Newsletter # 47 – Navarin of Lamb

Traditionally, this classic French dish is served in springtime, however we in Australia tend to be a little more flexible and come autumn, even though it is still warm, we start thinking about putting away the barbeque tongs and dragging the slow cooker out of the cupboard.

The vegetable components of this dish should contain turnips, carrots, potato and peas; however turnips can give the navarin a distinctive taste which you may or may not like; sweet potato would be an alternative. You will notice that I have not included potatoes in my recipe, because I was going to serve the navarin with mashed potato.

You may choose to bulk up the vegetable ratio to end up with a complete meal that does not require any accompaniments, while any leftovers freeze very well.

Navarin of Lamb

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Servings: 4 servings

Course: Main Course

Ingredients Equipment Method Notes

Ingredients

  

• 300 g net lamb shoulder, 2cm-3cm dice
• 2 tbsp oil
• salt
• pepper
• 1 onion peeled, 15mm dice
• 2 cloves garlic peeled and crushed
• 1 tbsp tomato paste
• 30 g plain flour
• 500 ml chicken stock
• 50 ml white wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 tsp thyme leaf
• 1 bay leaf
• 20 g butter
• 2 turnips peeled, cut into wedges,
• 2 carrots peeled
• 1 medium tomato skin and seed removed, flesh diced, juice retained
• 80 g beans topped and tailed, cut into 2cm pieces
• 80 g frozen peas

Equipment

• I cooked the navarin in a thick bottomed Dutch oven. If you are using a slow cooker you will need to increase the total cooking time and need a frypan to sauté the meat, onion, garlic, turnips and carrots.

Method

 

1. Assemble your ingredients
   
2. Season the lamb with salt and pepper
3. Heat the oil in your pan to almost smoke point and add the diced lamb
4. Move the meat around for 3 minutes to achieve even browning
   
5. Remove the meat from the pan with a slotted spoon and keep on the side
6. Reduce the heat a little and add the onion and garlic to the pan
   
7. Cook for a further 3 minutes
8. When the onion have a little colour add the tomato paste
   
9. Cook for a further 2 minutes before stirring in the flour
   
10. Lower the heat a little more and cook the flour out for 2 - 3 minutes
11. Add the stock, vinegar, brown sugar, thyme and bay leaf to the liquid
    
12. Add the meat and any collected juices plus the tomatoes
    
13. Bring to a simmer before turning the heat down and covering the pot
14. Cook for 1 hour
15. Test the meat with your fingers for tenderness
16. In your frypan melt the better and sauté the turnips and carrots to lightly brown them
    
17. Add the carrots and turnips to the stew
    
18. Continue cooking the stew for 30 minutes
19. Add a little more stock or water if the stew thickens too much
20. Add the beans and peas to the stew and continue cooking for another 6 minutes
    
21. Check the seasoning
22. Ready
23. Serve with mashed potato

Notes

Finally, I used gluten free flour