Irish Lamb Stew

This stew is fab! Especially if you sprinkle the feta cheese and mint on top before you eat it. I'm sure it would be even better if you added the wine, but since I don't drink, I don't have wines sitting around my house to add to cooking. This time I did the stovetop bits and then transferred everything to the crockpot for the day. I would suggest doubling it because we chowed and finished it all between the two of us!

Greek-style Lamb Stew

2 lb lamb stew meat in 3/4 inch cubes
1/4 t salt
1/4 t ground pepper
2 c reduced sodium beef broth
2 t olive oil
3/4 c chopped onion
3/4 c chopped celery
3 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 c red wine or additional broth
3/4 c canned diced tomatoes
1/4 c tomato paste
1 t fennel seeds
1/2 t cinnamon
1 T flour

Sprinkle lamb with salt and pepper. Heat a large non-stick skillet on medium high until hot. Add lamb in two batches, cooking until browned, stirring frequently. After each batch, add 1/4 c of broth to skillet to deglaze. Transfer lamb and liquid to a heavy medium pot.

Now add oil to skillet and heat til hot. Add onion and celery and cook until tender, stirring occassionally. Add garlic and cood for 30 seconds. Add wine. Bring to a boil, deglazing pan.

Transfer onion mixture to lamb pot along with rest of ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium heat. In a small bowl whisk together flour and 1 T of broth. Whisk into stew to thicken. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 20 minutes or until lamb is tender.

Serve with crumbled feta and chopped mint on top of bowls.


Lamb

As I said in my post about the Specialty Food Show, I got some samples from different vendors. Today I decided to take two of them to make dinner.


The lamb sausage is from Marcel & Henri. They are an award winning charcuterie based in the Bay Area. Here is a little of their history from The Nibble, which by the way, has a great summary of charcuterie and pates.

Charcutier Henri Lapuyade, founder of Marcel et Henri, started to make French pâtés in the United States in 1960. Beginning with a few recipes from his native France, he opened a small shop on San Francisco’s Russian Hill. Business thrived, his quality became renowned. In 1982 the French government awarded Henri the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole for carrying on the great culinary tradition in the United States, and in 1997 he was promoted to Officier de l’Ordre du Mérite Agricole.

So based on the above, you know it's gonna be good. The sausage I was given was already cooked but I used it in the recipe anyway.

The gnocchi came from an Italian exhibitor, De Cecco pastas. You would know the blue and yellow boxes of their fine pastas in the grocery stores. The gnocchi were wonderfully packaged with just a slight dusting of meal to keep them separated. The cooked up nicely.

The recipe is from Emeril Lagasse. Emeril's Lamb Sausage Ragout with Portobello Mushrooms Since I don't do mushrooms, they are left out of my version. Even though this ragout is really too chunky to go with gnocchi, I wanted to use the two samples together and it still worked out deliciously. The finished product was a great contrast of the chunky and still slightly crunchy veggies of the ragout with the pillowy softness of the gnocchi. I will definitely make this again.

Lamb Sausage Ragout
* 2 pounds Italian style lamb sausage, (substitute with regular Italian sausage), cut into 1-inch pieces
* Olive oil
* 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
* 1 cup chopped onions
* 1/2 cup chopped celery
* 1/2 cup chopped carrots
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
* 10 plum tomatoes, halves and pureed in the food processor (about 4 to 5 cups puree)
* 1/2 cup dry red wine
* 1 pound gnocchi
* 1/4 pound Pecorino Foje de Noce

Heat a large Dutch over medium-high heat. Add enough olive oil to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Add the sausage and cook just until well browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Add the onions, garlic, celery, and carrots and cook until the vegetables begin to soften, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and add the crushed red pepper flakes. Add the fresh tomato puree and the red wine and bring to a simmer. Lower the heat and simmer gently for 30 minutes. Season, to taste, with salt and pepper.

Bring a large pasta pot of water to a boil. Season with salt. Add the gnocchi and cook according to package directions, or until al dente, about 3 minutes. Drain well.

First, I'll explain the picture. I made these lamb meatballs and then packaged them all up for work lunches before I remembered that I needed pictures for the blog. Thus, the not so attractive presentation.

This recipe comes from the Every Day with Rachael Ray magazine. I liked it, but think it could use a bit more bite. BUT>>>> it might be because I had to do a workaround. It calls for ground cumin and I only had cumin seed. They are too little to put in my mini food processor and I don't own a mortar and pestle. (Note to self to get one now!) Veena suggested that I try crushing them on my granite countertop. She had me roast them in a pan for a couple of minutes first and then we put them on the counter. I remembered I had my Pampered Chef meat tenderizer.



This tenderizer is reversible and so I had it on the flat size and used that to mash the seeds as best I could. But it still wasn't a great solution. Suffice it to say, I went to the store a couple of days later and bought ground cumin.

All in all the meatballs were tasty. I did leave out the flour coating and I ended up baking them on my stone versus cooking them on the stovetop. I also made sure I got European style yogurt, which is zingier than the American stuff. I put lots of mint in the yogurt and really enjoyed it. I also no longer cook rice at home and so I served them with quinoa.


Lamb