Tag: lamb (Page 2 of 2)

Ingredients (for two) – easily halved

• 2 lamb things (steaks, pairs of chops or a small pack of lamb mince to be made into meatballs)
• 2 tsp harrisa paste
• 1 mug couscous
• 1 mug boiling chicken stock
• 1 can of chickpeas
• Handful of dried fruit and nuts (chopped dried apricot, sultanas, flaked almonds, cashews, stuff like that)
• Oil

Rub the meat with the harrisa paste, or if using mince make meatballs with the harrisa paste mixed in. Heat the oil and fry the meat until it looks cooked. Add the couscous, drained chick peas, fruit and nuts, and stir about. Add the stock, cover with a lid or plate and turn off the heat. Come back ten minutes later and eat it all up. Quite nice if you chop parsley or mint leaves and toss them in.

This one one of those recipes with lots of options. Fundamentally it is a quick bean stew with meat on top. You can use what is available, as follows:
Ingredients (for one) – easily multiplied:

• Meat thing ( a lamb steak, a chicken breast or a bacon chop, even a couple of sausages)
• half a tin of either butter beans, canellini beans, black-eye beans, flageolet beans, pinto beans or similar
• half an onion
• a garlic clove
• Other veg you may have to hand – chose two or three from: a carrot, a celery stick, half a red pepper, a small courgette, a lonely potato
• 1 mug boiling chicken stock (if using chicken or pork), or lamb or beef stock if using a lamb steak
• half a teaspoon paprika
• Oil, salt, pepper

Take your onions and vegetables and chop to about sugar cube size. Heat the oil in a pan and sweat the veg and garlic until soft. Add the paprika and stir around for a bit longer. Pour in the stock, cover and simmer gently for ten minutes. Add the beans (drained) and heat for another five. If you are hungry and on your own use the whole tin, why not. Check the seasoning and add some if needed, it depends on your stock.
In another pan heat a spoon of oil and cook your meat thing both sides until done.  You can speed this up for chicken by slicing the breast into 1cm slices cross-ways, it will be cooked in about four minutes!

Serve your bean and vegetable stew in a bowl with the meat on top. Sprinkle with fresh parsley if you have some. Eat.