Eastern Mediterranean Lamb Stew

This slow and low cooked stew is my creation inspired by Greek, Turkish and other ingredients from that part of the World. I can imagine it is the sort of thing that is cooking right this moment in someones country kitchen wood fired stove on a beautiful Mediterranean island.

The aromas developing, teasing you for a long while before you get to taste the delicious result, will make your house smell of hearty home cooked fayre.

So here is how I made it.

Ingredients:

1 kg diced Lamb (fairly lean)

3 Onions, sliced

3 Garlic Cloves, smashed

2 Turkish Peppers (or 1 Bell Pepper)

12 Pitted Olives (I used a few of each variety)

1 Rosemary Stalk

3 Bayleafes

5 Cloves

1 Cinnamon Stick

1 tbs dried Oregano

1 dried long red Chilli

1 can of chopped Tomatoes

100ml Chicken Stock

Sea Salt and Fresh Ground Pepper

Start by browning the Lamb in a heavy based pot or dutch oven. Do it in batches to give the pieces enough space to get a good color. Remove all the meat onto a plate and add the Onions to the Pot. Stir these around for a while before returning the meat and the rest of the ingredients apart from the Olives. Bring everything to a simmer and cover. The Pot can now stay on the stove and cook on a very low heat or go in the oven at 150C. Either way it takes about 3 hours to make this stew melt in the mouth tender. The olives can join the stew about 30 minutes before the end of the cooking time.

I was wondering what would be best to accompany this stew and have decided on Orzo, a Rice shaped Pasta. Mashed Potato would be good also or Potato dumplings. But then it wouldn't really be proper Mediterranean, would it.

I also made some Dolmades to snack on while waiting and a filo pastry stuffed with Spinach and Feta.

Bon Apetit!

Dolmades

This is my version of the famous Eastern Mediterranean Starter, I am using Spring Greens as well as Wine Leaves and Meat and Rice and Feta all mixed into one scrummy filling.

Ingredients:

About 20 of the bigger leaves from Spring greens 

about 20 wine leaves

400g minced Lamb

120g long grain rice (uncooked)

1 onion finely chopped

100g feta cheese

2 cloves of garlic

1 tbs fresh mint

1/2 Lemon

Make the stuffing with the meat, feta cheese, onion, garlic, mint and season with salt and pepper and mix well. 

Cut away the stalk part of the Spring Green leaves and lay them in a suitable pan. Add a tsp of Caraway seeds if you like. This will prevent them from becoming windy.

Cover with boiling water and leave to stand for a couple of minutes. Drain the water and leave to cool.

Lay a leaf on a board and overlap the cut away stalk part.

Take a little of the filling and lay it onto the folded side.

Roll up folding in the sides as you go.

Do the same for with the wine leaves, but using 2 wine leaves for each roll.

Place them neatly together in a pan and squeeze the Lemon all over.

Boil the kettle and pour the boiling water carefully in until it comes half way up.

Lay a small plate on top to compress the rollls slightly while they cook.

Cover the pan and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Turn off the heat and leave to stand for another 10 minutes. All the water will be absorbed.

Serve with a yoghurt dip and enjoy!