Warming, tasty lamb stew; beloved by man, woman and child alike. The cats always hang around when we eat it as well, but that comes firmly into ‘you’re fresh out of luck’ category.

Easy-peasy, keeps in the fridge for about 3 days or freezes brilliantly. I love this recipe and Alex practically leaps with joy when I tell him I’m making it, so one for the kids, too.

This recipe will be the quantity that I tend to use because it feeds us, with plenty leftover for frozen portions, but you know, it’s a stew! Fiddle with the quantities as much as you like. No harm will come.

First get some lamb (neck) fillet. Having said that, I have used the cheaper shoulder fillet and it’s fine – it just isn’t quite as melting. If neck fillet is the Queen, then shoulder fillet is the Princess. I usually get 2 packs because the two pieces of fillet inside one pack aren’t enough to feed all 3 of us for 2 days. Slice the fillets thickly.

Next, the veg. About 4 carrots and 2 or 3 leeks.

Slice them up. You can cut pretty thickly with the leeks, but whilst I  slice the carrots fairly thickly, I don’t like them chunky.

Heat a tbsp of oil and a knob of butter in an casserole (if your casserole can’t go on the hob, do all this in a deep frying pan and transfer it into a casserole to cook). You could also transfer it into the slow cooker, but it does need this ‘frying off’ stage to be really tasty.

Saute the leeks and carrot for about 5 – 10 mins, until they’re hot and the leeks are beginning to soften. Remove them from the pan and let them wait in a bowl whilst you deal with the lamb.

Put a couple of spoons of plain flour and plenty of salt and white pepper into a bowl. Stir round to mix.

Dust the sliced fillet pieces in the flour and give them a little shake to get rid of any excess.

*shake shake*

Lay a few slices at a time into the casserole and brown them nicely on both sides then stick them on top of the pile of veg so that you can fry the next batch of lamb

Add it all back into the casserole and pour over about 3/4 pint of lamb stock. Give it a really good stir because there is some really good stuff on the bottom of that pan!

Lid on and into the oven at GM3/325F/160C for a couple of hours.

Here it is after 1hr 30 mins – looks great, but the meat hasn’t softened yet. When it’s ready, you can halve a piece of meat with a wooden spoon – yeah, it’s that tender.

At this stage I removed the lid and put the stew back in for about another 45 mins to let the juices reduce. Perfect.

Now it’s ready to serve, or pop into the fridge until tomorrow or cool and freeze in portions.Serve with green veg and mash if you wish.

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Lamb Stew

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around 400g lamb fillet
3-4 carrots, peeled and sliced
2 leeks, trimmed and sliced
3/4 pint lamb stock
2 tbsp plain flour
salt and white pepper

Preheat oven to GM3/325F/160C

Thickly slice lamb fillet.
Combine flour, salt and pepper in a dish and turn the lamb over in it to coat. Shake off any excess flour.

In a large (hob proof) casserole or frying pan, put 1 tbsp oil and a generous knob of salted butter.
Add the sliced carrots and leeks and fry off on a low/medium heat for 5-10 mins until the leek is beginning to soften. Remove to a bowl.

Adding more oil if necessary, fry the lamb off in batches until both sides are browned.
Return all lamb, carrots and leeks to the casserole/frying pan and stir in the lamb stock. Scrape the bottom well to dislodge the tasty stuck bits.
Put the lid on the casserole (or transfer to one) and put in the oven for 1 hr 30 mins.

Check after this time that the lamb has softened and that it doesn’t need any salt or pepper. Remove the lid and give it another 30-45 mins to reduce the juice.

Serve with green veg and, if you wish, mashed potato or a slice of rustic bread.