Irish Lamb Stew

INGREDIENTS:

1 1/2 pounds thickly sliced bacon, diced 6 pounds boneless lamb shoulder, cut into 2 inch pieces 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 3 cloves garlic, minced 1 large onion, chopped

1 can beef consumme, 1 can beef broth 4 cups diced carrots 2 large onions, cut into bite-size pieces 6 potatoes 1 teaspoon dried thyme 2 bay leaves 1 cup white grape juice

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Place bacon in a large, deep skillet. Cook over medium high heat until evenly brown. Drain, crumble, and set aside.
2.	Put lamb, salt, pepper, and flour in large mixing bowl. Toss to coat meat evenly. Brown meat in frying pan with bacon fat.
3.	Place meat into stock pot (leave 1/4 cup of fat in frying pan). Add the garlic and yellow onion and saute till onion begins to become golden. Deglaze frying pan with grape juice and add the garlic-onion mixture to the stock pot with bacon pieces, and beef stock. Cover and simmer for 1 1/2 hours.
4.	Add carrots, onions, potatoes, thyme, bay leaves to pot. Reduce heat, and simmer covered for 20 minutes until vegetables are tender. (allrecipes.com) I used 2 Costco packages of lamb chops, cooked them with bone on, then removed meat from bone at the end. I found this actually was a little thin, and at the end I added a roux of flour, butter, and broth to get it to the thickness I wanted in a stew.