Slow cooked Lamb and peppers stew | Cordero al chilindrón
This dish was commonly found in northern Spain and was always cooked in the spring with the new lamb season. It’s one of those ugly brown but very tasty slow-cooked stews Spain is famous for. We also use other meats for this dish, such as goat or chicken. Today you hardly ever find it in restaurants and only makes it as a family meal cooked mainly by grandmas.
INGREDIENTS
1kg diced lamb
A pinch ground cumin
100g plain flour
120ml olive oil
2 large carrots, cut into chunks
1 Spanish onion, sliced
1 head of garlic, separated
2 red pepper, cut into thin strips
5 bay leaves
6 sprig fresh thyme
4 small tomatoes, chopped
1 tsp sweet pimentón
200ml white wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
FOR THE SIDE OF POTATOES
Half a kg of New potatoes
7 garlic cloves
6 sprigs of fresh thyme
A drizzle of olive oil
Salt and pepper
Preparation
Season the lamb with the salt, pepper and just a little pinch of ground cumin, then coat with plain flour. Heat the olive oil in a shallow frying pan and toss the coated lamb in the pan for about 5 minutes to seal the edges. Remove the lamb, leaving the oil in the pan, and set it aside to rest.
Add the onion and peppers to the cooking oil and fry for 2 minutes before adding the carrots along with the bay leaves and thyme and reduce the heat to medium. Cook for 10 minutes and add garlic cloves and fry for a further 3 minutes. Then add the sweet pimentón, the diced fresh tomato and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the ingredients are combined to make a tomato paste, or sofrito.
Add the lamb back into the pan with, white wine and about 1 litre of water and cook over a low heat for a 3 of hours (or in the oven at 160 on an oven proof caserole), or until the meat is tender, adding more water if necessary. The result should be a rich in flavour and rustic in look sauce.
To cook the potatoes, place them in a roasting tray with the salt, pepper, olive oil, garlic cloves, fresh thyme and a glass of water. Bring them into the oven to cook for 1 hour to match the end of the 3 hours of the lamb so you can eat both things together cooked to perfection. Enjoy!