This week’s French Fridays with Dorie recipe is Braised Cardamom-Curry Lamb (which I nominated this month!). It is a traditional stew with untraditional flavors. The traditional: lamb, onions, garlic, and potatoes browned in olive oil and then braised on the stove for over an hour. The untraditional: mint, curry powder, cardamom, honey, dried figs, and apple.
Braised Cardamom-Curry Lamb
The end result is a delicious stew that I served over rice pilaf with peas on the side. I loved the complex flavors. My 7 year old daughter LOVED this! She often shies away from red meats, but this one she devoured. A hit with the whole family!
Not so much a hit was last week’s FFWD recipe (which I made but never got around to posting about): Spiced Squash, Fennel, and Pear Soup. On paper it sounded delicious. Roasted butternut squash was cooked with onion, fennel, celery, spices, and pears. The whole thing was pureed and served with a drizzle of cream. While we didn’t hate this (actually my daughter may have hated it) we didn’t love it either. I have made other butternut squash soups that we like better. One thing I particularly didn’t like was the overpowering flavor of the orange peel (I wasn’t sure if the peel was to be removed before pureeing the soup; I didn’t remove it, but definitely would next time).
Spiced Squash, Fennel, and Pear Soup
Next week’s French Friday is “cook’s choice”. I will be catching up on a couple of FFWD recipes I missed and my whole extended family will be the guinea pigs. I can’t wait!
Finally, I want to apologize to my fellow bloggers for not reading and commenting on your blogs much lately. I have been having trouble finding the time to read my blogs and it doesn’t look like I’ll have much time until after Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully the week after Thanksgiving I will have some time to catch up. I have missed you guys!
From Scratch 
Looks great and nice that your family liked it to. That’s way I joined this (for à part) so I find and try new recipes.
We served ours with peas too 😉
Glad everyone enjoyed this. I was surprised at how all the flavors came together. If a 7 yr old likes it, it has to be good!
Have a great weekend and a wonderful holiday.
I love your addition of peas to the plate – I thought about adding some to the curry itself. I was really surprised how much I liked this. I always thought Lamb was gamey, but it wasn’t at all. Good for your daughter!
Enjoy your weekend!
Definitely a popular choice with the peas. And hurray that your nomination got picked! Happy Thanksgiving!
I completely agree with your summary of the soup. Glad the lamb was a hit!
I didn’t get to make this recipe this week. Yours looks so wonderful and sounds even better, I definitely want to give it a try! Happy Thanksgiving!
Oh, this looks and sounds so delicious! I am not allowed to eat lamb during the pregnancy, but might well replace it with pork to try out the rest of the recipe 🙂
I am so glad you nominated this dish. It is such a great recipe and we enjoyed it so much. Yours looks so delicious with the peas and rice. So glad it was a hit with your family! Sorry the soup wasn’t, but that is how it goes sometimes. It is so difficult to tell which one everyone will like and which one will get mixed reviews. But, that is also the fun of cooking through this cookbook. I hope you have a great weekend and a wonderful Thanksgiving, Karen.
Thanks for choosing this dish, Karen. It was the perfect thing to eat during this chilling week. I like the color the peas added to your plate. The whole blog reading and writing thing can be addictive, so I know what you mean about not having the time. I hope you and your family have a great Thanksgiving!
You’ve made me very hungry! Can’t wait to try these!
This was a great choice, Karen! We really enjoyed it, too. I’ve been feeling the same way you have about finding time to keep up with everyone’s blogs. It can be challenging.