CALDERETA—A TRADITIONAL LAMB STEW

 

Lamb stew with potatoes and herbs.

    I´ve been craving lamb stew, the sort of aromatic, slow-cooked meal that’s perfect for cold weather. 

    

    Shoulder meat would be ideal for stew, but I can never bring myself to cut up a gorgeous shoulder or leg of lamb for stew meat. So I boned out several lamb shanks, using the bones to make broth and cutting the meat into chunks. Other possibilities for stew are necks, lamb riblets, flank or breast meat. 

     Caldereta is a very traditional lamb stew, found all along the shepherds’ migratory routes from Aragon and Navarra to La Mancha, Extremadura and Andalusia. A caldereta is a “cauldron” or iron pot for cooking on a woodfire. In its rustic, shepherds’ versions, the stew, eaten with bread, is chunks of meat, lamb or young goat, braised with wine and wild herbs with the possible addition of wild mushrooms or wild artichokes. Domesticated, the stew usually has onions and peppers as well and is served with potatoes as well as bread.  

Typically, the stew is thickened with pieces of fried lamb’s liver, mashed to a paste with garlic. If you can’t get lamb’s liver, substitute chicken livers. Or thicken the sauce with a slice of bread, fried in oil and processed to a paste.     

Stew is brown. Maybe that’s what inspired me to scatter a handful of ruby-red pomegranate kernels on the finished dish. And, once that was part of the plan, why not add a spoonful of tangy-sweet pomegranate molasses to the stew? No, this is not authentically Spanish. Pomegranates are used in Spanish cooking, but the thick, dark syrup is a Middle Eastern product. 

Pomegranate adds a pop of color to lamb stew with a side of fried potatoes.

Lamb simmers with wine and aromatic herbs until very tender. The sauce is thickened with a paste made of lamb's liver blended with garlic and spices.  

Lamb Stew

Caldereta de Cordero

Fried liver (top) to thicken the stew.

Serves 4-6.

2 pounds boneless lamb

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

¼ cup olive oil plus additional for frying potatoes

4 ounces lamb’s liver or a slice of bread, crusts removed

4 cloves garlic

1 ½ cup chopped onion

1 cup chopped red and/or green pepper

1 ½ teaspoons smoked pimentón (paprika)

½ cup grated tomato pulp

¾ cup white wine

3 cups lamb broth or water plus additional for the blender 

2 bay leaves

Sprigs of thyme

Sprigs of rosemary

Peppercorns

2 cloves

2-3 potatoes

1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses (optional)

Chopped parsley

Pomegranate kernels to garnish (optional)

Cut the lamb into 2-inch chunks, discarding excess fat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet or stew pan such as a Dutch oven. Cut the liver into 1-inch pieces and fry it on moderate heat until browned. (If using bread instead of liver, fry the bread until crisped.) Remove the liver from the pan and put it in a blender..

Lightly crush the garlic, but do not peel the cloves. Add them to the oil with the lamb. Fry the meat on moderately high heat until nicely browned. Skim out the meat and garlic cloves. Peel the garlics and put them in the blender with the liver. Reserve the lamb.

Fresh herbs flavor the stew.

Add the onions and red/green peppers to the pan. Reduce the heat and sauté gently until onions are quite soft, 8-10 minutes. Stir in the pimentón and fry 30 seconds. Stir in the tomato pulp. Cook 2 minutes, stirring. Add the wine. Raise the heat and cook off the alcohol, 2 minutes. Return the pieces of lamb and any juices to the pan. Add enough lamb broth to almost cover the meat. Add the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Season with salt to taste. Cover and cook the stew 15 minutes. Remove and discard the bay leaves, thyme and rosemary. Continue cooking the lamb until tender, about 25 minutes longer.

While the stew is cooking, crush the peppercorns and cloves in a mortar. Add the crushed spices to the blender with the liver and garlic. Add enough additional stock or water to allow the blender to function, about ¼ cup. Blend to make a smooth paste.

Potatoes fried in olive oil.

Liver blended to thicken sauce.

    Cut the potatoes into 1-inch cubes. Heat oil in a skillet and fry the potatoes until they are browned and just cooked through. Drain the potatoes on absorbent paper. The potatoes can be finished right in the stew or served as a side.

Pomegranate molasses.

   When the lamb is tender, stir the blender mixture into the stew. Stir in the pomegranate molasses, if using. If desired, add the fried potatoes to the stew or serve them as a side. Cook the stew, uncovered, 10 minutes more until the sauce is thickened. Stir in a handful of chopped parsley.

Serve the stew with the fried potatoes, garnished, if desired, with pomegranate kernels.

More recipes for lamb stews and braises:

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers (Caldereta).

Lamb Stew with Peppers (Chilindrón).

Lamb Shanks with Prunes.

Lamb and Bean Stew.

Lamb Riblets with Garlic Sauce.

A SLOW-COOKED STEW FOR DARKENING DAYS

As the days grow shorter on the countdown to the winter solstice, I want bright candles, flickering flames in the fireplace, twinkling lights on a holiday tree and a pot of stew bubbling on the stove.

