LAMB STEW WITH ALMOND BUTTER

I was looking to make a lamb stew and wanted to try something different.  I decided to add almond butter to the stew for a different taste.  This thought was based on other recipes I have made where peanut butter is adding to chicken soup or a chicken stew.  Furthermore, chinese restaurants make beef or chicken almond/cashew stir fries.  The almond butter provides a subtle taste in the stew.  The other highlight of making this recipe is using my staub dutch oven.

Lamb and onion being saute in the dutch oven.

Celery being chopped.

Carrots chopped and ready to go into the dutch oven.

Fresh tomatoes are added.

All of the ingredients are added except the almond butter.

This is the brand of almond butter that I buy at Costco.

Almond butter is added to the stew and combined with the ingredients.

The lid is placed on the dutch oven and the pot is placed in the oven.

INGREDIENTS:


1 onion, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound lamb stew meat, cubed
3 stalks celery, chopped
3 carrots, chopped
3 tomatoes, chopped
1/4 cup cooking or real wine
1 1/2 cups water
salt and ground pepper to taste
2 tbsp almond butter

DIRECTIONS:


In a dutch oven, heat the oil on medium heat and saute the onions and garlic until soft.  Add the lamb and continuing to saute for about 5 minutes.  Add the celery and carrots, stir to combine and continue cooking for another 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the tomatoes, stir throughout, add the almond butter, the cooking wine, salt, pepper and water and stir.  Put into the oven at 300 degrees F for 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Serves 4 to 5.

MAKING CURRY LAMB USING LEFTOVERS

When I cook a lamb roast, there are usually leftovers.  Instead of just heating the leftover meat for supper the following day, I like to make different dishes using the leftover meat.  Another challenge is that sometimes you don't have a lot of leftover meat that can feed two or three people sufficiently without adding something to it to make it appear like there is more meat.   The following recipe can be used for any leftover meat you might have from cooking a roast.  I used lamb in this recipe.  There is curry powder added to the ingredients but the dish does not have a strong curry taste so you might want to consider adding more curry.

Onions, celery and pepper cooking in the frying pan.

Chopped apple and raisins to be added to the pan. 

All the ingredients have been added except for the lamb.

The lamb has been added.

Curried lamb served over brown basmati rice.

INGREDIENTS:
2 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, chopped
1/2 red/yellow pepper, chopped
1 tsp curry
1/2 tsp ground cumin
3 tbsp raisins
1 apple, chopped
cooked lamb, chicken, beef or pork, cubed
salt and pepper to taste


DIRECTIONS:
In a non-stick frying pan, heat the oil on medium heat and saute the onion, garlic and celery for 3 to 4 minutes.  Add the pepper and continue to cook for another few minutes.  Add the curry and cumin to the pan and mix well.   Add the raisins and apple and cook for about five minutes on low heat.  Add the cubed meat, cover the pan and continue to cook for several minutes.  If the food is sticking to the pan while cooking, add a bit of water.   Season with salt and pepper.  Depending on the amount of meat you add, serves 2 to 3 people.

GROUND LAMB WITH SPINACH

My usual recipe for cooking ground lamb is to make burgers.  I went looking for another idea and found it in one of Anne Lindsay's cookbooks.  Her cookbook, "The Very Best of Anne Lindsay" has almost a dozen recipes using lamb.  For this recipe you can substitute lean ground beef or pork for lamb.  I adapted the recipe from the cookbook and found it to be an easy and quick recipe to make.  

INGREDIENTS:

1 pound ground lamb

1 tsp olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, minced

1 stalk celery, chopped

1 tsp cumin

3 good handfuls of fresh spinach or 10 oz package of frozen spinach

salt and pepper to taste

1 tomato diced

plain yogurt

DIRECTIONS:

In a large frying pan, heat the oil and sauté over medium heat the onion, garlic and celery for several minutes.  Add the lamb, cumin, salt and pepper and continue cooking for five minutes or until the lamb is cooked and the vegetables are tender.   If there is liquid in the pan, drain off the liquid.  Add the spinach and tomato.  Cook for three minutes until the spinach is wilted.  Serves three to four.

Serve over rice and top with several teaspoons of plain yogurt.   If you have feta cheese, you can crumble some feta cheese over the meat before you add the yogurt.  I didn't have any feta cheese in the fridge.  My DH added some soya sauce to the meat mixture along with the yogurt and he liked it.  I decided to just add the plain yogurt.  

LAMB STEW

I am always on the lookout to buy locally raised lamb versus lamb imported from Australia.    Some of my favorite cuts are chops and leg of lamb.  Of course I always need to include mint sauce or mint jelly as the side condiment with the chops or a roast.    Chops or roast are much easier to make as broiling, baking or roasting is the usual method for cooking.  I found this recipe for lamb stew on the internet and made a few adjustments.    What I like about this recipe is the flavor.   It is not tomato based as a number of stews I usually make are.  I particularly like the combination of garlic, thyme, cumin, cinnamon, cloves and red wine.  It is a keeper.

LAMB STEW

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds boneless lamb stew meat

1/3 cup flour seasoned with salt and pepper

vegetable oil for sauté

1 large onion, chopped

4-6 garlic cloves, chopped fine or minced

4 celery stalks, chopped

4 carrots, chopped

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp paprika

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

1 ½ cups red wine

2 cups beef broth

DIRECTIONS:

In a bowl toss the lamb with the flour until well coated.  In a stock pot, heat 2 tbsp oil over medium heat and add about half the lamb.  After browning for several minutes, remove this batch of lamb and transfer to a side plate.  Add the remaining batch of lamb and brown.  Add more oil if the meat is sticking.   Remove meat from the pot.

Sauté the onions and garlic in the stock pot in a little bit of oil until they are soft.   Add the carrots, celery, brown sugar and the spices and cook, stirring for about one minute.   Add the wine, lamb and broth.  Simmer for about 2 hours.