I have a weakness for cookery books, many of which decorate my kitchen but rarely get an outing. You can tell with one glance which ones get used all the time, the ones that are covered in stains and floury finger marks. As if i don’t have enough cook books I read every recepy I come across in magazines, cutting out the ones I think might work for me (I stay away from complicated methods or too many ingredients I’m not familiar with, living in rural Ireland I usually have to make do with my local ‘euro spar’, nothing too exotic). My favorite recepys of late have been coming from the Irish Times Mag on Saturdays. Domini Kemp never lets me down, almost every week she comes up trumps. Here is one I got round to trying this week end and it was fab, bung it in the oven and forget about it for a couple of hours, let the lovely aromas fill the kitchen and best of all it tastes even better the next day. The lamb can be substituted with some roast sweet potato towards the end of the cooking or what I did was a little bit of both.
Lamb and chickpea soupy stew
(serves 4-6)
2 tbls olive oil
2 onions peeled and chopped
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
600g diced lamb shoulder
salt and pepper
2tsp ground cumin
1tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground cloves
2 bay leaves
really good squeeze of tomato puree
I liter chicken stock
3 tins of chickpeas
2 tins of tomatoes
bunch of coriander
black olives to garnish
Heat the oil in a large saucepan, for which you have a lid. Sweat the onions and garlic for five minutes until they are soft, then turn up the heat and chuck in the lamb and brown it. Season well then add the cumin, paprika, cloves and bay leaves. Mix well so the spices coat the lamb. Add the tomatoe puree, mix well, then add the stock, chickpeas and tomatoes. Put the lid on and cook for about three hours or like I did, transfer into an ovenproof dish and bung it in the oven for 3 hours @ 175 degreesC.
Garnish with coriander and olives, and serve with crusty bread and salad. Enjoy..
