Wednesday Dinner #1: Lamb Stew with Root Vegetables

In the words of Tommy Angelo, this year’s goal is goallessness. That being said, since Mary has photo class on Wednesday nights, my goal will be to make dinner as many Wednesdays as I can. We get most of our food from Fresh Picks, so the veggies that show up in the box will normally drive what I choose to make.  They have a good selection of excellent meats from local farms, so I’ll be snapping up plenty of those as well.

I had some lamb stew meat in the freezer from Mint Creek Farm, and lots of root vegetables, so I thought I’d try this recipe for lamb stew with root vegetables from Simply Recipes.  I went over to TJs to pick up a couple of supplies, including a bottle of Malbec, hoping it would stand up to the very hearty recipe.

After watching a few short cooking videos on Chow (including this one, that will hopefully help keep my knife sharp) I got to work. The recipe called for lamb shanks, but I had lamb stew meat, which would reduce the cooking time significantly (we prefer to eat just slightly prior to midnight), while also helping me use up stuff I already had.

The stew came out pretty well (and it was quite pretty… oops, forgot to take a photo), but I definitely overcooked the meat a bit.  I was sure not to “crowd the meat” while browning it, but I know now that I should have reduced the browning time to accommodate the different cut of meat.  Some of the fattier pieces we a bit chewy.  Mary was a good sport and assured me it was still good.  The roasted root vegetables (turnips, parsnips, carrots, and rutabaga, specifically) were maybe slightly over as well, but they got more tender in the final simmering step, and ended up tasting really good with the sauce, which was amazing with Mary’s homemade chicken stock.

I made up a simple spinach salad (ok, it was literally just spinach) with Alice Waters’ vinaigrette.  I prefer it quite vinegary, and the tang of the dressing was a nice counterpoint to the very earthy stew. Dissolving the salt in the vinegar first is the key to this dressing… damn, I love me some Alice Waters. If you don’t have The Art of Simple Food, get it right now.

The Gascon Malbec (2008 vintage, $10.99 at TJs) was tasty while I was preparing dinner, but overall didn’t quite stand up to the stew.  Perhaps a good full-bodied Côtes-du-Rhône would have been better. Normally they are quite helpful on wine at Trader Joe’s, but unfortunately the guy I encountered this time around was not.  When I asked for help selecting a bottle, he went to the back to retrieve some kind of cheat sheet, then consulted a chart that said I needed “Pinot Noir”…umm, guy, I’m looking for a specific bottle recommendation… you work here, remember? Clearly he didn’t know much about wine. Note to self: ask them to send out the “wine guy” next time.

Overall, it was a delicious, seasonal, first Wednesday meal of the ’10s. Photos next week, I promise.