and add in the chopped scallions to finish.
- When serving, spoon some stew into a bowl and add a few scoops of the Irish champ and top with a little more of the stew gravy. Sit by a large window while complicated weather occurs outside. Stare off, eat, and dream of your future, of your past,or your right now.
