While preparing this dish, have the aria ‘O Mio Babbino Caro’ playing in your kitchen. As you prepare and listen, in your mind subsitute ‘Babbino’ with ‘Agnello’. Your experience will approach the magical (magico); and your stew… well…

This stew is always different when we cook it because we constantly taste it and change the ingredients to balance the sweet saltiness of the base.

There are two ways to do the lamb:
Use left over roast lamb, cut in 1 inch (or so) cubes
Use lamb stewing meat   
If you use the roast lamb, add it to the stew after the veggies and base are pretty much done. You want the roast lamb to absorb the flavours in the stew, bur you don’t want to overcook the meat.
If you use stewing meat, dredge the pieces in flour to which you’ve added salt (preferably fleur de sel) and pepper (preferably Cambodian black pepper). Cook the dredged lamb pieces in a high temperature oil (avacado oil is good) until the meat is lightly browned on all sides. Add about a cup of sliced yellow onions and enough water to just cover the lamb/onion mix. Let that cook over medium heat for about 10 mins, stirring as needed. Then, if you like, add a couple of tsps of red curry paste and a splashing of worchestershire sauce & stir in. The rest of the ingredients listed below can then be added to build your stew.

Ingredients

• 2 (or more!) cloves of garlic, roughtly chopped

• 1 medium-sized yellow/Spanish onion, sliced

• 2 tsp red curry paste (if you wish)

• I cup yams, cubed and roasted in olive oil & salt (roasting brings out the sweetness)

• 1 cup carrots, cut in 1/2 inch pieces diagonally (again this insures that each carrot piece has more of the ouside sweeter material, rather than more of the slightly more bitter centre, which you would get if you cut the carrot straight across into little circles). You can roast the carrot pieces with the yam pieces

• 1 cup finely chopped kale

• 2 cups peeled russet potatoes, cubed. You don’t really need to roast these.

• 1 tsp each of powdered thyme, sage and rosemary (best if you grow your own herbs, dry & powder them)

• a few squirts of balsamic reduction (to taste)

• Some sprinklings of worchestershire sauce (to taste)

• 2 cans of good quality coconut milk (not low fat!).

• pieces1/2 cup each of dried apricots and dried prunes or dried figs, chopped into bite-sized

Generally Vague and Changeable Procedure

 

So… if you’re using leftover lamb roast:

Roast your yam/carrot/olive oil/salt & pepper mix in the oven at 350º for about 45 mins (the veggies don’t need to be fully cooked: they’ll do that in the stew).

Have a glass of wine while the veggies are roasting & read the rest of the procedure. 

 

Next:

• Add enough avocado oil to your stewing pot to cover the bottom.

• Add your sliced onions and chopped garlic.

• Shake in some salt and pepper. ​

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. Ah, mio agnello bello!And remember, and repeat to yourself while slicing & cooking the onions, the poignant words of Sophia Loren: “Se non hai mai pianto, i tuoi occhi non possono essere belli. – If you haven’t cried, your eyes can’t be beautiful”Cook over medium heat, stirring contantly, until onions are transparent.

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• Add a dash of water.

• Add 2 tsp of curry paste & stir.

• Dump in your roasted yam & carrot pieces & add a tad more boiling water

• Add your chopped russet potatoes

• Stir in your chopped kale

• Sprinkle in your herbs and stir, stir, stir the mixture for about 5 minutes.

• Add your coconut milk/coconut cream & turn down the heat to medium low. Stir to mix everything up

• Dump in the dried fruit

• Smmer until the potato pieces are cooked, but firm

• Stir in your lamb pieces

Too sweet? Add a little tamari or a little more fleur de sel. Grind in some more Cambodian pepper.Cook for another 1/2 hour or so, tasting the stew from time to time.

Serve garnished with fresh chopped parsley or raw finely chopped kale.


If you’re using lamb stewing meat…
 

• Build your stew starting with the dredged lamb/onion/garlic/water mixture.

• Add the chopped potatoes & a little more water to just cover the potatoes as well as the lamb/onions and cook the mixture on low heat for about 45 mins.

Generally follow the procedure above, but let the stew simmer for another hour, or until lamb is cooked. Should work out fine. Just keep tasting as you go, sprinkling worchestershire and or balsamic reduction as you need. But bear in mind that less is more.

                    Meno è meglio!