Lamb Stew

My roommate Kelley and I split a giant plate of lamb stew, piled high with mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, greens, and carrots at O'Neill's a few times during my last stay in Dublin. If you ask me, lamb stew is superior to most stews, and I'm not exactly sure why. Also, if you ask me, it smells a little funky cooking up, but Spouse doesn't think so. I think the difference of our opinion stems from the fact that I know what the sheep part of the barn smells like, and there's an element of that odor that's embedded in the meat. Same with pork sometimes, but anyway. Rather than go on and on about smelly animals, and put you off the idea entirely, let me encourage you to make this stew since it's easy, cheap, and unbelievably delicious.

For 4 servings:

2 Lamb shoulder chops ($2.50 or less apiece!)
3 small or 1 1/2 medium onions
2 carrots
3-4 red potatoes
a few cups of water, plus 1 can of some kind of broth (I used chicken in spite of inter-species weirdness this suggests)
a couple sprigs of rosemary

Cut the chops into bite-size chunks and season with salt and pepper. There are bones in these things, so instead of cutting the meat off the bone very carefully while it's raw, just cut roughly around the bone and throw it in the pot with the rest.
In a soup pot over medium-high heat, brown the chunks of lamb in a little bit of olive oil. Let the pieces get nice and brown before you stir them around.
Cut the onions into bite-size chunks and throw those in.
When the meat is browned, scoot it off to the side, and if there's not enough fat in the bottom of the pot to make a roux, pour in a little bit more olive oil. Sprinkle a bit of flour into the fat, like a tablespoon or so, and scrape it around with a fork until it gets a little brown. Pour in a cup or so of water and scrape up the brown bits on the bottom of the pot. Pour in more water, and/or broth, enough to cover the meat, as well as the carrots and potatoes you're about to put in. More liquid means it'll be more soupy, less stewy, so add a little at a time if you're not sure.
Chop the carrots and potatoes into similarly-sized chunks and throw those in along with the rosemary. I usually put carrots in ahead of potatoes since they take a little bit longer to cook, but everything's going to fall apart in the stew anyway, so it doesn't really matter.
Bring it all to a boil, then let it simmer for an hour or so, until the meat is really tender. If the liquid part of the stew isn't as thick as you'd like, mix a tablespoon or so of cornstarch with a little cold water, and stir that in. Do NOT just dump cornstarch into the stew, because you'll never get it to dissolve.
Fish out the bones and the woody stalks left over from the rosemary before serving.

Note: the shoulder cut, whether it's lamb or pork or beef or whatever, requires a long cooking time in liquid to be edible. Pick out a piece of lamb after a while and see if it's tender--if not, let it go a while longer.

I know my chicken, you got to know your chicken*

Brine That Chicken!
Take a 3.5-ish pound chicken, remove giblets and whatever else the meat packer people decided to stuff in the cavity, and rinse that bad boy. Let it hang out in the sink while you do the following:
Bring 2-ish cups of water to a boil. Pour in 1/2 cup salt, and like 1/4 to 1/3 cup brown sugar. I scooped it out of the canister with my (clean) fingers, so I'm not sure about the measure. I suggest 1/4 cup. Stir until that's all dissolved. Dump in some peppercorns, like 1 tablespoon or so, and a bay leaf or two, plus whatever herbs you like. I'm always partial to rosemary so I snipped off a couple sprigs and also dumped in about a tablespoon of dried thyme. Stick your head over the water and smell it. This is what your chicken will taste like, so if you don't like it, start over with the water, salt, and sugar.
Dump a bunch of ice in a big stock pot, or a bowl that's big enough for the chicken to hang out in completely submerged. Pour the hot brining liquid over it, and stir it around so it cools off completely. The recipes all say you should refrigerate this so it's totally chilled before you put the bird in, but I see no reason to wait if it's chilled down so much that the ice cubes won't melt anymore.
Submerge the chicken in the brine, and set it in the fridge for at least an hour, and up to 4 or 5 hours. I think we went just over 4 hours, and that was enough.
Preheat oven to 425 F (200-215 C).
After all that's done, take the chicken out and rinse it off well to get all the bits of herb off of it. Dry it off completely or the skin won't crisp and get brown, and stuff it with a quartered onion, and maybe some garlic too if you're into that sort of thing. I like to cut little slits in that flabby skin that hangs around the cavity, criss-cross the legs, and tuck the ends into the slits so it stays sort of trussed up in its own anatomy, and bend the wing tips behind its shoulders. Slather some olive oil on the skin, and throw on some ground pepper.
Set it in the roasting pan of your choice, and let it go for an hour or so, or until the meaty part of the thigh registers 170 F (75 C). Take it out of the oven and let it sit around for 15 minutes or so, then carve away.
It's just too good.

*Title courtesy Cibo Matto, song still stuck in my head from ten years ago...