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cooking · 2026-03-18

A Mostly Stupid Idea for Cooking Lamb, Potatoes, and Kale for St. Patrick's Day

I grow a bit bored of cooking perfected recipes from well-known chefs out of a book. It is wonderful for learning and practicing, but it prevents me from being creative or thoughtful in a way that thinking up my own dishes does. The cookbook recipe method typically results in a better meal - being well tested and thought up by a chef, not a blogger - but it comes with a smaller sense of accomplishment. The creative method is exciting when it works, but it is admittedly not so fun when it fails.

My not-so-bright idea for this meal was to use a good meat but lean into Irish flavors for the accompaniments. What even are Irish flavors, you might ask? I'm not particularly sure, and the Irish are not known for their food. No offense to the Irish, obviously, but making this meal certainly confirmed some things.

We embraced the meat and potatoes bit, leveraging kale and chive oil for our greens. We made pomme puree from the potatoes to elevate this as much as we reasonably could. For the sauces, we went with a Guinness-based lamb jus for the meat and a dulse-infused butter sauce for the kale and potatoes. A deconstructured colcannon, if you will. I was even going to use hay in the infused butter alongside the dulse flakes, but it didn't arrive in time. Considering it was advertised for rabbits, guinea pigs, and chinchillas, it is probably for the best.

After eating, I was fairly annoyed at the amount of time I spent cooking this and the lack of time I spent thinking about whether it could ever really work.

Guinness Veal Jus
Weights
  • 1-1.5 kg veal knuckle or mixed bones
  • 150-200g lamb trim and fat scraps
  • 1 large onion; rough chopped
  • 2 carrots; rough chopped
  • 3 celery stalks; rough chopped
  • 250ml Guinness draught; for fond deglaze
  • 120ml Guinness draught; for second reduction
  • 1 small bundle fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 6-8 black peppercorns
  • 0.5 tsp red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter; cold, cubed; for mounting at service
  • salt to taste
  • 2.5g gelatin powder; optional
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450F. Arrange veal bones and lamb trim in a single layer in a heavy oven-safe pan with no oil and no crowding. Place meat-side up where applicable. Roast 40 minutes.
  2. Add rough-chopped onion, carrot, and celery to a separate sheet pan. Place alongside bone pan for the final 20 minutes of roasting. Push color further than feels comfortable; you want deeply mahogany bones and a dark fond on the pan bottom.
  3. Transfer roasted bones and vegetables into a large stockpot. Cover with cold water; do not heat yet.
  4. Place the bone roasting pan directly on the stovetop over medium-high heat. Pour 250ml Guinness into the hot pan and scrape aggressively to lift all fond from the bottom and sides. Reduce this liquid by 75% until syrupy and concentrated; roughly 5-8 minutes. Pour entire contents into the stockpot.
  5. Bring stockpot slowly to temperature, approximately 190F. Once the surface begins to move, skim aggressively for 20-30 minutes as grey protein foam rises. Add thyme, bay leaves, and peppercorns once skimming slows.
  6. Hold at 190F for 4 hours uncovered. Don't boil.
  7. Strain stock through a fine mesh strainer into a large container; press solids gently. Refrigerate for 30-45 minutes and lift the solidified fat disc cleanly from the top. Reserve the fat for searing the lamb chops.
  8. Transfer 1.5 liters of defatted stock to your widest saucepan. Reduce by approximately 80% over medium simmer; 1.5-2 hours. Check viscosity using the spoon-coating test; a finger drawn through the coating on the back of a spoon should hold a clean line.
  9. Separately reduce 120ml Guinness in a small saucepan over medium-low heat to roughly 1 tablespoon of syrup. Watch constantly in the final stages; it should smell of roasted malt with slight bitterness, not acrid. Pull immediately at syrup consistency.
  10. When the jus approaches final viscosity, whisk in the Guinness syrup and taste immediately. Add red wine vinegar and taste again. Salt conservatively at the end only. If viscosity is insufficient, bloom gelatin powder in 1 tablespoon cold water for 5 minutes and whisk into hot jus.
  11. Transfer finished jus to a small saucepan and cover loosely. Mount with cold cubed butter just before service; whisk 1-2 tablespoons off heat until glossy.
Frenched Lamb Rib Chops
Weights
  • 4 frenched lamb rib chops; roughly 200-250g each; good fat cap retained
  • salt
  • freshly cracked black pepper; applied after sear only
  • 1 small bundle fresh thyme
  • 2 garlic cloves; smashed
  • reserved lamb and veal fat from jus; for searing
Instructions
  1. Salt chops aggressively on all sides the night before cooking. Place on a wire rack over a sheet pan and refrigerate uncovered overnight. The dry surface improves the subsequent sear.
  2. Preheat oven to 225F. Place chops on a wire rack over a sheet pan. Rest a small bundle of thyme and a smashed garlic clove against each chop. Insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of one chop; not touching bone.
  3. Place in oven. Pull at 120F internal temperature; expect 20-35 minutes depending on chop thickness.
  4. Heat a cast iron or carbon steel pan to maximum heat. Add a thin film of reserved lamb and veal fat.
  5. Sear fat cap first; stand each chop on its fat edge using tongs for 60-90 seconds until golden and rendered.
  6. Sear flat sides 45-60 seconds per side. Both sides should be deeply mahogany.
  7. Transfer to a rest plate for 3-4 minutes. Apply freshly cracked black pepper now; applying after the sear preserves aromatic volatiles and eliminates char risk.
Hay and Dulse Infused Clarified Butter
Weights
  • 200g unsalted Kerrygold butter
  • 9g dulse flakes; roughly half a standard small bag
  • 10-15g timothy hay; small loose handful; plain untreated only
Instructions
  1. Melt butter gently in a small saucepan. Target 140-150F.
  2. Add dulse flakes and timothy hay. Stir gently to submerge. Hold at 140-150F for 45 minutes; stir occasionally.
  3. Strain through a fine mesh strainer; press solids gently. Discard solids.
  4. Strain through a cheesecloth to clarify. Reserve output; it will solidify at room temperature. Remelt gently before incorporating into the beurre monte.
Beurre Monte
Weights
  • 200g unsalted Kerrygold butter; whole, cold, cubed
  • 1 tbsp water
  • 2-3 tbsp hay and dulse infused clarified butter; remelted
  • 1 tsp finished Guinness jus
  • salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Bring 1 tablespoon water to a bare simmer in a small heavy saucepan. The emulsion relies on whole butter's milk proteins as emulsifier and cannot be built from clarified butter alone.
  2. Begin adding cold whole butter cubes one at a time; not in a stream. Whisk each cube completely into the emulsion before adding the next. The cold butter simultaneously moderates temperature to prevent breaking and contributes water and protein to build the emulsion progressively. Don't stop whisking, don't allow it to boil
  3. Once all butter is incorporated and the sauce is glossy and coats a spoon; whisk in 2-3 tablespoons of remelted infused clarified butter. Taste; dilute with additional plain clarified butter if the mineral character is too assertive.
  4. Whisk in 1 teaspoon of finished jus. Season with salt. Transfer to a bain marie to hold at 160-170F; loosely covered. To recover a broken sauce; add a teaspoon of cold water and whisk vigorously off heat; then possibly add a fresh cold butter cube and rebuild.
Pomme Puree
Weights
  • 400g Yukon Gold potatoes; peeled and cut into even chunks
  • 150g unsalted Kerrygold butter; cold, cubed
  • salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Set sous vide to 158F. Place potato chunks in a zip-lock bag and submerge for 25 minutes. This activates pectin methylesterase which strengthens cell walls and allows higher butter uptake without glueyness.
  2. Transfer potatoes directly to well-salted boiling water. Cook until completely tender; a knife meets zero resistance; roughly 15-20 minutes.
  3. Drain thoroughly. Pass immediately through a fine strainer (or ricer) using the back of a ladle or spatula while still hot. Work in batches. Do not allow to cool before passing.
  4. Fold in cold cubed butter in three additions; roughly 50g at a time. Fold gently until incorporated before adding the next. Use minimum passes and stop the moment the mixture is smooth and cohesive. Season aggressively with salt; taste repeatedly.
Kale
Weights
  • 200g tuscan kale; stems removed, rough chiffonade 2-3cm pieces
  • 1 small spoonful beurre monte; for dressing at service
  • salt to taste
Instructions
  1. Blanch kale chiffonade in well-salted boiling water for exactly 90 seconds. Shock immediately in an ice bath. Drain thoroughly; press out excess moisture.
  2. Hold at room temperature. Dress with a small spoonful of beurre monte and a pinch of salt immediately before plating
Chive Oil
Weights
  • 50g fresh chives
  • 100ml grapeseed oil; avocado oil acceptable
Instructions
  1. Bring a small pot of heavily salted water to a boil. Prepare an ice bath alongside.
  2. Blanch chives for 20-30 seconds to denature chlorophyll-degrading enzymes. Shock immediately in the ice bath.
  3. Drain thoroughly and squeeze out all moisture. Excess water dilutes extraction and weakens flavor.
  4. Blend with 100ml oil on maximum speed for 90 seconds minimum. The 2:1 oil-to-herb ratio by weight produces a flavor-forward oil; a looser ratio dilutes chive character significantly.
  5. Clarify this using your home centrifuge or a cheesecloth strain. Holds 3-4 days refrigerated.

