This began as an idea from From Rick Stein’s French Odyssey. His recipe used shoulder of lamb with flageolet beans and tomatoes, along with some rosé wine and a bouque garni of bay leaves and thyme. However, to me it seemed to be screaming out for mint, which pairs well with all three of those main ingredients, so this is my modification using lamb neck fillets. Given the mint, I thought the wine was superfluous, too.
Planning
| serves: | 4 |
| preparation time: | 20 mins |
| cooking time: | 90 mins |
Ingredients
- 2 lamb neck fillets
- 3 tbs olive oil
- 2 large onions, chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 500g vine tomatoes, chopped
- 600ml homemade chicken or lamb stock
- 2 cans flageolet beans, drained
- 4 tbs chopped mint leaves
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbs plain flour
- salt & pepper
Method
Split the lamb neck fillets in half lengthwise and cut them into 1.5cm chunks. Season the chunks of lamb before browning in 2 tbs of oil in a flameproof casserole. Put the lamb to one side and add the rest of the oil to the pan. Fry the onions until lightly golden then add the cloves of garlic and fry for another minute. Now add the chopped tomatoes and fry for a further two minutes. Stir in the flour and cook for 1-2 mins. Return the lamb to the pan and add enough stock to just cover the meat, stirring to blend with the flour. Add half the chopped mint, the bay leaves and about a teaspoon of sea salt with plenty of black pepper. Cover the pot and simmer for 1 hour when the lamb should be tender.
Add the drained flageolets and simmer uncovered for a further 10-15 mins until the beans have heated through. Finally add the remaining half of chopped mint for a fresh taste and adjust the seasoning.
(Rick suggests serving the original with tubetti pasta but I’d prefer some green vegetables or, at a push, ribbon noodles.)
I’ve only ever found flageolet beans in Waitrose. Have you seen them elsewhere? Trolley.co.uk says Epicure and Biona make them, and that they’re offered by Ocado (no doubt to make up for the split with Waitrose 🙂 ).
Waitrose is my source though they were out when I looked last time. I need to replace the tin that I used.