Anne Morgan Delia Smith’s lamb casserole is a slow braise of lamb and flageolet beans, for 4 people. You brown rounds of lamb neck fillet, then cook them very slowly with onions, garlic, thyme and small green flageolet beans. Soak the beans the night before, then allow about 3½ hours on the day, mostly in a low oven.
This casserole sits in the chapter of top ten casseroles in her Winter Collection, from 1995. Her website also puts it on its list of dishes to cook in November.
Neck fillet is a cheap cut, but its meat is sweet and turns tender with long, gentle cooking. As it cooks, the beans take in the taste of the lamb, the garlic and the herbs.
For the last hour, whole cherry tomatoes go in with their skins slipped off. For another slow lamb dish with beans, her lamb shank recipe braises shanks with cannellini.
Delia Smith’s Braised Lamb with Flageolet Beans
Course: DinnerCuisine: BritishDifficulty: Easy4
servings20
minutes3
hours10
minutes790
kcalBrowned neck fillet braised slowly with dried flageolets, dark caramelised onions and herbs. Skinned cherry tomatoes join it for the final hour.
Ingredients
- For the casserole:
900g (2lb) lamb neck fillets
225g (8oz) dried flageolet beans
2 large onions, peeled, halved and cut into 1cm (½in) rounds
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
25g (1oz) plain flour
1 dessertspoon chopped fresh thyme leaves
570ml (1 pint) ready-made lamb stock or water
3 small bay leaves
225g (8oz) cherry tomatoes
4 small thyme sprigs
2 tablespoons oil
salt and freshly milled black pepper
Directions
- Soak: Cover the beans with twice their volume of cold water and leave them overnight. Or, on the day, boil them for 10 minutes, then leave them to soak for at least 2 hours.
- Oven: Heat the oven to 140°C, fan 120°C, gas mark 1.
- Lamb: Trim off any very fatty bits and cut the lamb into rounds about 2cm (¾in) thick. Pat them completely dry with kitchen paper.
- Brown: Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in the casserole until it is smoking hot. Brown the lamb on both sides, no more than 6 pieces at a time, and lift the pieces onto a plate.
- Onions: Add the rest of the oil and keep the heat high. Fry the onions for about 5 minutes, until they are dark brown at the edges, then stir in the garlic for about a minute.
- Gravy: Stir in the flour so it soaks up the juices, then add the thyme leaves. Pour in the stock a little at a time, stirring all the time.
- Beans: Put the lamb back and season it well with pepper, but no salt yet. Drain the beans and add them with the thyme sprigs and bay leaves, then bring it up to a simmer.
- Braise: Put on a tight-fitting lid and cook it on the centre shelf of the oven for 1½ hours.
- Tomatoes: Near the end of that time, cover the tomatoes with boiling water for 30 seconds, drain them and slip off the skins. Stir them into the casserole with a good seasoning of salt, cover it again and cook it for 1 hour more.
- Serve: Take out the bay leaves and thyme sprigs, then taste it and check the seasoning.
Notes
- You need a flameproof casserole of about 2.25 litres (4 pints), because it starts on the hob and finishes in the oven.
- Delia says dried pulses keep for a year at most, and older ones may never soften. Check the date on the packet before you start.
FAQs
What are flageolet beans?
They are small, pale green beans from France. In How to Cook Book Three, Delia explains that they are young cannellini beans, picked before they are fully grown. They taste mild, with a smooth, soft texture.
She calls them a great match for lamb. You can braise them with the lamb, as here, or cook them on their own with onion, garlic and herbs to serve with roast lamb.
Can I use tinned flageolet beans?
Yes, and this is a rare yes from Delia. In the same book, she says most tinned pulses are second best, but tinned flageolets and marrowfat peas take well to the can.
Tinned beans are already cooked, so they don’t need the full 2½ hours. My own way is to drain 2 tins and add them at the same time as the tomatoes.
Can I use a different cut of lamb?
You can. The American edition of her Winter Collection makes this casserole with filleted lamb shoulder chops instead of neck fillet.
Everything else is much the same, including the low oven and the timings. My own tip is to cut the shoulder into pieces about the size of the neck fillet rounds.
Do I need potatoes or rice with it?
No, nothing starchy is needed. In her Winter Collection notes on flageolets and cannellini, Delia says you don’t need rice or potatoes when you serve them.
For a party, she doubles it in her Halloween supper menu for 8 people. There she serves it with mashed potato made with garlic-infused olive oil, after a pumpkin soup with melting cheese.
What other neck fillet recipes does Delia have?
Three quick ones are in her How to Cheat at Cooking. Greek Lamb Baked with Lemon and Garlic uses 800g of neck fillet with 2 lemons and 4 garlic cloves. Italian Braised Lamb comes with an ‘almost’ risotto Milanese, and Goan Lamb Xacuti is a coconut curry.
Her lamb stew with crusty dumplings, the Irish stew, uses neck fillet as well.
