Lamb Kapama (Jagnjeća Kapama)

Well lookie lookie, all the dust that settled here. It's been a while since the last post so I figured I should put this whiff of culinary inspiration to good use. As always, here is a little etymology perspective on this dish. It likely has a Turkish origin, like many other in the Serbian cuisine. To begin with, the dish is called: Jagnjeća Kapama (Jagniecha Kapamah). This dish itself is a very succulent and flavorful lamb stew. Here is a list of necessary ingredients, with options that can be used according to preference and taste:

Ingredients:

1. 1kg of lamb, diced preferably (or a lesser amount, depending on how people the dish is for)
   
   


2. an equal amount of spinach -- fresh only. Don't even think of using frozen or preprocessed spinach! (if spinach is hard to come by or less preferred, collards will do nicely, mixed with a little bit of swiss chard, say 3:1)
   


3. 2 nicely sized leeks


4. 2 cloves of garlic (or 1 or 3, depending on how many vampires you need to scare away)


5. 1 medium sized onion


6. 1-2 teaspoons of salt (blood pressure or taste may advise less)


7. a little bit of cooking oil


8. a little bit of paprika (ground red pepper)

Like always, I struggle with exact measures. I just think of those as a guideline and like to follow my cooking into an experimenting and sensing journey at the stove.

Preparation:

Heat up the oil in a large pot and let the diced onion turn mellow over high heat. Once the onion gets soft and golden, drop the lamb on top and let it fry for a while. Make sure you tend to the lamb by turning it over to prevent it from burning or sticking to the pot. After the meat has fried, add some water and let it stew.

While the meat is cooking, you can tend to the greens. Cut them down to strips, about 1 cm wide, again use your own judgment here. The leeks slices can be smaller too.
I tend to slice the green end of leeks wider, and narrow it down a bit towards the white ends.
Next, braise the coarsely diced leeks, with the paprika, finely chopped garlic. Some recipes recommend removing the lamb to braise the greens in the fat from the meat. Others don't. I prefer not to, the greens absorve the meat flavor either way. Once the leeks turn soft, add the spinach or collards (they typically need less cooking time than the leeks). Finally add some water and let simmer over low heat until cooked. Occasionally add water. And that's it, it's really not that complicated.



Cooking tips:

Any lamb meat will do nicely for this dish. If you can't find diced lamb stewing meat, shoulder blade chops will do nicely. Only cut them down to smaller pieces. I guess lamb chops would do too, but that's just ever so much nicer on the grill.
Adding the garlic and salt when braising the meat will root those two flavors deeper into the final result.
Almost any green will do. Mix up spinach together with collards and/or swiss chards. Even kohlrabi leaves. The more flavour, the merrier. At least that's my take on it.


Serving tips:

Serve hot. Plain yoghurt is a must. Balkan style is preferred, of course. Be careful, a nice hot plate of kapama with yoghurt will also make you eat a lot of bread. And the multigrain, thinly sliced, calory and health conscious varieties are optional. Leave them for a weekday sandwich. Sour dough, or nice organic white breads will round off the whole experience.
Bon apetit!