OmNomNom!

Recipe based rather distantly on one by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. Mutton can be hard to find; if you are in the UK, you can get wonderful mutton from Laverstoke Park (also stocked by Abel and Cole).

This recipe is slow, but surprisingly uncomplicated (for most of the time, it just requires checking to see that it's maintaining a very low simmer and hasn't started boiling or gone completely still).

Ingredients:

500g diced mutton
50g dried apricots (and a couple of prunes if you want) -- you can double this if you want, but I prefer it less sweet
1-2 tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 large onion (or 2 small), peeled and chopped
1 tbsp fruit chutney
salt and pepper if desired
stock and/or a glass of white wine if on hand; if not, don't worry about it

very approximately:
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp each of cumin, cardamon, ginger
1 pinch allspice (N.B. if you don't have some of the spices on hand, have them in different formats -- e.g. fresh rather than dried ginger -- or want to sub in others, you're cool to do so within reason.)

Instructions:

Put the apricots in a bowl. Pour over enough freshly-boiled water to cover them. Leave for at least half an hour. Then scoop them out, stick them on a saucer or something, and do not throw the water away.

Heat half the oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and fry them for a few minutes until they're softened. Add all the spices, and fry for a few more minutes.

Transfer to your large saucepan/whatever.

Turn up the heat under the frying pan and add the rest of the oil. Brown the meat quickly and add to the saucepan. Pour over the water from the soaked apricots, add the chutney, and then top it up with stock/white wine/water until the meat is barely covered.

Bring to the boil, then reduce immediately to a very slow simmer. Cook like this for 1 1/2 hours. Add the apricots at this point (apparently if you add them earlier they get too mushy) and cook for a further 1 1/2 hours.

Cross-posting from my journal:

4 large eggs
120 g lightly salted butter (plus a little bit more to grease the pan)
1/2 cup really good unsweetened cocoa powder
1/3 tsp salt
1/3 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup chestnut flour
1 cup palm sugar, loosely packed (if you don't have any on hand, regular brown sugar should do fine, but palm sugar is tasty)

optional: 100g white chocolate, broken up into small chunks

Start pre-heating the oven.
Sift the flour through a sieve to remove any lumps.
Melt the butter in a bain marie, and mix in the cocoa powder. Set aside.
Mix the eggs, sugar, salt, and vanilla. Try not to overbeat them; you don't want the eggs to get frothy.
Slowly add the flour, stirring continuously.
Slowly add the cocoa/butter mix, ditto.
Add the white chocolate chunks, if using.
Pour the batter into a greased baking pan (the one I used was roughly 7 x 9 inches).
Bake at 175 degrees C (350 F).
After 25-30 minutes stick a chopstick/knife/skewer in it; if it comes out clean, it's done, if not, 5 more minutes, then repeat (until such time as the implement comes out clean, or you give up and decide to call it done anyway).

Cut the brownies into squares (this recipe makes about six large brownies). You will want to eat one right away, but they get better (denser and more fudgey) after some time in the fridge.

Thanks to ciderpress for being the test subject for this batch.