This is delicious and goes perfectly with a bowl of warm couscous. It’s better to ask for the meat in one piece so you can cut it into big chunks yourself – the pre-cubed stuff is usually cut too small and will disappear into the sauce.
Wine Suggestion: If you’d like to keep to the theme a good, dry Oloroso sherry works well, but if you’d rather a red like we did tonight, something from a warm vineyard region may hit the mark … just make sure it’s balanced and not too hot from alcohol. Our choice was a treasured bottle brought from OZ many years ago of Hanging Rock’s Heathcote Shiraz. Dense and textured in youth this opens up and retains a freshness and layered velvetiness over many years of cellar aging too.
Spanish lamb with sherry – serves 4
- 1kg lamb shoulder, trimmed of excess fat, then cubed
- 1½ tbsp olive oil
- 1 large onion, roughly chopped
- 1 red pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 1 green pepper, deseeded and sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic, finely grated
- ½ tsp paprika
- 250ml medium sherry
- 250ml lamb stock
- generous pinch of saffron threads
- 1 tbsp sherry vinegar
- 1½ tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
- couscous, to serve
Heat 1 tbsp of the olive oil in a large casserole and brown the lamb in batches, then set aside.
Add the ½ tbsp of oil to the casserole, then add the onions and peppers and cook until the onions are golden and the peppers have softened. Add the garlic and paprika and stir for a minutes, then add the sherry and bring to a simmer.
Return the lamb to the casserole, along with the stock, saffron, sherry vinegar and honey. Season and bring to just under the boil. Turn the heat down, cover the pan with a lid and cook very gently for 1½ hours, stirring occasionally.
Remove the lid from the casserole and continue to cook for another 30 minutes to reduce the liquid to a gravy-like consistency and the lamb should be very tender.
Serve with some warm couscous.
(Original recipe by Diana Henry in BBC Good Food Magazine, October, 2017.)
Jono & Jules do food & wine 
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