Penguin Anniversary Edition: Jamie's Kitchen
By Jamie Oliver
1 hr 45 mins
Super easy
serves 6
About the recipe
This reminds me of winter days in my youth, when I would come home late completely soaked through and shivering from playing down by the stream in the pouring rain. Mum would give me a rollicking about catching pneumonia, and then she’d give me a big bowl of stew. This dish just makes you feel really happy, and it’s also dead cheap to make.
Recipe From
Ingredients
800g stewing lamb
½ a bunch of fresh rosemary
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour
olive oil
1 red onion
8 field mushrooms
1 handful of baby carrots
1 parsnip
1 tablespoon Marmite
2 heaped tablespoons pearl barley
285ml rich ale, such as Guinness, Caffrey’s, John Smith’s
550ml organic stock
18 higher-welfare chipolata sausages
6 woody sprigs of fresh rosemary (optional)
Top Tip
Try this: To really get the flavours going, the Italians have something called gremolata: finely chop some flat-leaf parsley, a clove of garlic and the zest from 1 or 2 lemons (or try oranges, which are also fantastic). Mix this up, sprinkle over the top of the stew and stir in — it will really give it an amazing kick.
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/gas 4.
- Roughly dice the lamb and put into a bowl. Season well with a good pinch of sea salt and black pepper.
- Pick and finely chop the rosemary leaves and add to the bowl with the flour. Mix around so that the meat is completely covered.
- Fry the lamb in a couple of tablespoons of oil in a hot casserole pan — do this in batches so the pieces get a nice bit of colour, then remove to a plate.
- Turn the heat down. Peel and roughly chop the onion, tear the mushrooms in half, and peel and grate the parsnip.
- Fry the onion, mushrooms and carrots for 5 minutes, or until soft and slightly coloured. Add the lamb back to the pan along with the parsnip, Marmite, pearl barley, ale and stock. Bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 minutes while you strip the leaves off the woody rosemary sprigs and skewer 3 chipolatas on to each of them (or use skewers).
- Just before the stew goes in the oven, add the chipolatas to the pan, then place a lid on or make a cartouche, wet it and tuck this over the pan.
- Cook for 1 hour, or until the lamb falls apart. I love to eat it just as it is, almost like a thick soup, with some crusty bread.
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