Lamb Stew

The idea was 'Coq au Vin' with lamb and it worked pretty well.

400gms of lamb neck fillet cut into bite size chunks
Shallots, peeled
Portobello mushrooms
Small carrots
Red wine (I used a quite drinkable Australian Shiraz, for what it's worth)
1/2 Ltr Chicken stock
1 clove of garlic, finely sliced
2 red chillies, finely sliced (these will be a recurring theme)
a few sprigs of fresh thyme
salt to taste

I heated up some olive oil in a casserole dish and put in the shallots. The garlic occurred to me at this stage and I sliced a clove while stirring the shallots. When they were beginning to turn brown, I added the lamb and the garlic. Once the lamb was browned, in went about a third of a bottle of the wine then everything else except about half of the chicken stock. I covered the dish and put it in a pre-heated oven at 170C.

After about an hour an a half I checked on progress and found that the liquid level was getting a bit low, so added the rest of the stock. Then it went back in for another hour.

K and I ate it without accompaniment. Delicious comfort food, perhaps better suited to a winter evening. Some good bread to mop up the sauce would have been nice, but a spoon worked fine.