String Beans with Lamb

 This recipe is intended to be made and poured over Cracked Wheat Pilaf. But I made Basmati rice which is equally delicious, especially when you use chicken stock instead of water to cook the rice. I shall have to try the Cracked Wheat Pilaf another day.

I enjoyed making this recipe...a first for me, cooking leg of lamb, chopped into cubes. There are a few simple ingredients, and I only changed one thing. The recipe calls for oregano, but I thought liberal sprinkling of Herbes de Provence would lend a much deeper flavor. Sure enough, the Resident Archaeologist gave good reviews for flavor! This seems to me perhaps a nice dish for the crock pot, to allow the savory flavors to blend and so as the meat is not at risk to get tough in the skillet. 

I ended up cooking things separately that the recipe wanted me to cook together. I felt I just couldn't properly cook the onions in and amongst the lamb chunks. The lamb just deserved a pan all its own. And the string beans, they just needed a bit of a boil but not too much, so as to have a nice bite to the bean. Nobody likes wimpy string beans. And naturally, the rice needed its own space. So the stovetop was mighty full of a whole lotta cookin'! I miss that fifth burner we used to have at the previous parsonage. And oh how we miss cooking on a gas stove...this glass electric stovetop misbehaves all the time, giving whatever burner temp it jolly well pleases.

This was a satisfying meal. And the contributor, actress Andrea Martin, mentions that her mom used to make this traditional Armenian dinner every Sunday night. She says that the stew tastes even better if you give it a day for flavors to blend. Perhaps I can be the judge of that when we eat the leftovers tomorrow!