Navarin of lamb printanièr
Though the word ‘navarin’ means a lamb casserole with vegetables, and can be made at any time of the year, ‘navarin printanièr’ means lamb with spring vegetables. In early June our spring lamb has that little bit more flavour, particularly if you can get salt-marsh.
If you’re in a hurry this can be an everything-in-one pot dish, but I like to remove the stewing vegetables before replacing them with small carrots with their tops left on, a few tiny mauve and white turnips, some peas, green beans and new potatoes. As this is a British navarin, I like to finish the dish with chopped mint and garlic.
Ingredients
- 1 boned shoulder of spring lamb, approx 1.5kg/3lb 5oz
- 2 tbsp sunflower oil
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú butter
- 2 onions, each cut into 6 wedges
- 4 garlic cloves: 3 thinly sliced, 1 chopped
- 1 large carrot, peeled and roughly chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- 2 tbsp flour
- 1 tbsp tomato purée
- 2 thyme sprigs
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 litre/1¾ pints chicken stock
- 8 small new potatoes, scraped
- 8 button onions or small shallots, peeled
- 8 spring carrots, tops trimmed and scraped
- 2 small turnips, cut into quarters
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú fresh peas
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú French green beans, topped, tailed and halved
- 8–10 mint leaves, finely chopped
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the mashed potatoes
- 900g/2lb floury potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú butter
- milk, to taste
Method
The fat on a shoulder of spring lamb is not excessive and has a good flavour but you do need to trim most of it off – say about 70%. Then cut the meat into 50²µ/1¾´Ç³ú pieces.
Put a flameproof casserole over a high heat, add the oil and a tablespoon of the butter, and, when smoking, add the meat and turn it over briskly until well browned.
Pour off the excess oil. Add the rest of the butter and the onions, the sliced garlic, chopped carrot and sugar and fry until the onions are golden brown.
Add the flour and tomato purée and fry for another couple of minutes, then add the thyme, bay leaves, stock and 1½ teaspoons of salt. Bring to the boil, cover and simmer very gently for 40 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the mashed potatoes. Put the potatoes into a pan of well-salted water (1 teaspoon of salt per 600ml/20fl oz water). Bring to the boil and cook for 15–20 minutes until tender. Drain and leave until the steam has died down. Pass them through a potato ricer back into the pan and fold in the butter, salt and pepper to taste, and enough milk to make a creamy mash.
Tip the lamb stew into a colander over a large bowl, pick out the lamb and return it to the pan with the cooking liquid. Discard the vegetables (these were just to flavour the stock).
Add the new potatoes and button onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the carrots and turnips and cook for a further 10 minutes until all are cooked. Add the peas and beans and simmer for 5 minutes.
Mix together the mint leaves and the chopped garlic and stir into the stew. Serve from the casserole, with the mashed potatoes.