Monday, March 23, 2015

A to Z, Stews in Wartime.

I’m pleased to say I only have four more blogs to write for the A to Beef stewZ. I’m not sure what date the great theme reveal is supposed to be, but it must be no surprise to anyone that mine is basically food oriented. When I remember being a little kid and sitting with a mouthful of stew at the kitchen table and refusing to swallow it, it amazes me that I developed an interest in food. My mother was a stupendous cook but this would have been during the war years (WWII) mind you, when a lot of the things we take for granted were not available; even today, I am not that keen on stews although I make them for us because Matt likes them and it is a convenient way of cooking to shove everything in the crockpot and forget about it.  I wonder if wine was available during the war years, I suspect not. Garlic was virtually unheard of when I was a child. I just found a fascinating BBC article called Christmas Under Fire describing what it was like at Christmas over the 6 years of the Second World War. Worth reading if you are interested in history.

Being originally from England, leg of lamb is something I often cook but this recipe is very different in its use of anchovies in particular. I know it’s not long since I posted a lamb recipe, but Easter is the time for lamb.

Roast Leg of Lamb
Julia Moskin for the New York Times.
Leg of lamb
Ingredients
  • 1 large lamb roast with a cap of fat, 4 to 6 pounds: bone-in leg (these can be as large as 8 pounds), semiboneless leg, bone-in shoulder, boneless butterflied leg or double loin
  • 2 ounces (1 can) anchovies packed in olive oil, drained, or 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • Leaves from 6 fresh rosemary sprigs (2 heaping tablespoons leaves), plus extra sprigs and branches for garnish
  • 6 garlic cloves, smashed and peeled
  • 4 ounces unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
  • Black pepper
  • 1 lemon, cut in half
  • 1 ¾ cups white wine, plus extra for gravy
Preparation
  1. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Use a small sharp knife to make about a dozen incisions, each about 2 inches deep, through the fat that covers the top of the meat. Using a mortar and pestle or a blender, blend 2/3 of the anchovies (or 2/3 of the mustard if using), the rosemary leaves and the garlic cloves into a chunky paste. Using your fingers, press paste deeply into incisions.
  2. Mix remaining anchovies (or mustard) and the butter into a paste. Smear this mixture all over the surface of the roast. Season liberally with black pepper. (Do not add salt; the anchovies are salty enough, and so is the mustard.) Place the lamb on a rack in a roasting pan, fat side up, and squeeze the lemon halves over. Pour the wine around the roast into the pan.
  3. Roast 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 degrees and roast until internal temperature reaches 130 to 135 degrees (for medium-rare or medium meat), about another 60 to 90 minutes. Baste every 20 minutes or so with the wine and drippings in the pan, adding more wine as needed to keep the liquid from scorching. If possible, for the last 15 minutes of cooking, use convection or a broiler to crisp the fat on the roast.
  4. Remove pan from the oven, remove rack from the pan, and let the roast rest on the rack for at least 15 to 20 minutes in a warm place, tented with foil. The internal temperature will rise to about 140 to 145 degrees.
  5. To make sauce from the pan drippings, remove a few tablespoons of fat by tipping the pan and spooning off the top layer. Put the pan over medium heat until the liquid simmers. Taste the simmering liquid and whisk in more wine, 1/4 cup at a time, until the consistency and flavor are right. Do not let the mixture become syrupy; it should be a sharp jus, not a thick gravy.
  6. Carve lamb into 1/2-inch-thick slices and arrange on a heated platter, decorated with rosemary sprigs. Serve with piping hot gravy.
Have a great day
Jo_thumb[2]

22 comments:

  1. Hi Jo - looking forward to your A-Zs ... I don't remember disliking food .. but I remember waiting for ever for one of my brother's to finish his ... for ever!! Love lamb and anchovies, good roasts and delicious early veg .. cheers Hilary

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    1. I remembered my parents always said I learned to eat at boarding school where they used to do things like give us half a kipper for breakfast. Gotta try this lamb and anchovies - cooking lamb for Easter so maybe I will try it then.

