There should be a hyphen somewhere in the title, but what I mean is: Stew made from leftover lamb. Whatever...
1 quart or so of water
leftover roast lamb, diced (2 cups or less; if you have more, you can add more water)
Bones from the roast
2 or 3 yellow onions diced
1 carrot peeled and diced
3 or 4 stalks of celery, diced
1/4 cup or so chopped fresh parsley leaves
About 1/3 cup dried pearl barley - it expands a lot, so it’s easy to use too much
Salt
White pepper (ground white pepper has a special flavor, but it’s hot so use sparingly, adding a little, letting soup simmer and then add more if you wish).
Using a large stock pot, cook all of this together for an hour or two, then fish out the bones. Better the next day.
-MDH
This is what we did recently as an alternative, and with a bit more volume.
3 lamb shanks
2 yellow onions (they were kinda big)
3 carrots (they were kinda small)
5 stalks of celery
a wad of parsley
garlic
1/2 cup of dried pearl barley
Season the shanks with salt, pepper, Italian herbs, and rosemary. Small-dice the veggies. Brown the shanks in the bottom of a big stock pot with some olive oil. *I had added slivers of raw garlic at the beginning, which was a mistake, as it wanted to burn during the browning -- instead, I'd add it at the end of the browning phase, just long enough to toast a bit.)
Add water to just cover the meat and bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for ~2 hours, turning once.
When the meat is starting to pull easily from the bone, add the onion/carrot/celery and the barley, some salt, and more water if it's too thick. Simmer another 20 minutes or so, until veggies are soft and barley is tender. Scrape/shred the remaining meat off the bones, remove them, and add the parsley. Taste and add salt or water if needed.
-- MB Dec 2021
In May 2024 Kate made a particularly good batch from leftover leg + leftover gravy (just a bit) + about a cup of barley + like 6 stalks of celery + 2 carrots + 1 medium onion (was a lot of lamb to work with.) Marjoram and (fresh) thyme and a bit of umami powder (kombu seaweed etc.) and a hefty dose of white pepper were involved.