Lamb Stew With Fresh Vegetables

Severin Jovienne looked over the ingredients he had collected for tonight’s stew:

2-3 pounds of lamb shoulder with bone
A bit of olive oil
A medium shallot
Not enough cloves of garlic (as far as he was concerned)
Two salted anchovies
Some white flour
A cup of white wine
Four cups of chicken broth
Two bay leaves
1 pound potatoes
Unsalted butter
A couple of medium carrots
Some honey
A fennel bulb
Fresh peas
Some tarragon
Salt and pepper

He took the large pot and put it on the fire with some oil. Once the oil was shimmering, he put in some of the lamb and fipped till brown. He then removed that portion of lamb to a plate and began the next, while thinking about the last market day.

So, Little Hugo had yet another zombie baby. This seems to be a re-occuring thing. Perhaps he just really likes zombie babies. I suppose if there are adult zombies, there must be zombie babies. Otherwise, where would zombies come from?

They’re probably just created like the ghouls that keep attacking. Those are created by ghouls carrying people off and burying them in the dirt. Of course, then, where did the first ghouls come from? Hrrm.

Both they and the babies could be malefic. Some form of ghoul creating night malefic was made and causes the same action to create more malefics just like itself perhaps. Does that mean there is perhaps a King Zombie and if you resolve it, the other zombies will go away? But then who makes night malefic babies? Sure, horrible things happen to babies too, but sort of surprising that one would have enough understanding about what is happening to it. Perhaps, it is actually an adult malefic that just takes the form of a baby because that is what is feels like. Still, crawling around after some sort of adult type person is something that a malefic baby would do, so so would an adult malefic who felt like it was a baby malefic.

Getting back to the fire, the meat had now finished so he added a bit more oil, the shallots and a bit of salt. Once the shallots had begun to soften and turn brown, he added the garlic, and the anchovies. The anchovies had to be mashed into a paste. They were the secret ingredient to add the extra bit of flavor. He stirred it all together, and once the garlic really started to smell nice, added in some flour and stirred some more.

Then there was that Husher malefic that hushed everybody. What’s with the hushing? Hush hush; hush. Just so it could sing that No-Where King song. That just keeps coming up too. I wonder if it’s related to Little Hugo’s zombie baby?

The flour paste wasn’t going to do any more, so it was time to add the wine. He poured it in and stirred it, taking care to scrape the bottom for any bits of meat still stuck there. Once the browned bits were all integrated, it was time to add the broth, meat, potatoes, and bay leaves. Cover, return to fire, and let simmer.

Time to rest and finish off the rest off that bottle of wine while waiting for the stew to cook.

Then besides zombies and ghouls we apparently have bandits too.

At least we have a possible marriage for the young Lord now. His mother seems like a right fie type. No problem with me skinning my rabbits at the table with her, unlike Teles. What’s with that guy? So uptight! Not like the Lady. She didn’t even mind all the spiders crawling through the forest. Didn’t even mind when they started to crawl on her. Still, Telese seems really caught up in things. So busy that he never even tells anybody what’s going on. Good thing he suggested that I spend more time around him, listening to everything he talks about. I’m sure he can use somebody there to give him some good advice.

Advice like, ‘don’t go to a fairy party in the woods late at night’. I can’t believe that people went to that. After all, last time there was a fairy party in the woods, everybody came back as cannibals.

Almost two bells later, he checked again. The potatoes were now easy to pierce with a fork and the meat falling apart. Also, people were beginning to grumble about dinner. He added in the carrots and fennel, and salt to taste.

Finally, he added the peas, honey, and tarragon. Made some final adjustments to the salt and pepper, and served it forth.