Lamb and Vegetable Ragout

At least an hour ahead of time, soak the cubed eggplant in salty water, fully submerged, to get rid of the bitterness. Before cooking, pour the water off.

Salt and pepper the meat, and mix well.

In a large sauce pan, sweat the onions with some salt, and cook them until translucent.

Add the lamb, and brown it on all sides, but don’t overcook.

Meanwhile, warm up a slow cooker. When the meat is browned, pour it into the slow cooker, with the oil and the onions from the frying pan. Cover it with the lid, add 3-4 ounces of meat stock, and turn the heat to the lowest setting. The purpose is to keep the meat warm, without drying it out, so keep checking to make sure it wouldn’t burn.

In the same sauce pan used before, warm up more oil, and cook each of the vegetables separately (but not the tomatoes), until almost done. For vegetables like the eggplant, green beans and the squash, just pour some meat stock into the sauce pan, cover with lid, and stew them in it for several minutes, until almost done. Do not over-cook the veggies. You can just saute the pepper slices, instead of cooking in more broth.

While the veggies are cooking, put the potatoes in some water in a separate pot, bring to a boil, turn the heat down and gently boil for only about 4 minutes. They shouldn’t be raw, but shouldn’t be completely cooked either.

As the veggies are cooked, keep dumping them, with their juices, meat stock, and oil from the pan, into the slow cooker with the meat. Same with the potatoes, but strain them out of their cooking water first. Do not add that water.

Chop up or crush the garlic and add to the crock pot mixture. When all the veggies are in the slow cooker, add the uncooked tomatoes. Salt and pepper to taste, mix, but without crushing the potatoes, cover, and turn the dial on the slow cooker to High.

Cook for about 45-60 minutes, or until everything (especially the meat) is well cooked. Keep checking and stirring if needed at least every 15 minutes, so it doesn’t burn. Do not overcook the meat, it should be very tender. Do not overcook the potatoes. They should not turn to mush.

Enjoy!