This wasn’t supposed to be a stew with diced lamb. Actually, this was supposed to be an entirely different recipe. Somewhere in the scrawling down a shopping list, bathing a toddler and general multi-tasking of Motherhood, there was a breakdown in communication and my husband returned from the Farmer’s Markets with a small, bone in leg of lamb, instead of some lamb chops.
*brain whizzing madly trying to work out what to do with it.
“Just roast it!” I hear you say. Let me share my little secret with you. I am THE worst roast cooker on the planet. I have ruined more gigantic slabs of meat and delicate, expensive butcher cuts of meat than I care to recall. I have no idea where I go wrong, but my roasts are, without fail, disasters.
Looking in the fridge, I knew I had some red capsicum and carrots, so thought I’d create a sweet stew with a not so delicate ginger punch. It turned out great!
Note to self: when leaving in the large, mangled remnants of a piece of fresh ginger after grating (to give off more flavour overnight), remember to fish it out! Biting down on a piece of whole ginger the size of your thumb is a shock to say the least!
8 hours on low in the slow cooker should do it. Mine was on for about 12 hours because I wanted to go to bed! (um, yes, I went to bed a 6:30pm!).
Use whatever cut of lamb you can get. It can be pretty darn pricey, so ask your butcher for the best deal and cut for slow cooking.
Ingredients:
(serves 6 adults)
4 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
2 large carrots – peeled and cut into thirds (you want nice, big veggies in this dish)
2 potatoes – peeled and quartered into wedges
1 onion – peeled and quartered into wedges
1 thumb size piece of fresh ginger – peeled and grated
1 x 400g tin tomatoes (whole or diced – whatever you have in the larder)
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1 red capsicum – thickly sliced
600g to 1kg of lamb – diced (if you want to use less lamb, just up the quantity of carrot and potato).
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tin of chic peas or other beans, drained.
Method:
In a bowl, season the lamb with salt and pepper and toss to combine.
Put the lamb and all other ingredients (aside from the chic peas/beans) into the slow cooker and cook on low for 8 to 12 hours.
Stir through the chic peas/beans right before serving and garnish with fresh parsley (of which I had none, hence the bright orange meal in the photo!)
We had ours with simple steamed broccoli, but it would be lovely served with rice or cous cous.