Ingredients
- 800g quality stewing lamb, roughly diced
- sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 small handful fresh rosemary, leaves picked
- 2 heaped Tbsp flour
- extra virgin olive oil
- 1 red onion, peeled & roughly chopped
- 8 field mushrooms, torn in half
- 1 handful baby carrots, scrubbed
- 1 parsnip, peeled & grated
- 1 dessert spoon Marmite
- 2 heaped Tbsp pearl barley
- 285ml rich ale (Guinness)
- 565ml chicken stock
Directions
- Preheat your oven to 180ºC. Put the lamb into a bowl and season well with a good pinch of salt and pepper. Finely chop the rosemary leaves and add to the bowl with the flour. Mix around so that the meat is completely covered.
- Fry the lamb in a couple of tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil in a hot casserole-type pan – do this in batches so the pieces get a nice bit of colour, then remove from the pan and put to one side.
- Turn the heat down, then fry the onion, mushrooms and carrots for about 5 minutes until softened and slightly coloured. Add the lamb back to the pan along with the parsnip, Marmite, pearl barley, ale and stock. Bring to the boil and then simmer for 20 minutes then place the lid on the pot and place in the oven. Cook for around an hour, or until the lamb falls apart.
- Try this: To really get the flavours going, the Italians have something called gremolata: finely chop some flat-leaf parsley, a clove of garlic and the zest from 1 or 2 lemons (or try oranges, which are also fantastic). Mix this up, sprinkle over the top of your stew and stir in – it will give it an amazing kick!