Dan Bites

Lamb, the prefered meat in Europe and a fantastic animal to stew up with veggies. With Spring in the air, but still a very chilly breeze shooting through Chicago, I thought that a simple Lamb Stew would be a great dinner. Not to mention I had a nice bottle of Syrah I wanted to drink, a nice match with lamb.

I first sautéed up a small onion that I diced up to medium-sized pieces with a chopped carrot, two stalks of celery chopped, and 4 cloves of minced garlic in some olive oil over medium-high heat. After a few minutes, when the veggies were turning translucent, I added a couple of large diced Yukon Gold potatoes. I didn’t want to add the potatoes too early because they fall apart when stewed for long periods of time. For long stews it’s usually best to use a denser potato like russet. But, I had a couple of Yukons that I needed to use up so I added them late to keep them together.

Only a couple of minutes after adding the potatoes I threw in about a pound of cut-up lamb leg meat. You want about 1 inch cubes. Anything smaller and the meat will get tough. I let the meat cook a little until the outsides were cooked but not the insides. Then I added a bunch of quartered cremini mushrooms and stirred that all around.

Once everything was coated with the olive oil and lamb fat I seasoned with a little salt (not too much), turmeric, cumin, dried basil, and a bay leaf. Then I added about a quarter cup of soy sauce and 2/3 cup of beef stock. Once the liquid came to a boil I put the lid on my pot and turned the heat down to medium. I let everything stew together for about an hour.

Once the stew was about ready I threw in a handful of freshly chopped parsley and turned off the heat. I served it up with some sliced bread. Well, I had it with sliced bread, Yuki had it with white rice. Whatever your pleasure, it’s all good.