Lamb casserole

Tags

Casserole, Drumnadrochit, Food, Lamb Casserole, Lamb Stew, Recipe, Scotland, Stew, The Fiddler's

At a pub in Drumnadrochit in early October 2011 I sat with two wonderful ladies discussing a menu. We went back and forth trying to decide what to have. We decided to order three different dishes, place them in the centre of the table and rotate around them. That way we all had a bit of everything. (and we shared a plate of haggis as starter)

We had oven-baked salmon, chicken, and a lamb casserole. The starter was haggis in a creamy, whiskey sauce. It was all delicious! (menu can be found here). Having quite a bit of leftover lamb after making fårikål (I wrote about that here) I decided to have a go at making something similar to the lamb casserole from Scotland. And you know what? It was like I was back in Drumnadrochit! Son too ate a lot (Husband was at work, which is when I can serve lamb – he dinnae like the smell). This is how I did it:

I started of with a bit of lamb from yesterday’s dinner and the stock from the same meal. I made brown sauce (give me a shout if you do not know how) using the stock, added the mutton, a small handful of whole spelt (I didn’t have barley, so I went with what I had –  would recommend barley though) and a few diced carrots. Turn the heat down and put a lid on the pot. Leave until the carrots are almost perfect (poke them to check), then add a broccoli broken into small ‘bouquets’. A few more minutes with the lid on the broccoli will be done and the carrots will be perfect. I served with mashed root vegetables (potato, celery root, and parsnip) and a dash of lingonberry jam.

Norwegian cuisine – lapskaus

Tags

Food, Lapskaus, Norwegian Cuisine, Recipe, Stew

I can’t think of a stew more common in Norway than stew is. The are of course a multitude of varieties, and no two recipes are the same. The ingredients are still often the same, and very “Norwegian” if you like, in that they are easy to get hold of and produced or grown locally. Wikipedia claims the name has its roots in German and English and was introduced in the 18th century. The dish itself, however, I do believe has been around a little longer.

We had my in-laws visiting and the ingredients I then used for five adults and a wee man (two-year-old) was as follows:

• 500-1000 grams of meet (pork or beef is preferred – but anything goes)
• 8 potatoes
• 1 medium sized swede (or rutabaga if you like, I find it hysterical that a vegetable has the same name as our neighbours in the east)
• 1 celery root
• 5 carrots
• 1 leek
• salt and black pepper

Dice everything (or, well, slice the leek and carrots) into approximately equal-sized pieces. Layer in a big pot starting with the meet, continue with swede, potatoes, celery root, carrots and finish off with leek. Add water up to about a third of the contents in the pot. My rule of thumb here is that when I can see the water in between the veggies, it’s enough.

Heat it up then leave to simmer for as long as you’d like. This is a dish we often make before going on a Sunday hike. We leave the house for several hours and come back for a ready made dinner. Perfect!