cooking a spanish style lamb stew

I managed to get a half price whole shoulder of lamb (from Tesco) and boned the joint out myself removing some of the fat (not all) and roughly cut the meat into bite sized chunks. The intention was to make a big lamb stew that would last me two or three meals. As the October nights get darker some comfort food that just needs warming through is needed as I come home from work and settle down for the evening.

The ingredients were the chopped up lamb, a big bunch of coriander, two hot chillis, sweet and new potatoes, chopped tomatoes, carrots, chorizo, garlic, cayenne pepper, and olive oil. I also used up a piece of saucisson sec I happened to have residing at the back of the fridge. Actually I bought very little produce as the garlic and herbs and tomatoes I already had in my kitchen. Same for the chorizo and saucisson sec.

Before making this short video below I prepped the potatoes and carrots and boiled them until al dente and I made a paste with olive oil, the chopped up coriander stalks, the de - seeded peppers and the garlic.

Once I had the vegetables done I put on the large cooking pot and added a small amount of olive oil, heated it up slightly then added the paste. A couple of stirs and a lovely waft of garlic cooking, and I then spooned in the lamb and browned this in the paste. Incidentally I didn't use the whole shoulder, probably about two thirds and the rest got frozen for a curry another time. You can see the rest of the operation on my video. The actual cooking time once the meat was tender was about three quarters of an hour. The video shows the highlights. I had some for my evening meal last night and again for lunch today as I am going out to review a play in Derby this evening. Overnight the gravy has thickened and become richer in taste, bringing out all the delicious flavours of the chilli, garlic, paprika and cayenne peppers. The lamb is very tender and melts in the mouth. There is a comforting heat behind the gravy. No stock was added by the way. This is mainly because I forgot and then found it didn't really need it anyway.

Happy eating!