Lamb Stew with Plums and Wild Rice

Posted by on Mar 24, 2012 in Breads of Panem, Featured | 0 comments

Lamb Stew with Plums and Wild Rice
Lamb Stew with Plums

Lamb Stew with Plums

The stew’s made with tender chunks of lamb and dried plums today. Perfect on the bed of wild rice.

The Hunger Games

Breads of Panem — Food inspired by The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

Aside from bread, the lamb stew with plums is perhaps the most often mentioned dish in The Hunger Games trilogy. During Katniss’s interview with Caesar Flickerman the night before the 74th Hunger Games, he asked her what the most impressive thing the Capitol had to offer. Her answer? The lamb stew. It is the dish that Haymitch sends to her and Peeta when their romance takes a turn for better ratings while they’re in the arena.  It also shows up in Catching Fire during the Victory Tour and one last time, near the ending of Mockingjay.

I’ve made plenty of beef stew in my life but this was the first time I’ve really dealt with lamb. I’ll be the first to admit that lamb is not one of my favorite meats. I never ate it growing up and both my husband and I usually find it to be way too gamey. In fact, the only way I’ve ever really enjoyed lamb is the lamb-based broth at places like Little Lamb and even then, I avoid the lamb meat for dipping into the hot pot. Though I have discovered that a good, roast lamb chop with plenty of garlic and rosemary can be quite tasty, so long as I can get over the smell.

Plus, it may just be me, but I’m guessing that lamb just isn’t very popular here in the Bay Area. My nearest supermarkets are mostly beef, chicken and pork, but very little, if any, lamb. And when lamb is available, it’s usually pretty expensive, starting at $8 per pound and up. And frankly, for that price, I’d rather have beef. But I was determined to make this recipe so I did some digging. I discovered that you can find more affordable lamb stew meat from Halal and Indian markets. I intended to do that for this recipe but didn’t get to my local Indian market in time so I made do with cutting up lamb shoulder chops.

While doing my research, I discovered that there’s a Moroccan style lamb stew that has plums in it but it has a lot of spices with a very distinctive North African flavor palate. Which is all fine and good — and sounded like a delicious experiment to try with couscous — but I decided to forego that in favor of a more North American/European flavor profile. For my version of the lamb stew, I took inspiration from three different recipes: Autumn Lamb Stew (from Whole Foods), Traditional Lamb Stew (AllRecipes) and Basque Lamb Stew (Simply Recipes).  I loved the root vegetables in the autumn stew, the simplicity of the traditional stew and the tomato base and sweet component (red pepper) in the Basque stew. Yeah, it was a bit adventurous of me to cobble together a recipe with a meat I know very little about but cooking is all about experimentation, right?

Since I know I’m pretty much the only one who will be eating this stew, I made a pretty small batch. The verdict? I think it tasted good and the addition of the plums was a wonderful touch of sweetness. My roomie Trouble liked it — she loves sweet and savory combinations. But even with a generous amount of herbs, my husband still couldn’t take the gaminess of the lamb and after a bowlful, the gaminess got to me as well. Admittedly, it won’t be making a regular appearance in my household but it’s definitely worth a try if you like lamb and The Hunger Games.

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Capitol Style Lamb Stew with Plums

Inspired by Katniss Everdeen's favorite Capitol dish, lamb stew with plums, from the young adult trilogy, The Hunger Games.

Ingredients

  • 1 lb lamb shoulder, cut into 1/2" cubes
  • 1 3/4 c beef broth (low sodium, if possible!)
  • 1/4 c tomato sauce
  • 1/4 medium onion, diced
  • 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  • 1 tsp dried thyme (increase to 2 tsp if using fresh)
  • 1/2 sprig fresh rosemary
  • 1 bay leaf'
  • 1/2 medium carrot, cut into 1/2" rounds
  • 1 parsnip, cut into 1/2" rounds
  • 1 small potato, cut into 1/2" dice
  • 1/3 cup dried plums (prunes)

Instructions

  1. Season the cubed lamb shoulder by sprinkling with salt and pepper.
  2. Add 1 tbsp olive oil into a hot pan and brown the lamb shoulder in batches, removing each from the pan to keep warm.
  3. Once all the meat has browned, add the onions and the garlic and saute over medium heat until translucent.
  4. Return meat and any juices back to the pan. Add the tomato sauce, beef broth, bay leaf, thyme and rosemary and bring to a simmer. Cover and simmer for 1 hour until lamb is tender.
  5. Add the carrot, parsnip, potatoes and plums to the pot. Simmer for another half hour until the root vegetables are tender.
  6. Remove bay leaf and rosemary sprig before serving over wild rice.
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http://www.delishiono.com/2012/03/lamb-stew-with-plums/

This lamb stew with plums is easily the most popular recipe that fans want to recreate from The Hunger Games! Check out some of the other following renditions:

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Breads of Panem: Mellark Bakery Raisin Nut Bread

Posted by on Mar 21, 2012 in Breads of Panem, Featured | 2 comments

Breads of Panem: Mellark Bakery Raisin Nut Bread
Mellark Bakery Fruit and Nut Bread

Mellark Bakery Fruit and Nut Bread

 

By the time I reached home, the loaves had cooled somewhat, but the insides were still warm. When I dropped them on the table, Prim’s hands reached to tear off a chunk, but I made her sit, forced my mother to join us at the table, and poured warm tea. I scraped off the black stuff and sliced the bread. We ate an entire loaf, slice by slice. It was good hearty bread, filled with raisins and nuts.

The Hunger Games

Breads of Panem - foods inspired by The Hunger Games by Suzanne CollinsBreads of Panem — Food inspired by The Hunger Games trilogy by Suzanne Collins

In The Hunger Games,  a young Peeta Mellark literally tosses a starving Katniss Everdeen a lifeline in the form of two loaves of bread, which he burnt on purpose so that his mother would tell him to throw them out. This act of kindness that Katniss cannot forget, feeling that she is forever in Peeta’s debt.

I’d imagine that a fruit and nut loaf like the ones Peeta burnt would be a good breakfast bread for the middle class, who may not be starving like their Seam neighbors but still don’t have the luxurious excess that the Capitol has. Refined sugar and specialty white flour were probably expensive for the Mellarks to procure and probably used only for their higher end cakes and cookies. An every day bread like the fruit and nut bread would probably be made from more affordable ingredients, with whole grains. I was originally going to use this recipe for Hearty Honey Oat Bread  from The Baker’s Guide (which sounds heavenly) but thought that perhaps even natural sweeteners like honey and molasses may be considered too precious to waste on an every day bread.

So instead, I decided to just knead in some fruit and nuts into the standard dough I’ve used for other Mellark Bakery goods like the bakery bread and cheese buns.  Just use the bakery bread recipe/technique and add in about 1/3 of a cup of combined fruits and nuts while you’re shaping the dough. I actually substituted a variety of dried fruit (dried cranberries, apricots as well as raisins), pecans and walnuts for the fruit and nut component.

For more renditions of this bread, try:

 

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Happy ╥ Day

Posted by on Mar 14, 2012 in Geekery | 1 comment

Happy Pi Day

Happy Pi Day

 

Happy ╥ Day!  ( March 14 ~ 3.14 ~ ╥ AKA pi ) /geek

I totally spazzed on it and forgot until this morning. Sadly, no time to make my own pie but I did get a chance to pick one up at Nation’s.

Apparently, everyone had the same idea and all the cherry pie was sold out. But I did get my hands on some fantastic berry pie. YUM. :D

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