Slow-cooked Irish stew

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
  
• 200g smoked streaky bacon, preferably in one piece, skinned and cut into chunks
• 900g cheap stewing lamb
  
   like middle neck or scrag (ask at your butcher counter), cut into large chunks
• small bunch thyme
• 3 onions
  
  , thickly sliced
• 5 carrots
  
  , cut into big chunks
• 6 medium potatoes
  
  , cut into big chunks
• 700ml lamb stock
• 3 bay leaves
• 85g pearl barley
• 1 large leek
  
  , washed and cut into chunks
• small knob of butter
  

Method

1. Heat the slow cooker if necessary, then heat the oil in a frying pan. Sizzle the bacon until crisp, tip into the slow-cooker pot, then brown the chunks of lamb in the pan. Transfer to the slow-cooker pot along with the thyme, onions, carrots, potatoes, stock, bay leaves and enough water to cover the lamb. Cover and cook on Low for 7 hrs.
2. Stir in the pearl barley and leek, and cook on High for 1 hr more until the pearl barley is tender.
3. Stir in the butter, season and serve scooped straight from the dish.
4.