Foodiva's Kitchen: French Fridays with Dorie - Navarin Printanier

Friday, April 27, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie - Navarin Printanier


This week's cookalong recipe over at the French Fridays with Dorie group is Navarin Printanier, or in plain English, lamb stew with spring vegetables. It's a simple enough recipe that's broken down into little steps, mainly browning the meat and vegetables separately, simmering the stew for 45 minutes and then braising it in the oven for an extra 30 to 40 minutes.


The only trouble was, I was cooking this for lunch and made a late start with lunchtime only a mere half an hour away! Everyone came home starving and I had to stave them off with promises of a "brilliant" stew... all the while crossing my fingers behind my back.


Due to the time constraints, I made a few shortcuts to Dorie's recipe and improvised with some ingredients. Good thing I managed to get the tenderest and leanest lamb cut, because that itself aided in speeding up the cooking time. It did cost me a bomb but I was glad I stuck to my guns and not use beef this time.


The reason I was late starting this dish off was because I only went to the store to buy the lamb an hour before our regular lunchtime. Of course, in the rush to shop, I managed to forget the tomato paste, frozen peas, the turnip and thyme! I made do without the tomato paste and turnip, subbed the thyme with rosemary (it goes very well with lamb, anyway), and used a frozen vegetable mix I had in my freezer that luckily contained peas. It had corn too, which was lovely, and carrots - but what harm is a few more carrots?

We don't have those small white onions here, so I used the small red variety. I didn't bother with the boiling and peeling technique as these red onions are easy enough to peel. In other words, for this recipe I got someone else to peel all of them... :).


I cheated a little on the cooking time and shaved off about 25 minutes from the total simmering time. It didn't seem to make any difference on the stew, I just made sure the meat was fork tender at the end of the braising time. This stew was delicious and got the thumbs up all around. I need to try this with beef next time!

26 comments:

Maureen @ Orgasmic Chef said...

I'm salivating. This looks SO good. I could eat at your house any day of the week.) Provided I was invited. LOL

Great photos!

Trevor Sis Boom said...

So beautiful looking Maya! Wow. Don't you love rosemary? I m all about that big stalk of it sitting on the table!

Ei said...

Mmmm rosemary. I don't think thyme contributed much here. Rosemary would be better.

Cher Rockwell said...

Very lovely presentation.
Homemade stew for school lunch - wow, can I come live with you? :-)

Gina said...

Looks like you took the right short cuts to me. You wouldn't mind hopping on a plane and fixing me an after school snack, would you? He He. Hope you enjoy your weekend.
-Gina-

Andrea_TheKitchenLioness said...

Very pretty looking photos - I think that the great thing about cooking a stew, be it lamb or beef, is that it is a dish that allows you to change the listed ingredients to your individual taste and it will still turn out delicious. Great job! Glad you all liked it.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Torviewtoronto said...

wonderfully done

Elin said...

Without tomato paste your lamb stew looks just as good. And I am sure the kids loved it! ;)

Nana said...

Absolutely beautiful. Your photos make everything
look so delicious. Tricia and I both had good results
with this one, and will definitely be repeating it again.
Hopefully with lamb not beef.

Maggie said...

Your stew looks so beautiful! I'm jealous of that big fat carrot - all the ones in my bag were super skinny and weird looking. Also that big bunch of rosemary in the first pic is the most lovely thing ever.

Betsy said...

Rosemary was perfect! I had some in the fridge, but I wish I'd thought to use it. Your family was lucky to have something so delicious for lunch.

Kathy said...

Maya, Beautiful photos! Your presentation is lovely!

Susan said...

Looks great, Maya! We really enjoyed this!

Anonymous said...

YES! I want to try it with beef too! I bet it is very agreeable with any red meat :)

Oh and we need to go shopping for dishes together - it is ridiculous how many cute dishes you have!! Jealous!! :)

Alice @ http://acookingmizer.wordpress.com

Magic of Spice said...

Gorgeous stew!

loavesandstitches said...

Yum. I think your stew looks great and getting tender meat was a great idea!

Tasty Trix said...

Well, that's the beauty of a stew like this - it is very forgiving and open to improvisation : ) Looks lovely!

Kitchen Vignettes said...

Yum!! Lamb is my favourite :-) I'll definitely be trying this one. Thanks Maya!!

S.V. said...

I don't cook a lot of lamb in the house although my son loves it! I am sure he would love this stew it looks so hearty and perfect for the rainy day were having today.

Beth Michelle said...

I absolutely love lamb!! This stew looks amazingggggg. Such beautiful photos!

Unknown said...

Gina, what school do you still go to that you'd need me to fix you stew for lunch? A very expensive one, from the way you're willing to pay for my plane ticket just to do that! LOL.

Unknown said...

Alice, most of my dishes have been gifts (birthdays, weddings, housewarming, etc) so I've been pretty lucky. But yes, I agree, we DO need to go dish-shopping together to add to our collection! :)

Nancy said...

I love lamb but don't have it enough in stew. You did a fantastic job and I can't believe how little time it took you. Stew for me is a few hours of work. Beautiful photos too. Hope you are doing well:)

Jen Laceda | Milk Guides said...

Bad news...I don't like lamb :( My husband loves it, though...but as for me, I find it gamey. I cannot cook lamb at home. I can really only eat it when an expert chef cooks it well and makes the gamey taste mellow. That said, your dish looks warm and inviting!

Cooking Rookie said...

Looks delicious!

Adrian (Food Rehab) said...

Gosh. I feel so warm just reading this- it's freezing in Melbourne! Love it. It may be the Asian in me, but I'd eat this with rice LOL

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