Spain has lots of stews and braised dishes that will fill the bill. Many are made with economical cuts of meat that need slow cooking to render them tender. In the process, they also take on flavor, of wine, herbs, vegetables and sausages with which they cook.

Chunks of lamb, braised till tender, in a sauce with dried red peppers.

I’m making a lamb stew that’s simmered in wine with four kinds of red peppers!

This dish from La Mancha derives from the rustic shepherds’ caldereta, or iron stew pot, in which meals were cooked over embers. At its most basic, the stew was eaten straight from the pot, with bread for sopping the gravy. Other versions use either the lamb liver, grilled and mashed, or ground almonds, pine nuts, or walnuts to thicken the sauce. I’ve used almonds, ground finely in the blender with the peppers to make a smooth gravy for the lamb.

If baby lamb is used, it’s usually hacked into chunks, bones and all. For larger cuts of lamb, use boneless pieces from leg or shoulder. Goat meat can be substituted for the lamb.

Keep the meat covered with liquid as it cooks and, if preparing it in advance, keep the cooked meat completely covered with liquid so that it doesn’t darken and dry out.

Dried ñora peppers and tomatoes go into the stew.

Ñoras are plum-sized, dried bitter-sweet chiles. After cooking, the soft flesh is scraped from the insides of the peppers. Mild California chile pods are a possible substitute, though they are not quite as fleshy as the ñora. Otherwise use a spoonful of sweet pimentón. Use a little hot chile in addition to the mild. A piece of red bell pepper adds to the ruddy-red color of the gravy. I like to add some smoky Pimentón de la Vera to make up for the shepherds’ wood fire smoke. (Count ‘em—that’s four kinds of peppers.) The recipe also calls for sun-dried tomatoes, an ingredient used in La Mancha. If they are not available, use a spoonful of tomato concentrate.

Serve the lamb and red pepper gravy with Mashed Potatoes with Green Garlic (that recipe is here), rice pilaf or cous cous.

Lamb stew with red pepper gravy--nice served with rice pilaf and a glass of red wine.

Lamb Stew with Red Peppers

Caldereta de Cordero

Serves 6.


2 ½ to 3 pounds boneless lamb cut from the leg or shoulder
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, quartered and sliced
3 ñora peppers or 2 California chile pods, stems and seeds discarded
1 small hot dried chile, such as cayenne
4 sun-dried tomatoes, sliced
½ red bell pepper
¼ cup chopped flat-leaf parsley plus more to garnish
Sprig of thyme
2 bay leaves
2 heads garlic, char-roasted (see below for how-to), cloves peeled
1 cup dry white wine
3 cups water or lamb stock
¼ cup blanched and skinned almonds
1 teaspoon Pimentón de la Vera (sweet, bittersweet or hot)

Trim lamb of excess fat. Cut it into chunks of approximately 2 inches square. Sprinkle the pieces of lamb liberally with salt and pepper and allow to stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

Heat the oil in a large stew pot or lidded cazuela and sauté the sliced onions until lightly browned, 6 to 8 minutes. Put in the pieces of meat and turn them in the oil for a few minutes. They do not need to brown, only to lose their pink color.

Add ñoras or California chile pods with the whole dried chile, tomatoes, bell pepper, parsley, thyme, bay leaves, peeled garlic cloves and 1 teaspoon salt.

Add the wine and 3 cups of water or stock. Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until meat is very tender, 1 to 1 ½ hours.

Lift the pieces of meat out of the cooking liquid with any vegetables clinging to them and set aside, covered tightly. Skim off fat from the top of liquid remaining in pot.

Place a strainer over a heatproof bowl and pour the liquid through it. Discard the cayenne chile and bay leaves. Lift out the pieces of ñora. Use a spoon to scrape the pulp from the inside of the ñoras or chile pods. Discard the skins and put the pulp in a blender or food processor. Scrape the pulp from the piece of bell pepper and discard the skin. Add the pulp to the blender with some of the onions, tomatoes and garlics remaining in the strainer.

Add the almonds to the blender with the Pimentón de la Vera and 1 cup of the strained liquid. Blend or process until the almonds are ground to a smooth paste.

Return the liquid to the stew pot and add the almond mixture. Bring to a boil, stirring. Return the lamb to the pot and cook gently 20 minutes longer.

 Allow the stew to settle 10 minutes. Serve garnished with chopped parsley. 

To Char-Roast a Head of Garlic

Spear the head of garlic on a fork or grasp it with tongs (protect hands with an oven mitt) and hold over a gas flame, or put under the broiler. Turn the garlic until it is charred on all sides. Peel the garlic cloves, rinse them in water, and add them to the stew to continue cooking.

Ground almonds thicken the stew's gravy.

Here are links to some other hearty winter stews.

Andalusian Vegetable and Sausage Stew (Berza Andaluza)

Potato and Wild Mushroom Stew (Guiso de Patatas y Níscalos)

Braised Lamb with Quinces (Guiso de Cordero con Membrillo)

"Altogether" Beef Stew  (Tojunto)