Lemon & Dill Beef Stew



I've been on a lemon-dill kick lately. Maybe it's because my good friend Jonas sent me a Swedish cookbook (review to come) filled with lemon-dilly delights or maybe it's because I drooled as I saw Ron Popeil put a basket of Salmon with lemon and dill into theRonco Showtime Rotisserie and BBQ and set it and asked us to forget it (I don't even eat Salmon). I saw a recipe for Lemon Dill Lamb Stew in a cookbook I was flipping through at my local Barnes and Noble. I didn't care for the recipes in the book but I did want to make that one. However, I encountered a few snafus. The recipe's ingredient list called for red potatoes, carrots and pearl onions all of which I love. When I read the recipe's instructions however, none of these ingredients were even mentioned. At all! What were you supposed to do with the vegetables?! I blame both the author/cook and the publisher, or at least the copyeditor/proofreader for overlooking such an agregious mistake. Also, the instructions didn't call for searing the lamb chunks, it had some strange instructions in regards to the garlic and the timing of the cooking seemed off. I basically threw out my copy of the recipe (okay, I admit I took a picture of it with my iPhone) and came up with my own. It started off as a Lamb stew but since my local Market Basket was fresh out of Lamb chunks I made it with beef instead.

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons of extra light olive oil
1 lb of beef chunks for stew
1 tablespoon of flour
1 cup of chicken broth
1/2 a lemon juiced
1 cup of white wine
3 carrots sliced
6-10 small red new potatoes quartered
3 garlic cloves thinly sliced
chopped dill

Heat up a dutch oven or any soup pot with the olive oil. When the oil is really hot, add the beef chunks and sear. Cook for 5 minutes on each side and cook in batches of 2 or 3 so as not to lower the temperature of the oil. Set aside. Add the flour and whisk thoroughly. Quickly add the the chicken broth when the roux starts to get brown (roux = oil + flour). Add white wine, lemon juice, carrots, red new potatoes and garlic cloves. Stir. Cover pot and lower to low heat. Cook for 2 hours. If you are impatient, cook at a higher temp for 1 hour. If you have loads of time, add to a 400 degree oven for 3 hours. When done, stir in some chopped dill. You can also add some dill and perhaps a lemon slice over the top for presentation. Enjoy!

2 comments:

The1stdaughter said...

That's so strange that the recipe didn't really even have the veggies! How weird!

I love all things dill infused. Really! Just ask my hubby, I'm not sure he even knew what it was before we were married. LOL. This sounds fantastic, especially now that the days have gotten much colder. Great post!

Raquel S. said...

What do you like with dill? I love anything lemon-dill, I love dill pickles, dill on fish, dill with potatoes, dill in dip, mmm... dill.