Recipe: Katniss’ Favorite Lamb and Dried Plum Stew
Soooooooo I read the Hunger Games series in like, 36 hours last week. IT WAS AMAZING. I HAVE A HUGE CRUSH ON KATNISS, WHICH MAKES SENSE BECAUSE SHE’S A PERFECT FICTIONAL REPLICA OF K (who regularly says things like, “I really think you’d enjoy learning how to kill and butcher your own chicken.”). Basically it was just an amazing experience and I never wanted it to end. BUT IT DID. So this weekend I decided I’m making Katniss’ favorite stew. I expressed this sentiment on Autostraddle, and immediately was asked for the recipe. Since I have no recipe, just a long history of making stews, I word-vomited the following in the comments. I promise it’ll produce something delicious.
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This is a recipe from Jack-Ass Magazine, AKA MY HEAD (as much of my cooking is), but here’s what I think I’m gonna do! What Katniss describes in the book is basically a tagine, so I’m gonna base it around that idea.
1-2lbs lamb stew meat (go more, I think)
1 onion, all chopped up!
2-3 cloves of mofo garlic, all chopped up!
(you could sub the above for the awesome Trader Joe’s chopped onion/garlic/shallot situation, which is probably what I’m gonna do)
3 carrots, thickly chopped
1/2 can of tomato paste (UMAMI BITCHES!)
2 Tbsps balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup of red wine
1 cup beef stock
Couple of shakes of Worcestershire sauce
1 1/2 cup pitted prunes, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup almonds, chopped
2 tsps rosemary
A big pinch of brown sugar
A big pinch or two of kosher salt
A big pinch of pepper
(you could probably also add a couple of potatoes! I hate potatoes in stew but this is Autostraddle! You do you!)
A handful of flour
A couple of teaspoons of olive oil
– Heat your oven to 300 degrees.
– Grab your dutch oven or other heavy bottomed sauce pan! You’re gonna stick it in the oven so just make sure there’s no plastic on it.
– Heat it up to medium-high, and throw some olive oil down into it.
– Toss your lamb meat in the flour until it’s coated, and brown your meat in the olive oil.
– Once it’s brown and there are awesome crunchy bits on the bottom, remove the meat and set aside.
– Get that onion and garlic in there. Stir it around for five minutes until it’s soft and a little brown.
– Add the tomato paste. Make sure you toss it around on the bottom of the pan so the metallic taste of canned tomato paste goes away.
– Add the almonds and prunes. Stir that shit around.
– Add the carrots, sugar, spices and Worcestershire. Stir it around for a few minutes. Your house will now smell like heaven.
– Deglaze that pan! It’s time to add the wine! Do it, and stir up all the brown bits.
– Add the meat and stock to the pan. Bring it all to a boil, and once it’s boiling, cover and stick in the oven.
– Cook for 2-3 hours, or however long you feel. One hour would probably be fine, but the longer it cooks, the more tender the meat will be. Check periodically to make sure it’s not burning, and add stock as needed. Turn down to 275 if it keeps getting dry really fast.
HOPEFULLY, prunes will cook down to almost nothing to just create a thick, sweet stew sauce (this is my secret ingredient in my Guinness stew!), lamb will be insane tender, and it will be awesome. If you want to add half the prunes about 45 minutes before the stew is done cooking, they’ll be chunkier, and that would probably be totally excellent.
If you want to feel like Katniss, eat it with wild rice and mouth off to some toolbag in your general area who’s trying to tell you what to do. It’ll make the lamb taste even better I promise.
