Have you ever seen the Red Tractor symbol when you buy meat and wondered what it’s for? Well, the Red Tractor is a sign signifying that the lamb and beef you’re looking at is Quality Assured. “All beef and lamb carrying the Mark is chosen according to a strict selection process to ensure it is succulent and tender.”
The Quality Standard Mark also tells you where your beef and lamb is from with the St George’s flag indicating meat from an animal born, raised and slaughtered in England or if it is born in Scotland or Wales, it will carry the Union flag.
Red Tractor Beef and Lamb have set us a challenge to create a lamb or beef slow-cooked ‘peasant’ meal that is perfect for busy families.
Here’s what they have to say:
Red Tractor Beef & Lamb has launched a campaign to celebrate the peasant food trend, and inspire families to rediscover traditional cooking techniques, from around the world that are simple, warming and hearty.
With the launch of the #LivePeasant challenge, we want families to reclaim traditional cooking and let the oven or slow cooker do all the work. Using inexpensive cuts of beef and lamb, which are perfect for slow-cooking, dishes can be prepared in advance and left to cook so that delicious, melt-in-the-mouth home-cooked meals are ready and waiting when you are. So take a little time to discover the peasant food trend and enjoy the benefits of a meal with less haste more taste!
I decided on a lamb dish as we don’t often eat lamb, because I always think of lamb as quite expensive, but when I looked at the prices of the slow-cooking lamb shoulder, it worked out at less than £10 for almost 2kg, which seems fairly reasonable – especially since 2kg of lamb is enough for at least 4 meals for our family (1 adult, 2 children).
While I put this meal on in the slowcooker we were able to go about our day – a trip to the park, some grocery shopping, and a quick coffee with friends. Back home, we made rice, and dinner was ready to eat by the time the kids were in their pyjamas. That’s really the beauty of slow cooked meals. Not only can you use cheaper cuts of meat than you normally might, but they require very little effort. If you have reluctant veggie eaters you can also do a puree of veggies to add to the stock, but I didn’t do that this time (we are moving house this week, so we’ve stopped the veggie box delivery!) 
For this challenge we had to make something along the theme of ‘peasant food’, which Google describes as dishes specific to a particular culture, made from accessible and inexpensive ingredients, and usually prepared and spiced to make them more palatable. This recipe turned out amazingly well. I actually think it’s one of the most flavourful dishes I’ve made to date, so that part of the brief was achieved, no doubt!
To make this meal you will need:
- 2kg shoulder of lamb
- dash of olive oil
- 1 onion
- 500ml stock
- 20ml (1 tablespoon) Nam Pla (fish sauce)
- 1 orange (optional)
- salt and pepper
- fresh rosemary and thyme – two sprigs each, roughly
- 2 tbs (about 40ml) corn starch/corn flour
- 200g chestnut mushroom (or your preferred mushrooms)
You can add as many other seasonal vegetables as you like, really, including potato, courgette or pumpkin, but if I add visible vegetables my youngest won’t eat it, so I generally just steam them and add them on the side. It’ll be hard to get it ‘wrong’ though, so play around with it!
Firstly, heat a frying pan and drizzle a little oil. Place the meat in the pan and cook for about two minutes on each side.
Meanwhile, slice onion and place in the crockpot or slowcooker.
Move the meat and any resulting juices into the slowcooker.
Make up 500ml stock, then add the juice of one orange, Nam Pla and salt and pepper to your taste. Pour over the meat. Place the lid on, and set on high for 3 – 4 hours (or low for 6 – 8 hours, depending on your slowcooker), and top with the sprigs of herbs. Nam Pla is a fish sauce but it just does something special to meat. If you’ve never tried it, you really should. It brings out the flavour in the most fantastic way.
After this time the meat should be falling off the bones, if there are any. Just scoop out the bones, and using a slotted spoon remove the meat.
In a separate bowl, add the corn flour, then add a tablespoon of the stock to form a paste, then another two or three tablespoons of stock to make it runny and pour it into the crockpot, on high, and leave it for another hour, adding the chopped mushroom at this point, and make sure to leave the lid off (if you don’t have an hour, pour the paste with the rest of the stock into a stove top pot on low heat and stir until thickened.)
While the gravy is thickening, either roughly chop or shred the lamb – you can do it easily in a food processor on low speed, the meat should be tender enough to just come apart.
Mix the meat back in with the gravy and cook the rice.
Serve topped with fresh herbs, salt and pepper.
- 2kg shoulder of lamb
- dash of olive oil
- 1 onion
- 500ml stock
- 20ml (1 tablespoon) Nam Pla (fish sauce)
- 1 orange (optional)
- salt and pepper
- fresh rosemary and thyme - two sprigs each, roughly
- 2 tbs (about 40ml) corn starch/corn flour
- 200g chestnut mushroom (or your preferred mushrooms)
- Heat a frying pan, and drizzle some olive oil
- Add the lamb and fry for about 2 minutes on each side to brown
- In the meantime, thinly slice the onions and prepare the stock
- You can use a prepared stock, or stock cube, or a home made one, whichever you prefer, but make it up to 500ml, then add the juice of an orange, the Nam Plah and salt and pepper to taste
- Move the onions and meat into the slowcooker or crock pot, pour over the prepared stock, and add the chopped herbs
- Cook on high for 4 hours
- Remove the meat - at this point it should be falling off the bones, if there are any
- In a separate bowl, mix the corn flour with a tablespoon of the stock to form a paste, then another two or three tablespoons of stock to make it runny, then pour it into the crockpot, still on high, and leave it for another hour, adding the mushrooms at this point, and make sure to leave the lid off (alternatively make a gravy in the way you 'normally' would.)
- While the gravy is thickening, shred the meat with a fork, or in a food processor on low speed normally works well too, then add it back into the crockpot till you reach the right level of sauciness.
If you have any left overs you can use them in wraps too. I chopped some locally grown tomatoes and lettuce for our day after lamb, wrapped them in flatbreads and had a fresh, crunchy and perfectly summery lunch.
Disclosure: This is a commissioned post. Opinions expressed are my own.