I'll be cooking Navarin d'Agneau next week. it's one of my favorite French dishes, possibly The Favorite. It's basically a lamb stew, but made with young, Spring vegetables. So these turnips will be perfect for it.
The 'maraîcher' offered to cut off the leaves, but I told him to leave them, I would feed them to the chickens. Not true, in fact I put them on the compost heap, but either would be an acceptable reason in rural France. Telling him to leave them so I could take a nice photo would have been met with a very funny look.
Navarin d'agneau is a regional dish, a speciality of the Île-de-France, the area around Paris, because once lambs and turnips were produced in that area. I doubt that is still the case, but I decided to link to a recipe from a website dedicated to that region.
Unfortunately, the photo on that website does not correspond to the recipe, and the recipe itself, with courgettes, seems a bit unlikely. There must be hundreds of variations, and in fact the best navarin d'agneau I've experienced included apricots and was in a very ordinary Paris bistro near the Musée Rodin.
Wow! Turnip greens are a specialty in the region where I live. I love them! I would not imagine courgettes as part of the lamb dish either. Please post your dish when done! I love lamb. My mom makes it ground up and then cooked on rosemary branches (like a kabob), but a roasted lamb leg or stew is my fav!
@bob65 It was a bit of a strange recipe but the site was good on the history. I've been reading lots of recipes in English and French and there is such a dfference - some have aubergine, courgette, one had apples, some include potatoes, some not, same with onions, many have peas or green beans. We have a cookbook by France's most famous chef. Paul Bocuse, and his recipe did not even have turnips, navets, which is the reason for calling the dish navarin ! I found this recipe in English which is close to the one I will be using. It isn't complicated. Good luck. https://app.ckbk.com/recipe/fren58547c02s001ss003r013/french-lamb-stew
February 20th, 2021
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