Economical Baked Lamb With Rice

This is a very simple kid-pleasing recipe without a lot of fancy ingredients. You boil the meat first with some veggies to make a stock and then tip everything into the oven over rice to cook. Very simple and very tasty.

• Ready In: 1 hr 40 mins
• Serves: 4-6

Ingredients

• 500  g lean lamb (I buy a leg and get the butcher to take out the bone)
• 1  medium carrot
• 1  stalk celery (or 1 tsp dried celery)
• 4  stalks parsley (broad-leaf only)
• 1  medium onion
• 1  knorr  beef stock cube
•  salt and pepper (to taste)
• 2  tablespoons butter (optional)
• 2  cups parboiled rice

Directions

1. First cut up the meat into chunks and boil it for 5 minutes in a large saucepan with just enough water to cover it. (This is necessary for Greek lamb which is quite heavy, it probably wouldn't be needed for Aussie or Kiwi lamb).
2. Throw out the water, rinse the meat and refill the large saucepan with water.
3. Add the peeled onion, carrot, celery stalk and parsley stalks whole.
4. Add stock cube and salt and pepper to taste.
5. Boil until the meat is very tender. (I use my pressure cooker for 30 minutes).
6. Spread out the rice evenly in a very large shallow baking pan.
7. Place the meat evenly over the rice and then ladle in the stock until it is completely covered, discarding the carrot, onion, parsley and celery.
8. Taste the stock and correct the seasonings keeping in mind that the stock will provide the salt needed.
9. You may dot the rice with butter if you like.
10. Bake at 180 degrees for about 50 minutes.
11. Note: the cups of stock are approximations only as it depends on the size of your pan, make sure you have covered your rice completely and keep some stock aside to add if it dries out.