Since discovering my local Greek grocer has had a supply of quinces recently I’ve been thinking of ways to use them. My first post with them was Quince Tarte Tartin and my next use for them I wanted to try savoury dish. I thought of using a shoulder of pork but I saw a shoulder of lamb and my mind started to think along the lines of simple casserole, Moroccan tagine style dish with few simple ingredients, what I call uncluttered dishes. I made a chicken casserole last year from Clauida Roden’s Arabesque book and the simplicity of the casserole and stew dishes she had in the book struck a cord with me, took me back to my home cooking.
I wasn’t prepared just how well the quinces went with the lamb, the quince segments were so tender I mashed using a hand blender. The quince sauce is not sweet nor bitter but brings a perfectly balanced savouriness to the meat. This dish gives the most delicious aroma while cooking from the cardamons and quinces.
I didn’t peel the quinces because a great deal of their aroma is close to the skin and it cooks down very soft, easily mashed. I added 8 large green cardamons and it wasn’t enough to give a strong taste of cardamon using a large piece of meat like this. It obviously added to background flavour but my suggestion is, if you want the cardamon to be stronger use more.
If I wasn’t making this dish for fussy child I would have added a heaped teaspoon of ground coriander or ground cumin, but she turns her nose up at robust tasting spices. What you have here is a casserole tasting of melting tender lamb with a delicate savoury quince sauce…now add your own twist to it.
Lamb, Quinces and Cardamon Casserole
Serves 6. Pre-heat oven 160˚C fan
- 1 piece of lamb good for stewing, I used a shoulder (about 1.5kg incl bone) but anything suitable for long cooking, even cubed meat would be fine.
- 2 onions chopped roughly
- 2-3 bay leaves
- 8 or more green cardamon pods
- 2 quinces cut into thick slices skin left on
- Salt & pepper
If you’re using lamb in one piece make sure the meat fits snugly in a casserole dish, if you don’t have one use a deep baking dish/roasting tin, but still one that gives a snug fit, to avoid meat drying out through too much evaporation. Add the onions to the bottom of the dish, bay leaves, cardamon, salt and pepper. Place the meat on top and add enough water to come up a third of the way of the meat. Place the quince slices all around the lamb and cover with a lid or if using roasting tin cover with a double layer of foil tightly. Place it in the oven.
Depending on what cut of lamb you have it will cook anything between 1.5 hrs to my shoulder of 3 hours. The shoulder was quite tender after 2 hrs but I wanted to add colour and left it another hour uncovered to brown it by which time the meat was lovely and falling off the bone. Because the shoulder has good fat all over it it doesn’t run in danger of drying out as leaner parts can.
Once the meat is tender to your liking remove it and cover to keep warm, mush up the quinces with a blender or try it with a masher for a rougher texture.
Note: I removed the husks of the cardamon before blending but if you’re using a blender it’s fine to leave them, blending with the husk will give you a slightly stronger taste of cardamon.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Azelia,
Nice braise! I haven’t done a lamb braise for quite awhile – might try this, since we are in love with cardamom. My only adaption will be something to replace the quince, since I doubt I’ll find them here. What do you think about using pears?
Thanks for your response on the guava paste/cheese – I’ll look for quince cheese in our Hispanic groceries, so we can try that.
hi dr fugawe – Claudia Roden has a recipe in her Arabesque book for Tagine of Lamb with Pears, in her recipe she cooks the pears separately in butter and then adds them to the stew, not something I would do to cook them separately I would rather put them into the dish. I remember GillthePainter who comments on Joanna’s blog doing a lamb dish with pears and she put them straight into the dish and let them cook down into the sauce.
Just as a note in the Arabesque book the spices are ground ginger, cinnamon and saffron.
In Spain I had slow cooked pork with pears on the side. Yes I would try it for sure. Cardamon is one of my favourite spices along with ground coriander.