For dinner tonight I made a quasi-homemade lamb and lentil stew. After browning 4 lamb shoulder chops in my All-Clad 3-Quart Saute Pan with Lid
, I used the same pan to braise the chops in a cheap red wine with a bay leaf, some shallot and garlic, a dozen peppercorns, and a couple of sprigs of rosemary. After about 2 hours, they were very tender. I let the chops cool until I could pull the meat into shreds, while defatting the braising liquid.
I then fried two ounces of pancetta in a teaspoon of olive oil in my All-Clad 3-Quart Saucier Pan with Lid
. I briefly sautéed sone shallots and garlic in the same pan and then added 1 drained 14.5 ounce can of Muir Fire Roasted Tomatoes to the pan. I then added one 14.5 ounce can of Amy's vegetarian lentil soup to the pan, along with some frozen chopped spinach and some finely chopped frozen green beans to the mix. I added the lamb and let the soup simmer for 10 minutes. It was a little dry at this point so I added some of the defatted braising liquid to loosen it up.
I served one of my all-time favorite wines, a 1986 Chateau Meyney (last noted in 2011). I required decanting, both to get it off the heavy sediment and to let the wine aerate. At first, there was a rather funky aroma but it blew off with some time to breathe. Classic bouquet and flavor associations included prunes, cedar, leather, tobacco, and earth. It probably can go a few more years. Grade: A
