By JOAN BRUNSKILL

By JOAN BRUNSKILL
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Irish or no, at this time of year hearty lamb and vegetable stew, freshly baked soda bread or buttered fruit bread with your cup of tea are heartwarming concepts even to call to mind -- let alone actually cook.
Although they can seem a feast, these are simple dishes, forgiving for the occasional cook and not calling for fancy ingredients. The stews and breads come from a country tradition, often based on local meat and vegetables, or basic products from a country store.
Take the stew. Terry Condon, general manager at Gallagher's Steak House in New York City, is an Irish-American whose family originally hails from County Cork in Ireland. He relishes Irish lamb stew, he says, because besides the local meat it probably started with, "it is made with a bevy of the flavorful root vegetables which grow so abundantly in Ireland."
And it's so easy for the home chef to make. "Once everything is on the top of the stove, it simmers for hours, and only needs an occasional stir," Condon points out.
This is an old Condon family recipe with some American adaptations and nuances developed by Terry Condon. Start with the recipe but vary it if you wish -- substitute a favorite vegetable or two, perhaps, to taste. He suggests serving the stew over egg noodles, or mashed potatoes.
TERRY CONDON'S IRISH LAMB STEW
2 pounds boned shoulder of lamb, cut into 2-inch cubes
1/4 cup flour
11/2 teaspoons salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper, or to taste
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 medium onions, sliced
2 leeks, sliced thin
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 bottle of red wine to cover (see note)
141/2 ounce can whole plum tomatoes, crushed
4 carrots, quartered
10 baby Yukon Gold potatoes
2 stalks celery, quartered
2 parsnips, quartered
2 cups chicken stock, if needed (see note)
10 ounce package frozen green peas
Few sprigs parsley
1/4 teaspoon dried thyme
Lightly flour the lamb, season to taste with salt and pepper; brown the meat on all sides in olive oil in a large, lidded saucepan. Remove meat.
Saute the onions, leeks and garlic in the same oil until translucent. Return lamb to the saucepan, cover with the red wine and 1/2 the canned tomatoes, crushed. Bring to full boil, then turn heat down to low and simmer fully covered for 1 to 11/2 hours.
Add carrots, potatoes, celery, parsnips and rest of tomatoes, crushed (and chicken stock if needed) to the lamb; add salt to season the vegetables to taste; bring to boil, then lower heat and simmer over low heat, uncovered, for 1 hour to 11/2 hours. Add peas, parsley and thyme, and cook for final 10 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.
Note: You may use whatever wine you would drink with the meal. If you need additional liquid to cover, use chicken stock.
Irish soda bread is the most favored companion to a cup of tea, writes Margaret M. Johnson in "Irish Puddings, Tarts, Crumbles, and Fools" (Chronicle, 2004, $24.95 paperback). Johnson is a cookbook author and food journalist who lives in New York City, "when she is not visiting her ancestral home of Ireland," the book jacket tells us.
Her book, illustrated with color photos of Ireland which she herself shot, features some 80 desserts, ranging from homey to sophisticated -- as in the soda bread tarte tatin with Cashel Blue cheese and cider ice.
Some recipes are her own, but she collected many others from famous chefs and cooks around Ireland. She knows of endless variations in people's recipes for soda bread, she says, but this one she offers in her book is one she loves, from her mother.
IRISH SODA BREAD
4 cups all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoons baking soda
4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, preferably Irish, cut into pieces, plus extra butter for serving
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup golden raisins
3 tablespoons caraway seeds
1 egg beaten with 1 tablespoon milk or water
Preheat the oven to 425 F. Lightly grease a large baking sheet or cast-iron skillet.
Sift the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda into a food processor fitted with a metal blade. Add the butter and pulse 8 to 12 times, or until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg and buttermilk and process for 15 to 20 seconds, or until the dough comes together.
Dust a work surface with flour. Turn out the dough, add the raisins and caraway seeds, and with floured hands knead dough gently to form a large round. Transfer to the prepared baking sheet or skillet. Brush the loaf with the egg wash, and with serrated knife, cut an "X" into the top. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes, or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. (The bread should sound hollow when the bottom is tapped with a knife.) Remove from the oven and let cool on a wire rack for about 15 minutes. Slice and serve warm with butter.
Makes 1 loaf.
Among the good food fondly presented in "Real Life Cooking: Traditional European Recipes for Modern-Day Life" by Trish Deseine (Octopus, 2004, $16.95 paperback) there's a "tea loaf." The recipe is printed up alongside instructions for making a good cup of tea, anticipating, as Deseine says, "tea and cakes for a rainy afternoon."
There's a personal feel to this book, which is a collection of recipes inspired by a wide variety of local cuisines, laced with casual anecdotes and comments. In winsome, uncaptioned photos you glimpse pleasant people shopping, cooking and eating, suggesting a family way of life that looks very livable.
It turns out Deseine is Irish, married to a Frenchman, living in France. Her "tea loaf" is related to the simple fruit bread also called barm brack, a longtime favorite in Ireland, as well as in Wales and other parts of Britain.
You will need a 7-inch diameter cake pan and a wire rack and should note that you start steeping the fruit the night before baking.
TEA LOAF
(Preparation 30 minutes plus overnight steeping of fruit, baking time 11/2 hours)
11/2 cups hot tea
2 cups golden raisins
2 cups currants
1egg, beaten
1 teaspoon mixed spice
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 cup (well packed) soft brown sugar
31/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
Pour the hot tea over the dried fruit and leave to soak overnight.
The next day, preheat the oven to 325 F. Butter a 7-inch cake pan.
Mix together the egg, mixed spice, baking powder, sugar, flour and the dried fruit. Pour the mixture into the cake pan. Bake for 11/2 hours, or until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 5 minutes before turning the loaf out on to a wire rack.
Serve hot or toasted, with butter.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
(Recipe from "Real Life Cooking" by Trish Deseine, Octopus, 2004, $16.95 paperback)
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