Thursday, December 30, 2010

Lamb Ragu



What's up people? Due to snow, I wasn't able to fulfill some of my obligations this week, but I still wanted to finish off the year on the right note, so I decided to do a Lamb Ragu. In all honesty I wanted to do the Beef Wellington because I believe that it would have been the most challenging. Around the corner from where I live on Utica and Church Avenue, there weren't any shops selling Filet Mingot Steak, so I decided to change my menu until further notice.

This time I tried to get all the right ingredients and tried not add stuff of my own. As I said...I TRIED. I got everything I needed except the Parsley, so I used some Shadow Benie that I had at home.

I was soooooo excited to try this dish because to me the word "Ragu" sounds so gourmet and also I love cooking with alcohol.
Like many of the dishes I decided to cook for this blog, I never cooked or even tasted Lamb Ragu before, so this was definitely a challenge. It was even worse this time because on top of not knowing what Lamb Ragu tasted like, I had no official taste testers to sample my version of it. I decided to do it late and transportation was chaotic, hence the reason I didn't have any taste testers. I trust myself though and from watching videos of chefs making ragu and hearing their comments I believe I have an idea of what it should taste like.

The recipe was fairly straight forward so cooking it wasn't that much of a problem to me. The scary thing was tasting the final product. "If this taste like crap, should be honest, or not?" was what I asked myself. I'm a fair dude so I decided to document its EXACT taste whether it be good or bad. Fortunately for me I got the taste that I was looking for. Every ingredient that was in that dish I tasted, from the garlic to the red wine. It had the right amount of seasoning and the lamb was as tender as I had expected.

I ate mine with Rigatoni pasta, but  You could use whatever kind you want. Of all the dishes I've tried so far, I was most proud by the result of this one. It such a shame that no taste testers got to try it tho :(

Thanks again for reading and keep those dishes coming!! But make sure its unfamiliar to me so that it could be a REAL challenge!! That means, all non-traditional Trinidadian dishes are welcome!!


Recipe 

1 pound lamb stew, cut in chunks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 onion
4 sprigs fresh rosemary
3 tablespoons fresh sage
2 tablespoons Shadow Benie
8 cloves garlic
1 big carrot, peeled
Cherry Tomatoes
Olive oil
1 cup red wine
1 28-ounce can peeled whole plum tomatoes


Method

Pat the lamb chunks dry with a paper towel. Liberally coat the lamb chunks with salt and pepper and set aside. Peel and coarsely chop the onions, and chop the garlic. Chop the carrot into thin rounds.
Place an oven-proof Dutch oven or heavy stockpot over medium-high heat, and add olive oil to cover the bottom thinly. When oil is hot, add the lamb and brown deeply. Do this in batches if necessary. Don't worry about drying out the meat — you want it browned darkly for good flavor. (I usually brown each batch for at least 10 minutes, taking care not to crowd the pan. You want the meat to brown, not steam-cook.)
When the meat is thoroughly browned, add the onions. Lower the heat, and cook slowly over medium heat for about 10 minutes or until the onions are golden. Add the rosemary and sage, shadow benie, garlic, and the carrots. Reduce heat to medium-low and sauté until vegetables are softened, about 5 minutes.
Add wine and continue to simmer until liquid has reduced by half, about 10 minutes. Crush the tomatoes in the can with a fork or back of a spoon, then add them and their juices to the pot. Add a few cherry tomatoes. Bring to a simmer, then cover and place in a 275-degree oven for 1 to 1/2 hours. The longer it cooks the more tender it will be. When ready to serve, go through with two forks and shred any remaining chunks of meat. Taste and season if necessary with additional salt and pepper.
Serve over pasta with freshly grated Parmesan cheese.




Lamb finished browning 

                                                            Cherry Tomatoes

                                                         Finished Product
                                            
This is what the finished product supposed to look like. My 8520 Blackberry doesn't have flash so I had to steal a picture from Google. Plz forgive me. 

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