Lamb Stew

My roommate Kelley and I split a giant plate of lamb stew, piled high with mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, greens, and carrots at O'Neill's a few times during my last stay in Dublin. If you ask me, lamb stew is superior to most stews, and I'm not exactly sure why. Also, if you ask me, it smells a little funky cooking up, but Spouse doesn't think so. I think the difference of our opinion stems from the fact that I know what the sheep part of the barn smells like, and there's an element of that odor that's embedded in the meat. Same with pork sometimes, but anyway. Rather than go on and on about smelly animals, and put you off the idea entirely, let me encourage you to make this stew since it's easy, cheap, and unbelievably delicious.

For 4 servings:

2 Lamb shoulder chops ($2.50 or less apiece!)
3 small or 1 1/2 medium onions
2 carrots
3-4 red potatoes
a few cups of water, plus 1 can of some kind of broth (I used chicken in spite of inter-species weirdness this suggests)
a couple sprigs of rosemary

Cut the chops into bite-size chunks and season with salt and pepper. There are bones in these things, so instead of cutting the meat off the bone very carefully while it's raw, just cut roughly around the bone and throw it in the pot with the rest.
In a soup pot over medium-high heat, brown the chunks of lamb in a little bit of olive oil. Let the pieces get nice and brown before you stir them around.
Cut the onions into bite-size chunks and throw those in.
When the meat is browned, scoot it off to the side, and if there's not enough fat in the bottom of the pot to make a roux, pour in a little bit more olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of flour into the fat, like a tablespoon or so, and scrape it around with a fork until it gets a little brown. Pour in a cup or so of water and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Pour in more water, and/or broth, enough to cover the meat, as well as the carrots and potatoes you're about to put in. More liquid means it'll be more soupy, less stewy, so add a little at a time if you're not sure.
Chop the carrots and potatoes into similarly-sized chunks and throw those in along with the rosemary. I usually put carrots in ahead of potatoes since they take a little bit longer to cook, but everything's going to fall apart in the stew anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
Bring it all to a boil, then let it simmer for an hour or so, until the meat is really tender. If the liquid part of the stew isn't as thick as you'd like, mix a tablespoon or so of cornstarch with a little cold water, and stir that in. Do NOT just dump cornstarch into the stew, because you'll never get it to dissolve.
Fish out the bones and the woody stalks left over from the rosemary before serving.

Note: the shoulder cut, whether it's lamb or pork or beef or whatever, requires a long cooking time in liquid to be edible. Pick out a piece of lamb after a while and see if it's tender--if not, let it go a while longer.