Post Mortem

Sometimes failing creatively is a learning experience. This was a reminder of why quality ingredients and flavor profiles are such a huge part of successful restaurants. It is not rare nor is it a coincidence that these restaurants often take a traditional idea - such as an Irish colcannon - and litter (or layer) them with non-traditional ingredients. Is the essence of the tradition really still there? Meh, maybe. But at least it probably tastes good. There isn't much pride in creating something that doesn't taste particularly good but treats a culture or tradition more honestly.

The problem with reduced Guinness is that it needs a much better counterpoint, more sweetness, more acid, more fat, whatever, which takes us right back to where we landed above. The end jus required a fair bit of acid to take it from "I don't really want to serve this to someone else" to "fine for now." The dulse-infused butter sauce had an earthy flavor similar to what you might expect from a seaweed harvested along the Irish coast. The lamb was solid.

I don't think it mattered much in the end, but I also botched some of the build. The recipe above includes hay if you want to really lean into this, but my Amazon package hadn't arrived in time. I also adapted the recipe of the butter sauce after clarifying the dulse butter and trying to build the emulsion with a larger, unsuccessful ratio of clarified to non-clarified butter. The chive oil was far too oil forward in the end because I underestimated how much chive I actually had and how difficult it would be to process in the Vitamix without more oil.

After eating this, I was fairly disappointed, but I came around to being more reflective than disappointed. I dug in a bit more on emulsions and butter sauces, understanding more clearly the physics and chemistry that allows it all to work. I re-acknowledged a truth about the ceiling that ingredient quality sets on taste that cooking quality mostly can't exceed.

It was enjoyable to think this up, and it generated more thoughts about cooking than a typical cookbook recipe recreation does. There will be a mix of the stuff that real cooks have proven out and stuff that I think up going forward.

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