Lamb Stew

Stew, Ishtu....whatever you want to call it.....tastes amazing with dosas and aapams and so reminds me of home
Stew is usually a mixture of solid foods cooked in liquid and this mixture is then served as the gravy. The solid foods usually include vegetables like carrots, beans, peas, potatoes and any meat of your choice. Plain veg stew is great too.
The liquid I used to cook the stew in is stock(of lamb) but a lot of people use wine, beer, and the likes...

Stew is usually cooked on low flame in the liquid ingredient which enables the flavour to mingle with all the vegetables.
Most stews are thin, they are thickened using either corn starch, arrow root etc,....
The thickening agent I have used here is coconut milk which adds a lovely rich flavour to the stew.

This is a dish I've learned from my mum. Every time I make it, I get nostalgic and think about my days back home, when I was in school/college and this stew was a treat for me. Now of course, I have to make it myself but its still a treat for me ;) and my family.
Like most of my dishes, this one is also very easy to prepare but it does take a while to cook since it is prepared on low flame.
To make stew you will need

Preparation time - 30 minutes
Cooking time - 40 minutes
Serves 8-10 people
Ingredients
4 tbsps oil
7 small onions - cut into 4 slices
3 carrots cut into sticks
1 cup peas
3-4 potatoes
1 kg lamb
1 tbsp ginger paste
1/2 tbsp garlic paste
5 tsps green chilli paste
8-10 pepper corns
1 cup coconut milk
salt to taste
Method

• Put the onions in a steel bowl and place it in the centre of a pressure cooker. Place the lamb all around this bowl and add water(enough to cover the lamb) and salt to it. Its okay if a little water enters the bowl of onions. Cover and let it cook on high flame for 15 minutes(around 5 whistles).

• Let the pressure cooker cool. Then open and remove the bowl of onion, which will now be soft and mushy. If there is any water in the onions, drain it back into the cooker.

• Retain the cooked lamb and stock in the cooker. If you feel the lamb is not cooked completely then cover and cook the lamb for a few minutes more. You can add a cup of water before closing the cooker if you feel the water is too little.
• In a separate pan, heat oil and add the cooked onions along with a little salt and ginger garlic paste. Mash them into a paste and fry until a nice light brown.

• Then add add the green chilli paste,pepper corns,vegetables and potatoes and stir fry for 3-5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water to the vegetables so they don't stick to the bottom of the pan and let them cook for 10 minutes.

• Now add the lamb along with the stock to this and cover. Let it cook on slow for 40 minutes.

• After 40 minutes, open the lid and give it a good gentle stir. Remove from flame and add the coconut milk to this. Mix well.

Serve hot with dosa, aapam, or rice.

Note

1. The amount of green chilli paste can be increased or decreased according to your level of spice.
2. Stew can be made with chicken, fish or just plain vegetable stew. For vegetable stew, after stir frying the veggies with onions, add around 2 cups of water and let it cook on slow for 30 minutes. Rest of the steps are the same.
3. If your cooker is not big enough to accommodate the onions and the meat together then you can cook the onions in a separate cooker, in the same way. Placed in a steel bowl.
4. For Chicken stew, you need not pressure cook the chicken. The chicken can be added directly to the onion and vegetables along with water (around 2-3 cups) and cooked on low flame until done.
5. If you don't want to add coconut milk, you can add plain milk instead but this will not give the authentic stew taste. I used maggi coconut milk powder which works great.
6. Beans go great with this stew but since I did not have any at home I used only peas, carrots and potatoes. If you have beans then use 1/2 cup beans and reduce the peas to 1/2 cup instead.

Shabnam