Croatia - Lamb Stew and peas

Janjetina s bižima

For Croatia I must say that I really struggled to pick a dish, there is just so much food that looked absolutely divine. According to Wikipedia the food in the mainland is quite different to that of the coastal areas, this has been influenced not only by the produce was readily available in these areas in ancient times but also by their contact with different cultures such as Hungarians for the mainland and Greeks and Italians for the coastal regions. As a result, Croatian cuisine is divided into several distinct regional cuisines that are not necessarily widely known outside of their region.

I was very excited by their black risotto made with squid ink and it’s a dish I definitely want to return to cook one day. However, I wasn’t able to source squid ink this week and the dish didn’t really suit my needs for meal prepping this week. Instead I chose the equally appealing lamb and pea stew from the Dalmatian Region which was full of flavour, very very simple to make and a dish I will definitely cook again! I followed this recipe exactly but used diced shoulder instead of thigh as that’s not a cut easily available in most supermarkets, it worked really well. Below is my adaptation of the recipe which I've tried to make a little shorter!

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 600 g lamb (shoulder)

• 50 g of bacon

• 1 onion (red onion)

• 1 clove of garlic

• 400 g peas (fresh or frozen – some recipes called it a sin to use tinned!)

• 100 ml of tomato sauce or passata

• 3 carrots

• 1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

• olive oil

• salt and pepper to taste

I added potatoes to mine as it was intended as a main meal and I didn't want to serve it with rice. If you do this add at the same time as the carrots.

Method

1. Cut the lamb into cubes (4 x 4cm) or buy ready diced like I did. Cut the bacon into small pieces and set both aside.

2. Finely dice onion and the sauté over medium heat with a little olive oil. Meanwhile finely chop the garlic.

3. Add the lamb, garlic and bacon to the pan and cook until the lamb browns (about 10 minutes)

4. Meanwhile peel and slice the carrots into 1cm circles.

5. Add the peas and the carrots to the pan, along with the passata and just enough water to ensure all the ingredients are covered. Season with salt and pepper.

6. Cover and cook over low heat until meat and peas are tender.

7. Taste, season again if needed and add chopped to serve parsley.