• Whole bulb of garlic, unpeeled
• 2kg lamb, trimmed & cut into 5cm pieces. The recipe calls for leg but I wonder if cheaper cuts would work.
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 400g tin of tomatoes (or 6 plum tomatoes)
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon dried mint
• juice of 1 and a half lemons
• chips!

Simmer the garlic bulb whole in water for 15-20 minutes. When soft, drain and dry; squeeze each clove into a pestle & mortar and squish.

Heat the oil in a large pan, fry the lamb until browned on all sides. Add tomatoes, tomato puree, herbs and garlic. Season with salt & pepper. Add enough water to cover stew and simmer for about 90 mins or 2 hours until lamb tender and sauce thick. Add the lemon juice in the last 15 minutes of cooking – the lemon juice really cuts through the greasiness of the lamb.

Serve with chips / French fries.

From Issue 2 of the excellent Jamie Magazine.

-o-

Lamb Lagoto Redux

Diced lamb is devilishly expensive, so tonight I tried to make this with lamb shanks instead. It was a huge success.

before going in the oven

Follow the method above, but use 2 lamb shanks and 2 tins of chopped tomatoes. Brown the shanks in a casserole dish, add all the ingredients and put in an oven at about 170 degrees C for a couple of hours. The meat just fell away from the bones and melted in the mouth.

I also cracked chips tonight – I can honestly say my chips were better than chip shop chips. I cut big, thick chips – cooked them for about 10 mins until soft on the lowest heat of my deep fat fryer (approx 160 C), put them in the freezer for half an hour then cooked them until golden in the fryer on its hottest setting (190 C). Crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside – and not at all greasy. Perfect!

My deep fat fryer has been banished to the shed, so a stew like this is a very welcome thing on a cold night working down the smallest, coldest chippy in SE London.

after being in a low oven for a few hours

• 4 small pieces of root ginger tied up in a muslin bag
• 1lb (250g) cooking apples – peeled, cored & minced
• 4 medium onions, minced
• 3lb (750g) green tomatoes, thinly sliced
• 8oz (225g) sultanas
• 8oz (225g) demerara sugar
• 2 level tsp salt
• 3/4 pint (400ml) malt vinegar (Sainsbury’s basics malt vinegar is 13p a pint)
• half tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tsp mustard powder

I blitzed the apple, onion & ginger in the food processor. I know it says put them in a muslin bag, but I wanted to give this some poke. I may have also been over-generous with the cayenne pepper.

Chuck everything in a huge pan. Boil, then simmer & reduce, stirring occasionally, for about 2 hours. Bottle in steralized jars when still piping hot.

I’ll let you know how this batch turns out in a month or so – pan-scrapings suggested this is fearsomely spicy but delicious.

• Fresh tomatoes
• fresh basil and/or dried herbs
• garlic
• onion
• cream
• red wine (optional)
• vegetable stock
• tomato puree

Halve and roast the tomatoes with garlic and onion, scattered with oregano and basil (we used dried mixed herbs and fresh basil). When skins start to blaken, pulp in the Magimix. Put the puree in a pan with some red wine (we skipped that with no ill-effects), stock and tomato puree. Whisk to combine, reheat gently on the stove and then stir in some cream or fromage frais (we used double cream) when it simmers. Just delicious.