BAKED LAMB SHOULDERS WITH PUMPKIN/BUTTERNUT AND CARROTS

The lamb and pumpkin or butternut in this recipe gives you an idea of a tagine or very North Africans dish. But it is not. It is a very simple dish. You can cook this meal in an oven or on the stovetop. It has warm flavours. Couscous and rice go well with this. I served plain couscous.

Serves 4

Time: 1 hour

4 lamb shoulder chops

2 cups cubed pumpkin/butternut

2 medium carrots diced

1 medium onion chopped

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp ground ginger

2-3 garlic cloves minced

1 big cinnamon stick

2 tbs chopped coriander 

2 tbs chopped parsley

1 tin tomatoes/ 4 large tomatoes chopped 

1 cup beef/chicken/vegetable stock

1 green chilli (optional) 

Salt and pepper

Method

First, preheat the oven to 180'C.

Heat a bit of olive oil in a pan. Brown the lamb shoulder chops on both the sides. Transfer these chops into a baking dish.

In the same pan, add a bit of more oil and saute the onions until soft for about 3-4 minutes. Then add the ground ginger, turmeric, cinnamon and chilli nad stir-fry for a minute or two until it starts realising the aroma.

Add the carrots and butternut/pumpkin and stir well to coat with the spice mix. Pour the tinned tomatoes or the chopped tomatoes and the stock and bring to a boil. Mix in the chopped parsley and coriander. ( reserve some for garnishing).

Pour this tomato spice base on the lamb chops in the baking dish and place in the oven for an about 1 hour until the lamb chops are tender. ( You will really love the aroma of the cinnamon in the kitchen while the dish is in the oven) 

.Once baked, remove the lamb shoulder chops from the oven, stir in the remaining chopped coriander leaves and serve hot on the bed of couscous or on the rice. 

TIP: For the vegetarians, you can replace the lamb chops with chickpeas and beef/chicken stock with vegetable stock. Grill few slices of halloumi cheese to serve on the side. A healthy vegetarian option for the non-meat lovers.