Lamb Navarin

Listed under Recipes.Theme

From the original article on October 1, 2021. Author: Forest Seeker.

I believe lamb navarin to be the ultimate celebratory spring meal. In French navarin made with lamb is called navarin printanier, “spring stew.” It combines fresh ingredients from a new growing season with the hearty slow-cooked power of cold-weather recipes. Just as I imagine my ancestors lovingly assembling their venison bourguignon to celebrate a Christmas feast using the ingredients left in their cellar, I see lamb navarin being a product of spring's great Easter celebrations.

Traditionally this recipe would use onions, garlic, and canned tomatoes leftover from last year's harvest, where they'd meet the baby carrots, turnips, and string beans of spring. Fortified by the holdouts from last growing season and infused with the upstarts of a new year, this panoply of fresh vegetables crowned with young lamb braised to tender perfection in white wine is the perfect dish for spring.

Recipe customization: Many people enjoy peas in their lamb navarin, so if you love peas, feel free to blanch some up during Step 10 and mix in with your sauce. If you have other fresh vegetables handy, add them into the recipe as you see fit. Some notable possibilities are zucchini, parsnips, baby potatoes, and leeks. Like our bourguignon, I recommend cooking this with the bones in the stew if possible, to be removed and discarded before plating.

Ingredients

• 3-5 pounds lamb shoulder, chopped into 1-inch cubes
• 6-8 cloves garlic, finely diced
• 2 large onions, finely diced
• 1 cup whole or canned tomatoes, peeled, juiced, seeded, and crushed
• Roughly 2 dozen pearl onions
• 12-16 baby carrots or 4 normal carrots
• 1/2 pound turnips, optimally smaller fresh ones
• 1/2 pound fresh young string beans
• 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
• 1 cup good-quality dry white wine
• 2 cups beef/lamb stock or bone broth
• 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves, finely diced
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves, finely diced
• 1 large bay leaf
• Finely diced parsley for garnish
• Olive oil
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper for seasoning

Makes about 6 servings.

Instructions

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF.
2. Get out that trusty oven-safe stock pot or Dutch oven and heat the olive oil up on your stovetop.
3. Salt and pepper the lamb cubes, and then brown them in the olive oil in your stock pot/dutch oven. Remove and place to the side.
4. Add the onions to the pot and allow to soften for 4-5 minutes. Keep the heat down to avoid burning anything. Add olive oil if it’s too dry and begins to stick.
5. Add garlic and 3 tablespoons of flour in the last 30 seconds or so of your onion-softening.
6. Deglaze by adding the wine and scraping up the crust that has formed on the bottom.
7. Add the stock/bone broth, herbs (reserving the parsley garnish for later), and tomatoes. Bring to a rolling simmer, cover, then place in your oven and cook until the meat is fork-tender (normally 1.5-2 hours).
8. While the meat is cooking, prepare your pearl onions. Bring a small pot of water to a boil, cut the ends off one side of your pearl onions (this will help in removing skins), then toss them into the pot for 2-3 minutes uncovered. Remove from the water, and once they are cool enough to touch you should be able to just squeeze the onion skins off. Reserve in a bowl for later.
9. Peel the turnips and carrots. If your carrots or turnips are larger, dice into 1/2-inch cubes, otherwise leave baby vegetables whole for a proper rustic presentation. Steam on stovetop until cooked but not mushy. Aim for al dente (typically 2-3 minutes).
10. Remove the stock pot from the oven, and strain through a colander to separate the lamb, onion/garlic/bones, and sauce. Discard the onions/garlic/bones and reserve your lamb for later.
11. Put the sauce back into your stock pot and reduce on the stove top on low heat until it can coat the back of a spoon. As with the bourguignon recipe, if the sauce is not thickening properly (or you're in a rush), you can fork together a 50/50 mixture of 1 tbsp butter and flour. Mix this into the sauce and it will thicken right up. If too thick, stir in more bone broth or stock.
12. Strain the sauce over your lamb into a large serving bowl.
13. Add your carrots, turnips, and pearl onions to the pot and stir to combine. If the vegetables aren't the proper texture for your liking, allow them to simmer in the sauce for a period on low heat (keep heat low so as to avoid the sauce separating or burning).
14. In a separate pot, steam your string beans for 4-5 minutes. Again, you're looking for a crisp but cooked texture.
15. Plate out over a starch such as baby roasted potatoes or rice. You can serve without any added starch if you like. Garnish with parsley and string beans, and enjoy!

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