I'm glad the weather started cooling off a bit for this week's lamb stew. I'm also glad I had a day off to allow for the time cooking needed to make the meat very tender. I got a butterflied leg of lamb on sale at the market. It was 3 1/2 lbs. and after trimming, came out to the 3 lbs. needed for the stew. I followed the instructions pretty strictly, though I think there are places where it wouldn't make a difference if I cut corners or not. Looking back, I probably could have left out a few steps. One that I won't do again, unless other Doristas think it was worth it, was sauteing the vegetables in butter. I did this in a pot, rather than a pan, so didn't get the deep browning that I could have, but even still, I'm not sure that it added anything of significance. What it did do was make the most wonderful smell in the kitchen. I suppose that's worth something!
The lamb tasted wonderful and wasn't at all gamy. The only way this stew differed from the stew my mother taught me to make, was in browning the meat and adding turnips, and using beef. My mother and I would lightly flour the cubed meat and then saute in oil where Dorie saves adding the flour until after the meat browns and before adding the broth. It's much easier that way and I didn't see any noticeable change.
The other tip I'm glad I followed was in the prepping of the boiling onions. I almost didn't listen to the instructions - boil the little onions for a minute, then slip off the skins. Really? Would that really work? Yes, it did! I can't believe how many Thanksgivings we spent crying over peeling the little onions. Then one year I suggested using frozen onions and they were ok, but not nearly as good as fresh ones. Now I'll be making these often. They're so sweet and tender. I do remember some of the frozen ones being a little tough. So mom, you have to try them this way. Just boil a pot of water, add the onions and boil for about a minute, drain, cut off the root end, then slip off the skin. Amazing!
7 comments:
I thought of skipping the onion step but after a few recent failures I stuck to each step and I'm glad! It was a useful step!!!
We loved this recipe!
I had never used these onions before but I thought
they were so good. Your results look great, and I'm
glad you enjoyed it. Tricia and I thought it was a
good stew recipe even though we both used beef.
I had never used these cute little onions before and I really liked them. I think browning the veggies with butter and sugar was kind of important because we were basically caramelizing them and I probably wouldn't skip it. But to each their own - your stew looks delicious and I'm jealous of your lamb find. I used beef and it was good but lamb would have been better.
I know - I wish I knew the onion trick a long time ago. That was so helpful.
Your stew looks lovely
LOL!!! Do you usually find lamb to be gamey? It's really not a gamey meat... at least not like venison or rabbit ... :) Glad you liked it though!!
I have to tell you that the caramelized vegetables was one of my favorite parts of the stew. Unlike many stews I've made, the vegetables didn't fall apart, plus they tasted extra sweet to me. I don't think you should skip that step next time. I liked learning the trick for peeling the pearl onions, too. So easy and obvious, but I guess that's one of the joys of this group, always learning new things.
I used frozen onions and they kind of disintegrated. Next time, I might try the fresh ones. Your stew looks good!
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