Cleaning out the fridge = Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew and Indian Veggies

This has always come easily to me...I can survey the contents of a fridge and/or pantry and come up with stuff. Here's how I riffed this time. It's all about techniques and building flavors.

Today, mindful of the fact that we have a CSA pick up tomorrow and a semi full fridge, I decided that it had to go. The contents of the fridge, that is. Eric and I like to bring lunch to work with us and have some dinner options prepared when we are too tired to cook.

I had soaked and cooked a pound of organic chick peas, and they were in the fridge in their liquid. Also in the fridge were sad celery, a small head of cabbage, leftover ratatouille and a piece of lamb I had bought last Friday. An onion was in the bowl on the counter top, and a single potato was also available...so, here we go:

1. Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew
Base - aromatics - I had one red onion E and I had bought at a farm stand last week. A rough chop and into some hot olive oil in the bottom of a small dutch oven. I trimmed up the sad organic celery and chopped about half a cup finely, adding that to the onions after they had gotten a little color. Let that soften, added salt. In went the leftover ratatouille, which was squash, onion, zucchini and tomato with lots of basil. Some fresh rosemary from my window box, but it hasn't been growing too prolificly (isn't that a word?) so I supplemented with some dried. A glug of white wine that wasn't doing anything else in the kitchen. I heated a saute pan smokey hot, added a few drops of olive oil (canola would've been better) and seared my piece of lamb on both sides, salting it well beforehand. I laid that on top of the veggies, covered it with water and then added about two cups of beans and some of the cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, bring down to a simmer, and I'll let that go about 2-3 hours until the lamb falls apart.

2. Indian veggies. I shredded the cabbage and smashed/rough chopped 4 fat cloves of garlic. I would've liked onion too, but I was out. Ditto bell peppers or carrots.
In some hot oil, I "bloomed" about 1.5 teaspoons each mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Added the garlic and a handful of cabbage. Added the same amount turmeric and twice the amount of some nice curry powder that was a bit old (that's why so much), then about 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste (from the tube, lasts longer than opening a can) cooking it well directly on the heat before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. That would be the rest of the cabbage, tossing to cover it all with spices and flavor. There was salt, and a little more oil as it was getting dry. Then some chili flakes, a handful of dried cranberries and the rest of the beans and their liquid. I'm also thinking about chopping and adding the potato, but I may be too lazy to do that. Will be done in about 20-30 minutes.