Serves: 4-6
Ideally you will need a slow cooker (or Aga with a simmering oven) for this recipe but if both are lacking in your life you can adapt the cooking time for a conventional oven. The dish can be cooked at fan 150˚c, mark 2 for 3-4 hours until the lamb is very tender. I keep the lamb in large chunks (about 6-8 cm) so you are serving one or two pieces of meat per person. I think it looks a little more elegant which is a rather Hyacinth Bucket thing to say -but feel free to cut the meat into smaller pieces. The Navarrico brand of beans are, by a country mile, far superior to any other brand. A good deli will stock them or look online and order a job lot to make it worthwhile.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 large –or two small red onions, peeled and roughly chopped
- 3 small sticks celery, trimmed and finely chopped
- 2 carrots, peeled and roughly chopped
- 2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed
- 200ml red wine
- 400g tin peeled tomatoes
- 1 tablespoon tomato purée
- 1.5kg shoulder of lamb cut into very large chunks (see intro)
- 500ml lamb stock (a cube is fine)
- 1 small tin anchovies in oil, drained
- 100g good quality pitted green olives, halved if large
- 660g jar Navarrico Judión butter beans, drained and rinsed
- 3 tablespoons cornflour
- 2 tablespoons flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped
Method
- If you are cooking the dish in an oven heat to fan 150˚c, mark 2. Set the Instant Pot to sauté function and heat the oil in the pot. Add the onion, celery and carrot along with a pinch of salt and sauté for 10-12 minutes until the vegetables have softened but not coloured. If you are cooking this in a flameproof casserole heat the oil and sauté the vegetables for 10-12 minutes.
- Add the garlic and cook for one to two minutes. Pour in the red wine and bring to the boil. Reduce the liquid by about half its volume. Add all the remaining ingredients apart from the butter beans, cornflour and parsley. Stir well, season with ground black pepper and seal the lid. Slow cook on low for 12 hours- or 3 hours in the oven.
- Add the butter beans and seal the lid. Slow cook on low for 4 hours or a further hour in the oven. By the end of the cooking time the lamb should be meltingly tender. Leave the lamb to rest for 15-20 minutes then skim off any fat from the surface.
- Turn on the sauté function of the Instant Pot (or place the casserole over a low heat) and bring the contents to a simmer. Mix the cornflour with 3 tablespoons water and stir into the lamb. Cook for 2-3 minutes until thickened. Take off the heat and stir in the parsley. Serve with mashed potatoes and a robust green vegetable like kale.