The, er, Lambs of Navarin

Well, this post is a bit late, because we had drama with our poor little one.  She suffered a torticollis attack on Saturday night, which terrified the hell out of us, so we went to the ER and ended up spending 48 hours in hospital.  The dish I'm about to describe to you was actually eaten on 23rd August.  You'll remember that it is from the Conran Cookbook:

The recipe we chose was Navarin of Lamb.  This is essentially a lamb stew with peas and - crucially - potatoes.  First, though, the lamb.  McCaffreys had shoulder and neck of lamb, as the recipe suggested, but although I asked the butcher to 'bone' the lamb, the neck still had bones in it.  Perhaps he thought I meant something different.  So I just cut up pieces of shoulder.  They looked very fatty and gristly, but they browned up nicely:

Then I prepared the aromatics and liquid for the stew: lots of garlic, beef stock (mentioned in a previous post), tomato paste, etc.  After 45 mins in the oven, I added sliced potatoes and peas, making sure to have a layer of potatoes on top.  The idea is that this layer will absorb the fat of the dish (a substantial amount, thanks to the shoulder pieces), and crispen up before eating.  The crisping never happened: this is because I started cooking late, thanks to an enjoyable afternoon spent at the swimming pool with Evelyn, the Coopers, and the Lorenzes.  This is what the final product looked like:

It was very good: home cooking, rather than gourmet cooking, but good nonetheless.  We ate all of it.  So, we had nearly two pounds of lamb, and two pounds of potatoes, let alone everything else.  But that's what recumbent rowers are for.  To drink: Franciscan Merlot 2007 (very good) and - aptly - a Guigal Côtes du Rhône 2007 when the Merlot ran out (the perfect match with the Navarin).

Next up - I'm really excited about this - Ad Hoc At Home.  I'm thinking of doing the Catalan Beef Stew.  It only takes three days to make.