Ramadan recipe: Honey & Co's Lamb stew with Medjool dates

Add a touch of regional flair to your cooking repertoire and experiment with Middle ­Eastern flavours

Lamb stew with Medjool dates (and sometimes tahini) from 'Honey & Co at Home'

Sarit Packer and Itamar Srulovich are the husband and wife culinary power duo behind London’s hugely successful Honey & Co. restaurant, Honey & Spice deli and Honey & Smoke grill, all of which are famed for celebrating Middle Eastern cooking with generosity and style.

Their latest book focuses, as the title suggests, on the food they cook when they’re away from the restaurant kitchen. It’s a real gem with a little bit of everything: breads and bakes, salads, mezze and mains, and desserts. While the influences of Packer and Srulovich’s native Israel are felt, the tastes and flavours of the Levant, as well as Iraq and Iran are present, too.

The recipes are divided into ­sections by theme – For us two, For a crowd, and For the weekend. They offer twists on tradition, new tweaks on old dishes, suggestions for staple items and entirely new inventions, produced with a view to putting the complex tastes, and varying flavours and ingredients of the Middle East in the spotlight.

This is not a book that concerns itself with pretension or fussiness. And that's the really great thing about Honey & Co At Home: it stays true to its name by featuring tasty, interesting, tempting food that, most ­crucially of all, can be produced by average cooks, in their average kitchens, with well above average results.

Best for: Anyone who wants to experiment with Middle ­Eastern flavours and add a touch of regional flair to their cooking repertoire.

Must-try recipes: Royal mansaf; baked goats' cheese wrapped in walnut pastry; cherry and pistachio Bakewell; and lamb stew with Medjool dates (and sometimes tahini).

Recipe: Lamb stew with Medjool dates (and sometimes tahini)

“It’s never worth making a small amount of a stew. Make a large pot to go in the fridge for the week,” write Packer and Srulovich. “Serve it on day one with a drizzle of raw tahini paste, mixing it in as you go to get a rich nuttiness. Then the following day, heat and serve it as is with some rice. Then maybe use it as a sauce for some pasta. It will freeze well, too, and can be an emergency ready-made meal.”

Serves 6 as a generous dinner

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil

1.5kg diced lamb shoulder

2 tsp salt, plus more to season

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

2 onions, peeled and diced

2 carrots, peeled and sliced

4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

1 litre water

1 butternut squash, peeled and diced into large cubes

1 tbsp ground cumin

10 Medjool dates, pitted and halved

To finish (for the whole amount – reduce if you are only eating some at a time)

5 tbsp raw tahini paste

1 small bunch of parsley, chopped

Juice of ½ lemon

Method

Place a large saucepan on high heat and pour the olive oil. Mix the diced lamb with the salt and pepper so it is well seasoned, then add it to the pan in batches to brown all over, removing to a bowl once done. Continue until all the lamb has been seared and set aside.

Put the onions, carrots and garlic in the same pan, mix well and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until the vegetables start to colour and soften. Add water and bring to the boil. Return the seared lamb (and all the juices that have formed) to the pan, and bring the mixture back to the boil. Reduce the heat to low, half-cover the pan and leave to cook slowly for about an hour.

Add the diced butternut squash, cumin and halved dates with a sprinkling of extra salt. Continue cooking for another 30 to 40 minutes or until the meat is very tender.

If you are serving the whole amount now, add the finishing touches of tahini paste, parsley and lemon juice, mix well to create a smooth sauce and serve.

If you are preparing this in advance, you can stop after the meat is cooked and reheat to serve when needed. The stew will easily keep for a few days in the fridge.