Italian Lamb and Pea Casserole

Italian Lamb and Pea Casserole

I have to confess; I first came across this recipe on an episode of BBC TV's "Saturday Kitchen" and I've changed it very little. It's great if you have many mouths to feed as it will easily feed 6. Last time I prepared it was at my parent's house in southern Spain for a dinner party. I went to the local market on a boiling hot day to get everything I needed. But I could not find chillis any where on any of the stalls. And to make matters worse I didn't know what the Spanish word for chilli was so I asked one stall holder who appeared to have every other type of spice known to man except chillis. "Pimienta" I said (which means pepper) and mimed that I had eaten something hot by fanning my mouth with my hand (just like a twat would!). Any way, it worked. The woman exclaimed "Ah!Chiles!" (so I felt even more like a twat!). She then walked into the house behind the stall, disappeared through a door and brought one from her own kitchen and refused to charge me.Such kindness. Actually, that is all assuming it was her house! This is great peasant food. Rustic, filling, simple but bounteous in flavour.

Ingredients:

1kg of shoulder of lamb, off the bone and cut into 1 inch chunks (your butcher will do that for you. You will usually have to buy the whole shoulder. It does not really matter if it is exactly 1kg or not)
One 50g Tin of anchovy fillets in oil
2 sweet, white onions sliced
1 large carrot thinly sliced
2 celery stalks thinly sliced
5 garlic cloves, crushed under the blade of your knife and chopped
Handful of fresh thyme sprigs
250ml of white wine
20ml of white wine vinegar
250g of tiny little petit pois or generally small peas (frozen ones perfect)
400g of Pembrokeshire new potatoes (skin on) cut into quarters
200g cherry tomatoes cut in halves
1 red chilli cut into slices

You'll need olive oil and coarsely ground sea salt and black pepper
And buy a Tiger bloomer loaf (all the super markets do them these days) and cut into thick slices to make toast to eat with it (so it mops up the lovely sauce).

The cooking:

Start by putting your lamb chunks in a bowl. Really liberally season with coarsely ground black pepper and sea salt and leave to one side for about 10-15 minutes. While that is rendering you can crack on with all the slicing ('cos there's quite a lot with this one). Once you've got all your ingredients prepared, heat about 80ml of really good, extra virgin olive oil in a large, heavy pan.

First, fry your sliced onions, carrot and celery on a medium heat (not too hot as olive oil tends to burn at high temperatures and takes on an unpleasant smell and taste). After about 4 minutes, when it all golden, add you garlic, anchovies, chilli and thyme and continue to cook, stirring until the anchovies have completely dissolved. Add your lamb and maybe a splash more olive oil and fry it until it is browned on all sides.

Pour in your wine and cook it down until the volume has roughly halved, then add your vinegar, stir the whole lot in and then turn your heat down low to a simmer. Cover the pan and leave it bubbling for 20 minutes. Stirring occasionally.

Once your 20 minutes is up, pour in your potatoes and cover again, and cook for a further half an hour. Then you add your tomatoes and your peas and cook for another half an hour with the lid on. Stirring occasionally to keep it from sticking or catching.

For your last 10 minutes or so, cut your bread into slices and toast under a grill on both sides. 

This is a really good dish for a big family or a night when you have some friends around. I like to serve it by giving everybody a bowl, a glass of full bodied red wine and cutlery each, then plonk the casserole in the middle of the table with a ladle in it, and a plate next to it with a big pile of toast. Then just sit back and let every body get stuck in. Terrific!

Spiced Welsh shoulder of lamb and coriander casserole with Moroccan aubergine salad

Spiced Welsh shoulder of lamb and coriander casserole with Moroccan aubergine salad

Total prep and cooking time: 2 1/2 to 3 hours

This is a great little recipe if you want to knock up something really tasty for a group of 6 people (or 5 very hungry ones) who like their food with a strong flavour, without being hot or spicy. I've sort of made it up, to try and recreate something I once had in a seedy little north African cafe, up one of the side streets off the old harbour in Marseille. There's a big north African influence in Marseille as the port has always been a gateway to Africa. Then there is Frances' historical colonies in Morocco and Algeria, so in France you see Moroccan restaurants as regularly as you see Indian ones in the UK. This one was a bit different, as all the clientele were clearly of Moroccan/Algerian origin. Most of them crews off visiting boats. The food was absolutely great spiced up with the sensation that you could never be absolutely sure that you were not going to get your throat cut before the night was out.

