Guest Post: Cocido de Cordero-Spanish Lamb Stew

I am so excited to have Diana give us a guest post I have been following her blog for a good while now and love it, she's a talented cook, with a focus on Spanish Cuisine, a great Mum and a great Gardner and Guardian of the environment. She is also a great friend, so I will now hand you over to the lovely Diana of A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa

Enjoy.........

Buenos Dias! My name is Diana from A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa. I am so excited to be here at Chow and Chatter and want to thank Rebecca for allowing me to share a bit about who I am and a recipe on her wonderful blog. I have been following Chow and Chatter for some time and enjoy reading so many great posts filled with cultural recipes and always focused on nutrition and eating well!

When Rebecca first asked me to guest post, I knew I wanted to share something special and unique to my Spanish heritage. I also wanted to share with you my passion for our local food movement and buying the best in hormone, antibiotic free meat from family farmers. Putting these two thoughts together, I decided to come up with a delicious Spanish stew using lamb shanks from my local family farmer, Cory's Country Lamb.

This recipe uses many different flavours such as green and red peppers, tomatoes, garlic, red wine, and Spanish paprika. All cooked in different stages and simmered low and slow with the lamb shanks to create a warming Mediterranean stew that will leave you yearning to visit Spain!

As Rebecca knows, I am an urban homesteader. I grow my own vegetables and preserve as much as I can before the snow arrives and the winter is upon us. I freeze most of my homegrown tomatoes and preserve my peppers in a variety of ways, including freezing them whole and freezing them after I've roasted them. I love doing this as I have fresh, local, homegrown tomatoes and peppers to use during the winter resulting in some of the flavours of summer!

For this recipe I also used turnips and their greens! Turnip greens are filled with nutrients from vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin B6, folate, copper, calcium, and dietary fiber. Many people don't realize the nutrition within the greens and ask their family farmer to discard them, eeek!! Turnip greens are beautiful in stews and soups. I have found that different types of turnips produce different flavors in their greens. Some are more bitter than others. I have been enjoying these fall turnips with the purple tops which produce beautiful greens that are much milder in taste similar to spinach or swiss chard.

I also enjoy eating these turnips as they are great eaten raw in salads. They have a bitter crunch similar to a radish. When cooked down, they lose that bitterness and take on the warming characteristics of a cooked root vegetable.

Now on to the recipe!

Cocido de Cordero
Serves 4

Ingredients:

1. 2 lamb shanks
2. 1 1/4 cups Northern White Beans
   
3. Extra Virgin Olive Oil
   
4. 1 large white onion
5. 4 garlic cloves, pressed or diced
6. 4 - 5 large tomatoes, deskinned and sliced
   
7. 1 red pepper, diced
   
8. 1 green pepper, diced
   
9. 4 cups chicken stock, preferably homemade
10. 1/2 cup dry red wine, (Cabernet Sauvignon or a Merlot)
11. 2 bay leaves
12. 1 1/2 tsp thyme
    
13. 3-4 turnips, diced
14. 1 cup washed and cut, turnip greens
    
15. Kosher/Sea Salt
16. Pepper
17. Spanish Smoked Paprika (Pimenton)
18. Roasted Red Peppers to garnish, preferably homemade

Method:

1. Soak 1 1/4 cups white beans overnight. Preferably, 24 hours.
   
2. The first thing we are going to do is make a sofrito. In a large dutch oven, heat up 3 tbls of olive oil. Add the onion, garlic, red and green peppers. Saute until the onion is transparent and the peppers tender. Add the diced tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 10-15 minutes or until the sauce has reduced by about 1/2.
3. Empty the sauce into a bowl.
4. Season the lamb shanks with salt, pepper, and Spanish Paprika.
5. In the dutch oven, add a good drizzle of olive oil and brown the lamb shanks on all sides. For about 8-10 minutes.
6. Once the lamb shanks are browned, remove and set aside. Add the sauce back into the dutch oven and over medium heat stir into the remaining brown yummy pieces remaining from the lamb shanks.
7. Add the chicken stock, red wine, bay leaves, thyme, 1 1/2 tsp of Spanish paprika, turnips, and beans. Bring to a boil and season with salt and pepper.
8. Add the lamb shanks, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer for 2 - 3 hours or until the beans are tender and the meat from the lamb shanks are falling off the bone!
9. 10 minutes before they are finished, add the turnip greens.
10. Serve and garnish with roasted red peppers

Buen Provecho!!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and learning a bit about me and my blog. Thanks again Rebecca, for having me! Besitos!!