I am a sucker for the bargain meat bin at the grocery store, especially if it has any kind of lamb or veal or beef short ribs. More often than not I find some type of marked down lamb. From what i can tell, lamb isn’t particularly popular in the US. A few cuts like a rack of lamb which gets turned into “lollipop chops” and the leg sell well but loin chops, ground lamb and shank well they end up in the bin. Lamb is also pricy so when I find it in the bin I usually do a little dance.
Today I found slices from a leg in the bin for 50% off. Fall is here and I like lamb stews and curries so I decided that would be our dinner. Since the grocery store also happens to have fresh yummy naan in the morning I decided to get some of that as well. I like injera but making it is just too much to deal with.Typically I would have made a curry but I didn’t have the right ingredients and I had been thinking about Ethiopian stews thanks to an episode of “Parts Unknown”. So I settled on a dumbed down version. The real deal would’ve involved a trip to!the Asian market for ghee and spices. Since I didn’t have time for that a chose a recipe from Food and Wine. I also wasn’t about to make injera which I love but is a lot of work.
The end product was good in terms of spices but I’d have cooked it much longer to soften my lamb so it fell apart. One thing about a good stew of any kind (I include curry in this) they need a good amount of slow cook time to tenderize the meat. Because my meat was leg meat the shorter cook time was OK but longer would’ve yielded a preferable texture. If a had wanted a more authentic recipe I’d have gone with this recipe for Beg Wot.