Despite containing a long list of ingredients this is very simple and very quick to make dish (only about 30 mins preparation - the rest of the time it's in the oven to free up valuable aperitif time!!)

Ingredients

Moroccan aubergine salad

1 Aubergine

1 cucumber (skin peeled off)

A small handful of fresh coriander leaves finely chopped

Fresh mint leaves finely chopped (about half as much as coriander)

Fresh juice of half a lemon

A 200g pot of Greek Yogurt

The Casserole

Get your butcher to cut a Welsh Lamb shoulder off the bone, remove any surplus fat and cut into 1 1/2 " (4cms) cubes - giving you approximately 1 to 1.3 kilos

You might be tempted to buy a pack of "diced lamb" from the supermarket. Please don't. If you really want to taste how good a dish this simple can taste, don't skimp on proper ingredients

120g streaky bacon cut into thin chunks (and if it's dried out a bit because you didn't wrap it back up properly last time you used it - all the better for it)

2 sweet onions (or 4 long shallots) finely chopped

5 or 6 garlic cloves, crushed with the back of your knife, then finely chopped

30g anchovy fillets

1/2 tspn of ground ginger

1 tspn of ground cumin

1 tspn of ground coriander

1 cinnamon stick

2 bay leaves

2 sage leaves

Small handful of thyme (strip the leaves off the stems and only use the leaves)

A large glass of red wine

1/4 tspn of red wine vinegar

1 pint (500 ml) lamb or chicken stock

A table spoon of washed capers

The zest of 1 lemon

50g petit pois or small garden peas

small handful of fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Salt, pepper and olive oil

Serve with couscous or rice.

Preparation

A few bits of pre-work; take your shoulder of lamb dices, wash them, then salt them and set to one side. Similarly, take your aubergine, half it length ways, then half it again. Liberally salt it and also leave to one side. Leave both for about 20 minutes. After that, wash both so any surplus salt and the fluid which the salt has extracted is removed.

You will also need to pre-heat an over to 160 degrees C.

In a heavy pot of pan (with a lid), pour in a splash of olive oil and fry your streaky bacon for about 8 minutes or until crispy.Add your chopped onion and garlic and fry for a further 2-3 minutes.

Add your lamb and cook until browned all over. Pour in the wine and wine vinegar and turn up the heat. Let the liquid in the pot reduce down to about 50% of what it was when you added the wine. Now add your stock and all the spices, leaves and herbs and grate in the zest of your lemon (keeping the rest of the lemon as you will need it add juice to your salad). Give the whole lot a stir, put the lid on your pot and let it come to a simmer for about 10 minutes.

Remove from the hob. If your heavy pot is oven proof then happy days - just leave the lid on and pop it into the oven. If not, transfer your food to a casserole dish, cover, and then put into your pre-heated oven. Bake for about 2 hours. Keep checking every 20 minutes or so, to make sure that it is not drying out. If it does look dry, add more wine. You will not need to add your peas until 20 minutes before it is due to come out (1 hour 40 minutes into the cook).

Once the casserole is in the oven, get to work on the salad. First, cut your aubergine quarters into 1cm thick slices and fry in olive oil, turning until they are browned on both sides. Then set them to one side to cool. As you did with the aubergine, slice the cucumber length ways into quarters, then slice into 1cm thick chunks and place into a salad bowl. Once the aubergine slices are cold add them as well, with the chopped, fresh coriander leaves and mint leaves and a squirt of juice from the lemon. Spoon in the tub of Greek yogurt and give the whole lot a good stir so all the chunks and leaves are covered. Then cover your bowl and put it into the fridge until you are ready to serve up.

Once the casserole has been cooked for the 2 hours the sauce will be almost black from the slow cooking. Once you have pulled it out of the oven, finely chop up some fresh coriander leaves, chuck them in and give the whole thing a stir.

Finally, serve up the casserole from the oven to the table and the salad from the fridge with a big bowl of rice. Give everyone a bowl and a spoon and let them help them selves.

Lush! But be warned, it is very rich and very filling. You don't need much.