Greek Inspired Lamb Stew Recipes

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Season the lamb with salt and pepper, add to the pot, and cook until deeply browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Stir in the onions and garlic, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
• Pour the wine into the pot, and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, lamb stock, lemon zest and juice, oregano, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Bring back to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lamb is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Stir in the green beans and cook until they are tender, about 20 additional minutes.
• Remove the bay leaf and any bones from the stew. Garnish stew with chopped fresh parsley.

YOUVETSI: GREEK LAMB STEW WITH ORZO

Steps:

• Pat the lamb dry and season with kosher salt and black pepper.
• In a large, ceramic braising pan or heavy pan with a lid, heat 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil over medium-high heat until shimmering but not smoking. Add the lamb and cook for 7 to 10 minutes, tossing regularly, until browned. Transfer the lamb to a large plate for now.
• In the same pan, add the onions and garlic. Season with kosher salt. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, stirring regularly, until softened.
• Return the lamb to the pan. Add the red wine, oregano, paprika, cinnamon, nutmeg and bay leaf. Cook until the wine has reduced by at least ½, then add 1 cup of water and the tomatoes. Break the tomatoes up using a wooden spoon. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to low. Cover and let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until the lamb is cooked through.
• Stir in the orzo and cover the pan. Let cook for another 20 minutes or until the orzo has cooked through and most of the moister has been absorbed.
• Garnish with parsley and crumbled feta, if you like, before serving.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
• Into the largest saucepan or casserole you have that will go into the oven, pour 3 tablespoons of the oil. Brown the meat in batches over high heat and remove with a slotted spoon to a plate nearby. You may need more oil as you do this. The onions will certainly need it, so pour the remaining oil or add more, add the onions, sprinkling a little salt over them and cook then until soft and translucent. Add the garlic, celery, thyme, and oregano. After a couple of minutes or so, when the smell of garlic wafts up, remove half the mixture. Add the meat to the mixture in the pan, cover with the remaining half, add the bay leaves, carrots, tomatoes, stock and wine. I use a big but flattish casserole and this amount of liquid covers the meat, but if you find you need more liquid, add water- you want a lot of liquid, because you will, eventually, be cooking some pasta in it. Bring to a boil, remove scum, and let bubble for about 3 minutes. Then cover, transfer to the oven, and bake for about 2 to 2 1/2 hours, or cook on a very low heat. The meat should be tender and yielding. Remove the carrots (and eat, cook's treat) and bay leaves, too, if you want, and season, to taste, with the salt and pepper.
• Of course you can proceed to the final stage now, but I am presuming you're not going to. In which case, let the stew cool and keep it in the refrigerator until you want it. Skim the fat off the top, and do remember to take it out of the refrigerator a good 1 to 2 hours before you cook it again. You can reheat this in the oven, but because the pasta will be put in on the stove, I tend to heat it there. Make sure the stew is piping hot. Meanwhile, bring a large pot of water to a boil. When it boils, add the salt and then pasta. Cook this until it's nearly but not quite cooked; it should have a couple of minutes still to go.
• Then drain the pasta and add it quickly to the bubbling juices in the casserole, making sure first that there are enough bubbling juices. You don't want the meat to be drowned, but you want enough for the pasta to be covered. The pasta will absorb some of the liquid as it finishes cooking, of course.
• In a couple of minutes, the pasta should be cooked. Crumble some feta and put in a bowl with the chopped parsley, oregano, or basil. Stir to combine and then leave the spoon with it, so that people can sprinkle the herb-spiked cheese over the stew as they wish. Ladle the stew into shallow soup bowls.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Season flour with salt and pepper and roll lamb cubes in it.
• Heat oil in a pan over medium high heat, brown lamb cubes in oil.
• Sprinkle herbs and garlic over lamb and add roughly chopped onion, stock, wine, and tomato sauce.
• Season with additional salt and pepper to taste.
• Simmer over medium heat for 1-1/2 hours, stir now and again - it has a tendency to stick (although not burn).
• Add olives, simmer for half an hour more.
• Serve with rice, potatoes, salad, bread, whatever you like. And rest of the wine bottle, of course.

LAMB KOKKINISTO (GREEK LAMB STEW)

Steps:

• Rinse the lamb in cold water, pat dry with a paper towel, then coat with 1 tablespoon olive oil.
• In a small bowl, combine the oregano, salt, pepper, and cinnamon to create a dry rub. Rub this mixture on the lamb coating all sides.
• Heat 3 tablespoons olive oil in a large dutch oven pot over medium high heat. Add the lamb to the pot. Brown the lamb on all sides (approx 1-2 mins per side).
• After the lamb is browned on all sides, transfer the lamb to a plate and allow to rest while you prepare the sauce and preheat the oven. Note: You may turn the stove off at this point, but do not throw out the oil nor clean the pan yet.
• Preheat your oven to 300 degrees farenheit (or if you prefer to use a crockpot, start preheating your crockpot).
• Dice the onion, carrot, and garlic. In the same pan that was used for the lamb, cook the onion, carrot, and garlic on medium heat until soft (approximately 5 minutes). Then add the red wine, tomatoes, cinnamon, bay leaves, thyme, and salt to the pot. Stir. Reduce the heat to low to simmer for 5 more minutes.
• Submerge the lamb in the pot with the tomato sauce, cover with a lid and cook slowly in your oven or crockpot until lamb reaches a safe temperature (145-medium rare, 160-medium, 170-well done). Oven time at 300 degrees is approximately 1 and 1/2 hours.
• When the lamb is done cooking, remove from oven and skim the fat off the top and throw away.
• (Optional) Serve over a bed of hilopitaki or orzo pasta.

GREEK LAMB STEW

Steps:

• Heat the olive oil in a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Season the lamb with salt and pepper, add to the pot, and cook until deeply browned, about 5 minutes on each side. Stir in the onions and garlic, and cook until lightly browned, about 2 minutes.
• Pour the wine into the pot, and bring to a boil while scraping the browned bits of food off of the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon. Stir in the tomatoes, tomato sauce, lamb stock, lemon zest and juice, oregano, cinnamon, and bay leaf. Bring back to a boil over high heat, then reduce the heat to medium-low, cover, and simmer until the lamb is very tender, about 1 1/2 hours. Stir in the green beans and cook until they are tender, about 20 additional minutes.
• Remove the bay leaf and any bones from the stew. Garnish stew with chopped fresh parsley.

GREEK LAMB STEW WITH FETA

Steps:

• Trim fat from lamb and cut into 1 inch cubes.
• In a shallow dutch oven, heat oil over med high heat, then brown lamb in batches and add to slow cooker.
• Drain fat from dutch oven, then add onions, garlic, rind, salt, allspice and cinnamon, frying over med heat, stirring occasionally until onions are softened (about 5 minutes).
• Sprinkle with flour - cook stirring, for 1 minute. Add beef stock & tomato paste, then bring to a boil and stir and scrape up any brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Pour into slow cooker.
• Cover and cook on low for 6 - 8 hours or on high for 4 - 5 hours, until the lamb is tender.
• Stir in artichokes, then cover and cook for 15 minutes to heat through. Serve sprinkled with feta and parsley!