Axoa is a traditional recipe from the Euskal Herria (Basque Country : NW. of Spain and SW. of France). This dish is a very tasty and spicy stew variation.

It can be prepared with lamb, veal or turkey. If you have tried one, I urge you to taste the other because they are quite different. The marriage of lamb and pepper is IMHO fantastic. But veal or turkey are more delicate and melt in the sauce.

Axoa is very easy to cook and requires less than 15 minutes to prepare. You should not have difficulties in finding the ingredients and they are not very expensive (except maybe the Espelette pepper).

And by the way, Axoa is a Basque word pronounced "hashoa" and not "aksoa" or whathever - the "x" in Basque and Catalan is pronounced "sh".

Recipe facts (6 people)

  • Preparation time : 20 min
  • Cooking time : 1 hour

Ingredients (6 people)

Preparation

  • Mince the onion and garlic.
  • Remove the seeds from the pepper and slice them.
  • If you are cooking lamb Axoa, blanch the tongues and feet and skin the tongues.
  • Brown the onion, garlic and pepper over strong heat for about 7 min then lower the heat for another 7 min (with oil).
  • Cut the shoulder in little dice.
  • Add the meat, thyme, laurel, salt and the ground Espelette pepper to the stew.
  • Add water or white lamb stock up to the level of the meat
  • Now the stew should cook à l'étouffée (covered and boiling) for about 1 hour.
  • When the cooking is almost finished remove the cover and let the water evaporate for 10 min.

Dinner's ready

Serve this dish with fried potatoes and enjoy. For dessert I suggest Tourtière (apple). By now you should be fond of Basque food.
Sources :
www.guide-basque.com/fr/culture/Recettes/axoa.htm
www.webpyrenees.com/article.php?sid=146