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  2. I liked stews when I was younger. I haven't made one in ages, mostly because I don't do the meat.

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    1. You could do a wonderful vegetable stew though. Lots of root veg. celery, herbs, tomatoes. Yum

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  3. Congratulations, Jo for doing the whole challenge ahead! I have done a few, but not the whole alphabet. Will try this stew though, the mustard and anchovies must give it a little extra tang.

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    1. Still got 3 to do, P, X and Y although I have sorted out what I am going to write about.

      No it's the lamb that has the anchovies.

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  4. Reading through this recipe is like a fine poem... yum.

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  5. I never ate stew either. My mom wouldn't even start it till close to 4 pm for 5 pm dinner and the meat was so tough and chewy that I absolutely hated stew till I started using a crock pot a few years ago. As long as the meat falls apart, I like it. Looking forward to your recipes!

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    1. That must have been pretty horrid.

      Hope you find some you enjoy.

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    1. Well as I didn't know about it, it didn't matter.

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  7. I'm amazed at how prepared people are for A-Z. And here we can barely pull together regular posts last minute...

    And mmm, leg of lamb. One of my absolute favorites. Never made it with anchovies, but I've recently learned that anchovies, while seen as disgusting, can often add a lot of great flavor to dishes (I use it in my caesar salad dressing).

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    1. I've said before, not sure why I bother to prepare in advance because I write a post 6/7 anyway.

      Me too, lamb is very under appreciated in North America. Do try more anchovy for flavouring it really does add an extra something to dishes. Caesar salad wouldn't be the same without it, would it?

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  8. I'm reading a book at the moment called The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August which is about a man who keeps reliving his life, a lot of it set in war time Britain. My father was in England during the war and didn't come to Australia until he was twelve. He remembers hiding under the kitchen table and the sound of planes overhead. My paternal grandmother made stews all the time too. She tricked my mother with rabbit stew once. She didn't tell her it was rabbit until she'd finished it. I guess they had to eat rabbit back then.

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    1. Nothing wrong with rabbit Pinky, it's delicious. We used to eat it a lot, not because we had to. Matt lived in Kent, the south east, where a lot of the action of the Battle of Britain occurred. He used to watch dog fights in the sky. I was living further north as well as being a bit younger, so don't remember much except sleeping under the stairs and hearing the sirens.

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  9. Looking forward to reading your posts Jo ... I love stews, particularly veggie ones - I don't like cooking so it suits me to throw everything in a pot and let the cooker do the work :)

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    1. It is an easy way of preparing food I must say. Like I say, I still am not that keen on stews. Lots of things I'd rather have instead.

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  10. I love stories from WWII, my favorite era. It tugs at the romantic in me.

    I don't know that I have ever had lamb, but I have eaten a whole lot of stews. My grandmother would make the most delicious stews, not sure what her magic touch was.

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    1. You should click on the link then Liz. I found it interesting. Actually there was nothing really romantic about it. We were bombed, rationed, and scared most of the time.

      Pity you are not close, I would love to introduce you to lamb.

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  11. I guess we eat a lot of stews but these days they are jazzed up with more exotic sounding names - just add different spices/fruits and suddenly they are fashionable.

    Lamb in England is ridiculously expensive these days ... but tonight I have a butterfly leg of lamb in the oven which has marinaded in lemon, mustard, garlic and mint. (It was half price in the butchers so £8 instead of £15.95 ..... and I'll make it last another meal (Lamb Tagine with apricots I think)!

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    1. Yup, I prefer the word casserole, but a rose etc......

      Are you talking fresh lamb? We can get home grown lamb here, but I can't afford that so it's New Zealand lamb for me. Local costs around twice as much. I could use a nice sale. Your marinade sounds good.

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