Slow food is food that is produced or prepared in accordance with local culinary traditions, typically using high-quality locally sourced ingredients.
If google is correct then this recipe ticks all the slow food boxes. This stew is at it’s best when looked for a long time. Tomato stew takes me back to my childhood home in winter. My mom always made sure to make it at least once a winter – no matter how expensive lamb was. I remember coming home to the wonderful smell of tomatoes and lamb cooking. for me it smells like home. The original recipe is from the iconic South African recipe book ‘Cook and enjoy it‘, but I add a few more pepper corns and some garlic.
You will need
1 to 1,5 kg chopped mutton or lamb (breast or chops work well)
1 kg tomatoes (8 medium), chopped
2 medium onions, sliced
2 cloves of garlic, minced or chopped finely
4 potatoes, sliced thinly
10 whole peppercorns
1 T butter
1 T flour
Salt (about 3 t) and pepper to taste
1 t sugar
This is how:
- Peel and slice the onions and brown them in oil in a heavy saucepan. Add the garlic and fry for a minute or two longer.
- While the onions are frying remove the skins from the tomatoes. To remove the skins, pour boiling water over the tomatoes an leave for a few minutes. Remove the tomatoes and plunge them in cold water. Rub the skins with your fingers – they should come off easily.
- Add the meat and 1 cup of hot water to the onions.
- Cover the meat and onion mixture and stew for two hours or until the meat is tender. After one hour, add the tomatoes, potatoes, peppercorns, sugar, salt and pepper.
- After the two hours cooking time has pasted, thicken the stew with a mixture of melted butter and flour.
- Serve with rice.
Slow food at its best! Enjoy.
xxx
