Gaston’s Slow Cooked Jarilla Lamb

A delicious and comforting dish that makes a hearty winter meal

In latitudes like those of San Rafael, Mendoza, lamb and goat are traditional country foods. Usually, the breeders sacrifice their best animals for important dinners. From our restaurant, Chez Gaston at Algodon Wine Estates, to your house, we honor those countrymen recreating this iconic Argentinian Lamb dish.

Traditionally this recipe is made with goat (or “chivo” in Spanish), however, we know it might be a challenge to find goat in the U.S., so rest assured the recipe is easily interchangeable with lamb, so that you can make this at home to enjoy with our wines.

At Chez Gaston, we cook the lamb for 7 hours in a clay oven with vegetables and, of course, our bonarda wine (in your home oven, for the recipe below, we recommend only about 3 hours). The bones are then removed to leave only the meat, and we serve them with a classic “humita” and basil from our garden. Humita is a traditional food mostly from Northwest Argentina. It consists of masa harina and corn, wrapped in a corn husk, and slowly steamed or boiled in a pot of water. It is like a tamale, but made with fresh ground corn.

To make the dish even more perfect, we accompany it with a jarilla sauce. The jarilla is a typical shrub of the Mendoza foothills and is widely used by the locals to flavor meat.

If you want to enjoy this dish to the fullest, red wines are always the best. In this case we recommend pairing it with Algodon Bonarda, our Malbec-Bonarda blend, or our gold medal-winning Grand Cuvee.

WE RECOMMEND PAIRING WITH ALGODON BONARDA, OUR MALBEC-BONARDA BLEND, OR OUR GRAND CUVEE

The recipe is a very simple 3 steps, one pot, and little effort. Let’s break it down:

Step 1: Prepare the Lamb

INGREDIENTS

3 to 4 lbs boneless lamb shoulder
3 Tbsp of olive oil
1 cup of beef broth
2 lb of red onions, quartered
1 cup of leek, sliced in half lengthwise, then sliced into thin half moons
1 cup carrots, chopped
¼ cup of garlic, crushed
1 bottle of wine

PREPARATION:

Heat olive oil in a large heavy flameproof casserole, add the meat and fry all over on a medium-high heat for about 8 minutes, turning until it is evenly well browned on all sides. Add the vegetables to the pan, sautéing for about 10 minutes, until softened. Season with salt and pepper. Pour in the wine, bring to a boil and then turn down the flame to low. Add the broth and let it simmer for about 3 hours on its lowest temperature.

Step 2: Prepare the Humita

INGREDIENTS

3 Tbsp Olive oil
4 cups grated corn
¾ cup of white onion, diced fine
¾ cup of red pepper, diced fine
¼ cup of basil, julienned
1 ¼ cups of milk

PREPARATION:

Sauté the onion in oil until translucent then add the red pepper. Cook it for about 10 minutes and season with salt. Simmer for 20 minutes until very soft, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Add the corn and milk, and cook for 10 minutes more. Finally, add the basil and remove it from the heat and reserve for later.

Step 1: Prepare the Lamb

INGREDIENTS

PREPARATION:

Step 2: Prepare the Humita

INGREDIENTS

3 Tbsp Olive oil
4 cups grated corn
¾ cup of white onion, diced fine
¾ cup of red pepper, diced fine
¼ cup of basil, julienned
1 ¼ cups of milk

PREPARATION:

Step 3: Prepare the Jarilla Sauce

INGREDIENTS

Small handful of fresh Jarilla sprigs (can substitute fresh rosemary or thyme)
1 Tbsp Olive oil
1 ¼ cups cream
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 medium white onion, chopped fine

PREPARATION:

Place the Jarilla in cool water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, reserve the jarilla and discard the water. Add olive oil to pan and sauté the onion and garlic until softened. Add the cream and the Jarilla and bring all the ingredients to a boil, then remove from the heat and cover it to let it infuse for 10 min. After it is cooled a bit, pass the preparation through fine mesh, and keep the sauce warm until serving.

PRESENTATION:

Place the humita as the bottom layer on a serving plate, then add the lamb on top. Pour the jarilla sauce on top of the meat immediately before serving. Garnish with a fresh basil leaf. Enjoy!