A treat of a stew. It's a great way to stretch out a relatively
expensive meat while enhancing and complimenting its wonderful flavour
with spice and a hint of sweetness. This is heavily modified from a
recipe I found years ago — way more spices, a habanero pepper, and about
a 2.5x recipe to match the common weights of whole lamb legs I was
finding most readily.
⅓½⅔¾1×1.5×2×3×4×
Ingredients
Steps
Prep 2 yellow onion, place in bowl.
Prep 2 lb carrots, and 2 lb fingerling potatoes, place in another bowl
together.
Prep 2 lb boneless leg of lamb, place in container in fridge.
Prep 5 large garlic cloves, place in small bowl.
In a small bowl or glass cup, combine the ½ cups dried apricots,
1 cinnamon stick, 2 bay leaf, 1 habanero pepper (or similar),
2 tbsp allspice, 6 tbsp ras el hanout, and 1 tsp ginger
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large Dutch oven or heavy oven-safe pot,
heat 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil over medium heat until shimmering but
not smoking.
Optionally, render the trimmed fat in the oil.
In the heated oil, sauté the 2 yellow onion for ~2 minutes, then add
2 lb carrots and 2 lb fingerling potatoes for ~4 minutes.
Add the 5 large garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper.
Remove from pot, set aside in a large bowl or separate pot.
In the same pot, add more olive oil if needed, and deeply
brown the 2 lb boneless leg of lamb on all sides. Season with salt and pepper. Add
the bowl/cup of prepared spices. Stir to coat.
Turn heat to medium-high and return the
sauteed vegetables to the pot.
Add the 28 oz plum tomatoes and 3 cups vegetable broth and bring everything
to a boil for 5 minutes or so.
Cover the pot and place in the 350°F-heated-oven for 1½ hours.
Check partway through to add water or broth if needed.
You can also transfer everything to a slow cooker and cook on high for 3-4
hours, or low for 5-6 hours.
Stir in the chickpeas, cover and return to the oven for another 30 minutes.
This is a good time to start any Lebanese rice or couscous,
warm up some bread, or make a side salad like Fattoush.
