Navarin of lamb, honey, orange and Christmas spices

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Christmas is coming up and I wanted to suggest a recipe for lamb. I’ll give you the one for my honey, orange, Christmas spice, carrot and sweet potato navarin. It is delicious and almost like a tagine! There are many similarities between a navarin and a tagine and I use Christmas spices here, namely cinnamon, star anise, pepper and cloves. I purposely left out the ginger. The result is a comforting, homey dish that is as moist and flavorful as it gets. And of course I will soon propose a more classic navarin!

For 8 people:

• 2kg of boneless shoulder or leg of lamb
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 star anises
• 2-3 cloves
• 500ml fresh orange juice
• 2 tablespoons of honey
• 1 large sweet potato
• a dozen carrots
• the zest of two organic oranges
• salt pepper

Cut the meat into pieces. First in slices, then in large pieces.

Put in a large casserole dish with olive oil over fairly high heat and brown, stirring regularly.

Add cinnamon, star anise and cloves.

Pour in the orange juice as well.

Then pour water to cover the meat. Season with salt and pepper.

Put a lid on it and let it cook for 2h30 (without pressure if you have a pressure cooker) on low heat: there should be a slight boiling. After the cooking time, check the tenderness of the meat. It must be very soft. If not, continue cooking.

When the meat is well done, remove it from the pan and drain it well.

Then add the honey.

Peel the carrots.

Cut them into pieces and add them to the broth.

Cook for 20 minutes, remove and add the peeled and chopped sweet potato.

Let the sweet potato cook for 15 minutes, then when everything is cooked through, remove it. Let the juice reduce to a better consistency. When the juice is a little thicker, add the meat, carrots, sweet potato and finally the zest of the two organic oranges.

Serve immediately when it is hot!