One Great . . . lamb stew for a winter night

The rest of you might be happy about our unusually warm winter, but not me. I love winter, the more bracing the better. Give me a couple of good snow storms, at least one ice event and enough cold Saturday nights to get through the whole canon of great cold-weather cooking.

We haven't had that many good, cold weekends to trot out the heavy-duty comfort food this year. So a burst of chill this weekend is a cooking excuse you don't want to miss.

Lamb, Fig & Olive Stew

From "EatingWell One-Pot Meals," from Jessie Price and EatingWell magazine (Countryman Press, 2011). If you can't find lean ground lamb, pick a lean cut, such as leg or loin, trim the fat, cut it into bite-size pieces and pulse it in a food processor just until ground but not turned into paste. Or ask the meat department to grind it for you - some stores will do it.

1 pound lean ground lamb
2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
1/4 cup plus 2 teaspoons minced garlic, divided
1 1/2 teaspoons herbes de Provence (see note)
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 (14-ounce) cans reduced-sodium beef broth (3 1/2 cups if you have homemade beef broth)
2 tablespoons cornstarch
4 plum tomatoes, cored and diced
1/2 cup chopped dried figs
1/4 cup finely chopped pitted green olives
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 teaspoons freshly grated lemon zest

Heat a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add lamb and cook, breaking up with a wooden spoon, until browned, 4 to 6 minutes. Transfer to a sieve set over a bowl to drain. Discard the fat.

Wipe out the pot. Add the oil and heat over medium-high. Add 1/4 cup garlic and herbs and cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Add wine and cook, scraping up any browned bits, until slightly reduced, 1 to 2 minutes.

Combine broth and cornstarch in a small bowl. Add to the pot, increase the heat to high and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Add tomatoes, figs, olives and pepper. Return to simmer, stirring often. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer and cook, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes. Add the reserved lamb and cook, stirring occasionally, until heated through, about 2 minutes.
Combine the remaining 2 teaspoons garlic, parsley and lemon zest and sprinkle over servings of stew.

NOTE: It's not exactly the same, but if you don't have herbes de Provence, add 1/4 teaspoon each dried thyme, oregano, rosemary and marjoram.