Silence of the Lambs...

So I bought we bought a cast iron dutch oven the night. Like I said in my last blog post I have a bunch of recipes to try and a couple of them called for a dutch oven. I did a little research online and discovered that Le Creuset was the king of the hill when it comes to cast iron dutch oven’s, but I had a really hard time spending $250 on a pot I wasn’t sure that I would get a lot use out of. We have really nice cookware at home and I know that it pays to spend some money on cooking stuff, but I continued to do some research and found another option. Fontignac cast iron is also made in France and gets really good reviews and is half the price, so we went that route. It seems like a nice pot, I am looking forward to giving it a try. The thing weighs like 50 pounds, it is crazy. Anyway, I think the first thing I am going to try in it is a Moroccan-style Lamb Stew. I am not sure I like lamb, but the recipe really sounds good and the reviews that people have written include a lot of “I never liked lamb till I had this recipe” stuff like that, so I am going to give it a go. I think Sunday.

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients

Cooking spray
1 (1-pound) boneless leg of lamb roast, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground red pepper
6 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1/2 cup dried apricots, quartered
1 (14-ounce) can fat-free, lower-sodium beef broth

Preparation

Heat a Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Sprinkle lamb evenly with 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add lamb to pan; sauté 4 minutes, turning to brown on all sides. Remove from pan.

Add onion; sauté for 4 minutes, stirring frequently. Add remaining 1/4 teaspoon salt, cumin, and next 3 ingredients (through garlic); sauté for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Stir in honey and tomato paste; cook 30 seconds, stirring frequently.

Return lamb to pan. Add apricots and broth; bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer 1 hour or until lamb is tender, stirring occasionally.

I don’t know, it sounds pretty good I think. Nervous about the lamb part...

In other news I went out snowshoeing yesterday. I was OK, the rain basically ruined the snow on the trail which was a total bummer. Now I am hoping for more snow to make the snowshoeing trails soft and nice again instead of hard and crappy. Oh Well…

Tonight Melissa and I are headed to Everest on Grand for dinner. I am really looking forward to going. I love that place. It is Nepali food and they have really good chow. Melissa loves the Yak Momos as do I. That’s right Yak… A Momo is a little steamed dumpling. They are really damn good. I am not sure what else we are going to get but their food is really good so whatever we have will be awesome.

I am heading out on my snowboard tomorrow after work, I think. I need to get out there and give it another go. I am thinking about buying a 3 pack of lessons from Welch to see if I can learn to ride before we head west. I think it would be really fun to ride in Montana a bit.