Lamb stew is a dish I don’t come across that often. In fact I believe this is the first one I ever tasted and as it turns out, I cooked it myself!
Where I come from, lamb meat (almost as a rule) is consumed in only two ways: spit roasted lamb and very occasionally lamb soup. The roasted lamb wins by large margin, probably in 80-90% of the cases.
Youvetsi is a stew of Greek origin that can be made with either lamb or beef that is cooked with orzo. Youvetsi is also called Giouvetsi which is likely related to Turkish stew Güveç which reminds me a lot of Serbian stew called Djuvec. Nothing intertwines various cultures as much as shared origins of their national dishes.
The recipe I used has been adopted from chef Greg Easter and his take on this classic Greek dish. Greg’s recipes never disappoint so I took confidently on the task of cooking this stew. He enhanced the recipe with some non-traditional techniques and seasonings in order to make the dish as delicious as possible. It turn out to be an amazingly flavorful and satisfying dish! My family loved it and gave it flying marks!
It takes most of the afternoon to cook, but most of the time is passive. The brazing part is 3.5 hours. What most of home cooks likely will find challenging is the number of required spices for the dish. One of the recipe spices called “Beautiful World” is created by chef Easter himself and should be made day ahead. It can be substituted with all purpose flour, but I would not recommend it. To get the full appreciation of complex and unique flavour this dish has, you should apply all the tools at your disposal. Beautiful World spice is also great when added to eggs, steamed vegetables, ground meat and any cooking fats, it will add a new dimension to flavors you are accustomed to.
| Prep Time | 20 min |
| Cook Time | 4 hrs |
| Passive Time | 3.5 hrs |
| Servings |
people
|
- 450 g lamb trimmed, fat saved for rendering
- 1 tsp coarse sea salt
- 100 g tomato purée (passata)
- 75 ml dry red wine
- 90 g Spanish red onion chopped medium fine
- 1 cinnamon stick
- 200 g ripe tomatoes cut in 5 mm (1/4") slices
- 110 g orzo
- 25 g Parmesan freshly shredded
- 50 g feta cheese mild feta cheese (cow)
- 1/2 tsp black pappercorns
- 3/4 tsp Cumin seeds
- 1 1/2 tsp dry oregano
- 1 1/2 tsp Beautiful World seasoning
Ingredients
Ingredients:
Seasoning
|
|
- Trim the meat from fat, silver-skin and ligaments, cut in a medium size cubes (`~2.5 cm or 1") and put in a medium size bowl. Note: save 50-70 g of the trimmed fat
- Sprinkle the coarse salt over the meat and mix with hand.
- Over medium low heat (3 out of 10) heat up lamb fat in a covered medium size stainless steel saucepan. Cook covered for 11 minutes. Note: The saucepan has to be big enough to hold all the cubed meat in one layer. You want to avoid stacking up and overcrowding the meat.
- Uncover and stir the fat, cover again and increase heat to medium high (8 out of 10). Cook for another 1-2 minutes.
- Take out and discard the rendered fat pieces. Put in cubed meat and stir to coat the meat evenly with fat. Cook uncovered for 1 to 1.5 minutes, stir the meat constantly. You want to mildly brown the meat, the fond will start to form on the bottom of the pan. Transfer the meat to a clean bowl.
- Add passata to the hot saucepan, use a wooden flat spoon to remove any fond from the pan bottom. Cook for about 1 minute.
- Add wine to the saucepan, take the pan off heat and deglaze the bottom of the pan. Set aside for a few minutes.
- Combine the wine mixture with the meat and gently stir around.
- In a spice grinder combine together cumin seeds, black peppercorns and oregano. Grind to powder and sprinkle over the meat.
- Sprinkle Wonderful World seasoning over the meat, gently stir to combine everything.
- Add chopped red onion to the mixture, stir together.
- Transfer the mixture to brazing dish with tightly sealing lid. Add the cinnamon stick on top of the meat mixture. Note: Brazing dish size is crucial for the desired outcome! Added meat mixture should occupy no less than minimum 1/2 of the dish and ideally 3/4 of the dish volume! If the brazing dish is too large the meat will dry out! If you are unsure how well the lid seals off add parchment paper overhanging the edges before closing the lid. This will make tighter seal. Poor lid seal will also result with dried out meat.
- Preheat the oven, rack in the middle to 160ºC (320ºF) and braze for 3.5 hours. Open the lid and stir after 2-2.5 hours. If crusty around the edges and dry add a little water.
- As the lamb is in the oven brazing, cook orzo as per the instruction on the package. Cook orzo "al dente" drain and mix with little olive oil to prevent clumping, set aside. Time orzo cooking as close as you can with the end of the meat brazing.
- After the brazing dish is taken out of oven shift the oven rack up to 10 cm (4") from the broiler. Line lightly oiled baking sheet with sliced tomatoes and broil until charred, preferably with fan assist turned on if it is available. Note: Watch it carefully to prevent burning, you want it caramelized and not burned! Time will depend on the oven, thickness of tomato slices, distance to the broiler and water content. It took me about 8 minutes.
- Remove and discard the cinnamon stick from the brazed meat. Gently stir charred tomato slices and cooked orzo into the brazing dish.
- Transfer everything to 17.5cm x 25cm (7"x10") corningware dish (or similar) and evenly distribute. Crumble feta cheese on top and sprinkle with shredded parmesan cheese. Note: Do not use strong sheep feta cheese! It is too salty and that will destroy the dish! Instead use mild cow feta cheese.
- Shift the oven rack up to 12.5 cm (5") from the broiler. Cook until the parmesan melted and slight crust formed on top. Watch it carefully to prevent burning! Note: Again the time depends on the broiler, but it took me 5 minutes.
- Serve immediately and enjoy!
No Comments