Stirring It Up With Stews
This is the time of year for stews. Too many people, though, get stuck in a rut, making the same or nearly the same stew over and over again.
Usually it’s the beef, potatoes and onion trinity, maybe with an extra ingredient or two here or there.
Stews can be pretty versatile. For example, check out the recipe below. It uses lamb, saffron, cinnamon, green olives and cauliflower — ingredients generally not found in American stews.
Make this stew as is, or simply borrow one or more ideas from the recipe.
One note about olives: Be careful with them, because they can add a lot of salt to a stew. Use moderate amounts, discard any of the olive liquid and rinse and drain them well. Also, don’t add much if any salt to the stew until after the olives have cooked in the pot awhile and had a chance to release their salt into the stew liquid.
And if you have a great stew recipe, pass it along.
Lamb Stew with Green Olives and Lemon
Recipe adapted from Anita Lo, the owner of Annisa and Bar Q restaurants in New York City.
1 onion, cut into dice
3 cloves garlic, chopped
- 2 tablespoons oil
1 cup white wine
1 pinch saffron
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
4 peelings lemon zest, julienned
1½ pounds lamb leg meat, trimmed of excess fat and cubed
1 quart chicken stock or water
1 cup pitted green olives, rinsed and drained
1 quart cauliflower florettes
Salt and pepper to taste
Cooked couscous or rice
1. Heat the crockpot. On the stove, saute oil, the onions and garlic and cook until translucent. Add the white wine and saffron and reduce by half.
2. Place in crock-pot. Then add remaining ingredients except for the cauliflower, salt and pepper and cook until tender about 4 hours on
high.
3. Add the cauliflower and cook another 15 minutes or until cooked through. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve with couscous or rice.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
(Photo and recipe courtesy of Meat & Livestock Australia)
