Lamb and Barley Stew

This cool Fall weather has me thinking soup!  I made this a few weeks back, and we really liked it.  It makes a very satisfying meal served with a crusty bread, and the lamb gives it a distinctive flavor that really sets it apart.  Also, I love barley.  I only recently starting using it regularly - why did I wait so long? - and I adore it.

Lamb and Barley Stew
adapted from Nourished Kitchen

Ingredients:

• 1 cup barley, not quick
• 1 T apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup split peas
• 1 lb. ground lamb
• 1 large yellow onion, peeled and chopped
• 2 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced thin
• 1-1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 10-12 cups water, plus more for soaking the peas and barley
• fresh spinach, washed and chopped (1 or 2 cups)

Directions:

1. Place barley in a small bowl and cover with about 1 cup warm water; stir in cider vinegar. In a separate bowl, cover the split peas with warm water. Leave both bowls in a warm room for 12 to 24 hours.
2. After the soaking time has passed, heat a large pot over medium to medium-high heat. Add ground lamb.  As lamb begins to cook, add the onions, carrots, celery and garlic to the pot, and cook until lamb is browned and vegetables soften, stirring often.  You may need to add a little butter or olive oil to keep things from over-browning or sticking to the pan, if your lamb is too lean.
3. Season lamb and veggies with thyme, bay leaves, salt and pepper. Add your 10-12 cups water - depending on how thick you want your soup and/or if you want to serve it right away. 
4. Drain barley and split peas and rinse well; add them to the pot.  Bring the soup to a boil, turn the heat to low, cover and simmer for 1-1/2 to 2 hours or until barley, peas, and vegetables are cooked.
5. Add spinach to the pot; simmer for 7 minutes or until the spinach is wilted. Season with additional salt and pepper if necessary.

Time-saving tip:  Chop all the vegetables the day before or early in the day (when you start the barley and split peas soaking).  Store them in a sealed container in the refrigerator until you're ready to add them to the soup.

While you can serve this soup right away (with that crusty bread), it is better - like most soups are - if you make it one day and then reheat it the next.  If you want to serve it the same day you make it, try using the 10 cups of water instead of 12.  Your soup will be much thinner the first time you serve it, but it thickens up more each time it's reheated.  You know how soup is - it gets better and better every time you reheat it, until it's GONE.  (Time to make more!)

The original recipe called for a lamb shank instead of the ground lamb.  I inventoried my freezer yesterday and found that I have two lamb shanks - so I'm going to try it that way next time.  I also have a bunch of kale right now, for which I substituted spinach in my recipe.  I think I'm going to have to make this again.  Soon.  Just to see which way we like it best.  The beauty of soup - besides being a warm, comforting meal on a cool fall or winter day - is that you can substitute the ingredients you have and come up with something uniquely yours.

Curried Lamb

I was going to make this Curried Lamb and Lentil Stew today, or a variation anyway.  I have some cooked lamb in the fridge I was going to use.  Then I discovered I don't have any lentils - so it's back to the drawing board.  I'm searching for a curried lamb recipe without lentils.

Why curried lamb?  It was mentioned in the book I'm listening to, and it just sounded good.  There's a whole lot of food in the book that just sounds nasty, but this sounded really good.

I ended up putting together this recipe for Easy Lamb Curry and this one for Leftover Lamb Curry and came up with something that turned out pretty good.

Lamb Curry

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• Large onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small hot pepper, finely chopped
• 2 T curry powder
• 1/2 t. cumin
• leftover lamb, cut into strips (about 2 cups)
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 15-oz can diced tomatoes
• 2 T tomato paste

Directions:

1. Saute onion, garlic and hot pepper in olive oil until softened and starting to brown.
2. Stir in curry powder and cumin; add meat.
3. Stir in broth, tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a boil.
4. Cover and bake at 300°F for 2 hours or so.
5. Serve over rice.

The original recipe I used said to bake at 150°C, so I had to figure out what that meant for my oven.  I found this handy site for converting Celsius to Farenheit and just plugged the 150°C in to get the 300°F I used.

I thought this turned out really good, but it was a little spicy so I knew my husband wouldn't appreciate it.  I just heated up some of the leftover lamb I didn't use in the curry and gave him that with some leftover potatoes.  And there's plenty of curry to last me for several days.

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Guess What We're Having

Image via WikipediaToday I made Pita Bread:

Pita Bread
Ingredients:

• 1 package of yeast (2-1/4 t.)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
• 1 cup lukewarm water

Preparation:
Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.
Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Slowly add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.
Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it has been successfully kneaded.
Coat large bowl with vegetable oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated.
Allow to sit in a warm place for about 3 hours, or until it has doubled in size.
Once doubled, roll out in a rope, and pinch off 10-12 small pieces. Place balls on floured surface. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Preheat oven to 500° F. and make sure rack is at the very bottom of oven. Be sure to also preheat your baking sheet.
Roll out each ball of dough with a rolling pin into circles. Each should be about 5-6 inches across and 1/4 inch thick.
Bake each circle for 4 minutes until the bread puffs up. Turn over and bake for 2 minutes.
Remove each pita with a spatula from the baking sheet and add additional pitas for baking.
Take spatula and gently push down puff. Immediately place in storage bags.

and Cucumber Sauce:

Cucumber Sauce
Ingredients

• 8 oz. plain yogurt (not low-fat)
• 1 medium cucumber
• 1/8 teaspoon white pepper or 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon white sugar
• 2 tablespoon dill
• 2 peeled garlic cloves, finely minced
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Method
Place 1 medium cut up cucumber in a chopper (peel skin, remove pulp and seeds as they are very bitter,) chop until finely chopped. Spoon out on paper towels to soak up as much moisture as possible, place the chopped cucumber in a small bowl then stir in 2 finely minced garlic cloves, juice of ½ lemon, 1 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon sugar, ½ teaspoon black pepper, 2 tablespoon dill. Pour off any water from the yogurt and blend in 8 oz, regular yogurt (not low fat) do not over-mix. Cover bowl and immediately place in refrigerator and let set undisturbed for 24 hours so the ingredients will blend and sauce re-thicken (keep chilled when not in use.)
Makes about 2 cups

Notes about the recipes to be added later, once we've actually tried them.  For now I've just copied the recipes.