This meal was a product of whatever I had in the fridge one Sunday, after all the supermarkets had closed. It might not look pretty, but it is morish, homely and incredibly easy to make. You don't need to stand over it for hours - from chopping board to dinner table, it only takes 40 minutes. Make lots of it, put it in the middle of the table so people can help themselves, and it will go down well at a dinner party. The quantities given below serve up to three people.
Quick Lamb Stew with Feta Cheese Recipe
Ingredients
- 400g neck of lamb
- One tin of kidney beans
- Half a red onion
- One cup of frozen peas
- Fresh chopped rosemary
- One glass of red wine
- Juice of half a lemon
- Two cloves of garlic, crushed then chopped
- Black pepper
- Feta cheese to serve
- Bread to serve (focaccia goes well)
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 30 minutes
How to cook
- Roughly chop the onions. Fry them in them in oil or butter with the black pepper until they are soft. Putting the pepper in at this early stage ensures that you release its full flavour.
- Chop the lamb into inch cubes and add them to the pan.
- Once the lamb is brown (but not cooked through), add the kidney beans (drained and rinsed), fresh rosemary and garlic. Cover the mixture and leave on a medium heat for five minutes, allowing the garlic to cook with out burning.
- After about five minutes you should be able to smell the garlic. Add the red wine and lemon juice. Cover again and leave to cook for 20 minutes on a low heat.
- Frozen peas only take a few minutes to cook, so throw them in at the end and cook for a further five minutes.
- It's best not to add salt to the stew because it is served with a good helping of salty, crumbled feta cheese and focaccia.
Alternatively, if you have time, you could cook this stew in a slow cooker. Prepare it before you go to work, and come home to a ready-made dinner. You should end up with very soft meat and the intense flavour that comes from cooking something on a low heat over a long period of time. But make sure you brown the meat first and simmer the red wine, as slow cookers do not cook at a high enough temperature to melt fat or boil off alcohol.
