Moroccan Lamb Stew | Gluten Free Recipes | Blog

Sometimes mistakes have ghastly, expensive consequences (like forgetting to put the top back on the water tank in your car’s engine and blowing up the engine – OK, I only did that once!) and sometimes mistakes are just embarrassing (like entering the wrong pin number when using your ATM card at the grocery store and having the card declined – can’t count the number of times that’s happened, I really need to change that pin number) and sometimes mistakes bring about great results – like the Moroccan Lamb Stew I made yesterday.

I was invited to a friend’s birthday party and we were asked to bring a Middle Eastern dish. I decided that Morocco was close enough and decided I’d like to try something like a Moroccan Tagine.

Not being very familiar with either Middle Eastern cooking or Moroccan cooking I consulted various cookbooks and cruised the Internet. I found a few recipes that had potential but none that fully whetted my mental palate. So off to the drawing board I went. I had a jar of preserved lemons in my fridge and I really wanted to use those and I already knew we had two chicken dishes coming so I set my mind to lamb and preserved lemons and went from there.

All the recipes I read called for lamb shoulder but the lamb shoulder at the store did not look good and I was pressed for time some I got lamb sirloin from the leg of lamb instead. I also was had various things to do through out the day so I had to get the majority of the cooking done early and I couldn’t pay a lot of attention to it so I decided to cook it in the oven instead of simmer on the stove. I seasoned and browned the meat, added orange juice and some beef stock and into the oven it went. I was busy and pulled it out in an hour and a half expecting to see a beautiful bubbling stew. Instead I saw a bunch of shredded meat sitting in hardly any liquid. OOPS! Using the leg meat from the lamb meant it broke apart and was no longer in chunks and I had not added enough liquid so it all cooked down.

Time to get creative. So I added more stock plus some water then proceeded as I had planned. The result was delicious. Having cooked out the liquid gave my stew a depth of flavor that I would not have gotten otherwise and the meat was so tender and having fallen apart added a nice contrast to the chunky veggies and apricots. I also decided to add a garnish sort of like a gremelata that one puts on osso buco but I used almonds, cilantro and preserved lemon peel instead. You have to make the preserved lemons the night before so if you don’t have them you could probably use fresh lemon peel but the preserved lemons are more authentic and far worth the (minimal) effort.

Yum, yum, yum! The stew was a huge hit at the party.

Eating it is like taking a culinary trip to faraway, exotic places.

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Gluten Free Moroccan Lamb Stew Recipe

Ingredients

3 lbs Lamb from the leg cut into 1 ½ inch pieces
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon paprika
½ teaspoon turmeric
½ teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 orange – finely grate the zest and juice it
1 bunch cilantro, chopped – use divided
2 cloves garlic, chopped
3 cups gluten free beef stock – use divided
½ cup water
2 teaspoons chipotle puree – recipe follows
2 tablespoons honey
6 ounces dried apricots
2 sweet potatoes cut into 1 ½ inch chunks
1 cup frozen pearl onions
1 cup pitted black Kalmata olives
1 preserved lemon – recipe follows
¾ cup slivered almonds

Directions

Mix together the cinnamon, cumin, paprika, turmeric, ginger, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add lamb and toss well to coat. Heat olive oil in bottom of a Dutch oven. Brown lamb in hot oil in two batches. When both batches are well browned return to pot and add the grated orange zest, orange juice, chopped garlic and half the chopped cilantro. Cook for a minute or two until very fragrant then add 1 ½ cups beef broth. Bring to a boil and then cover the pot and put in a 350 degree oven for 1 ½ hours. The stew meat will be falling apart and there will be very little liquid left.

While stew is in the oven pour a cup of boiling water over the apricots and let stand for about 20 minutes to plump up. Drain water before using.

(At this point you can stop the cooking here, refrigerate covered and finish later if you wish. That’s what I did.)

Return pot to stove top and add the remaining beef stock plus ½ cup of water, chipotle puree and honey. Bring to boil. Add sweet potatoes and apricots. Continue to cook for 10 minutes then add the frozen onions. Cook 5 more minutes and then add the olives. Cook about 5 more minutes or until the sweet potatoes are tender and the olives and onions are heated through. Taste and check for seasoning. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. I don’t like my stews too soupy so I left the cover off while cooking the veggies and let the liquid reduce down some.

To make the garnish

Toast the almonds in a dry pan for a minute or two until just beginning to brown. Rinse the salt off of the preserved lemons and scrape out the pulp and discard. Chop the lemon peel finely and add the almonds and the rest of the chopped cilantro and mix. Garnish the stew with this mixture. (I made this ahead of time too, while the stew was in the oven and I just put it in a zip lock bag and saved it to garnish at the last minute.)

Preserved Lemons – Quick Method
(This is taken form the cook book “Seriously Simple “ by Dianne Rossen Worthington. Usually preserved lemons take a month to prepare, this is a quick, overnight method.)

12 organic lemons, scrubbed
Kosher salt

Juice 6 of the lemons and set the juice aside.

Partially quarter each of the remaining lemons so that it stays together at the stem end.

Pack about 2 teaspoons salt into the center of each lemon. Re-form the lemons and place in a large lock-top plastic bag. Cover the lemons halfway with salt. Add the reserved juice. Pack the lemons tightly in the bag, squeeze out any air and close the bag. Freeze overnight.

Remove the lemons from the freezer, defrost and use for cooking. Pack the unused lemons tightly into a mason jar adding the lemon juice and enough salt to cover the lemons. Refrigerated until using. Rinse off the salt before using.

Will keep at least 6 months in the fridge and they get better and better as time goes by.

Chilpotle Puree

(Also taken form the cook book “Seriously Simple” by Dianne Rossen Worthington. I keep this in my fridge at all times and use is for topping everything from hummus to mango sorbet.)

1 7 ounce can chilpotles in adobo sauce.

Pour the chilies and their sauce into a food processor and process until smooth. Place in airtight container, cover and refrigerate.

Servings

This gluten free recipe serves 6 hungry people.

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Gluten Free, lamb, Moroccan, recipes, stew

{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }

Kristen May 18, 2009 at 4:44 pm

After hearing you explain this way of making preserved lemons at Lola the other night I was excited to try them. I am glad you had the recipe on your blog. I am too impatient to wait for the traditional method.

I’m going to try the stew too, it looks delicious!

Janet NZ May 15, 2011 at 9:04 pm

Oh I am so pleased that the rockstars make mistakes too, and I love that you turned it around so beautifully and shared it with us. This sounds just delicious – all those gently warm spices and the sweetness of the apricots!

Carol Kicinski May 16, 2011 at 10:38 am: Ah thanks Janet!

Jacqueline February 12, 2012 at 4:13 am

Your recipe sounds delicious and I would love to try it. However, I don’t see a list of ingredients for the stew.

Carol Kicinski February 16, 2012 at 5:15 pm: So sorry – when I transfered the site over something happened to this post. I have fixed it now. Don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you – they are mostly pantry items.

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Gluten Free Moroccan Lamb Stew Recipe