This is a great basic recipe. To "bump up" the flavor a good bit, I always brown the meat over high heat to develop a nice flavorful crust before stirring it. This adds the "roasted-beefy" flavor missing when ground beef is overstirred, cooling the pan down and ends up just "poaching" or steaming in its own juices as it changes color to grey instead of actually "browning". I also added a large chopped green pepper, a TBSP of paprika, a tsp each of salt and black pepper and 1/2 tsp of cayenne. I use chicken or beef stock instead of water and don't drain and rinse the kidney beans. There is lots of good flavor in there that shouldn't be just washed away. I think most of the "bland" comments are primarily due too little salt. A beef bullion cube could also perk up the dish in place of the tsp of salt.

This was one of the best recipes I've found on this site. I followed the basic seasoning recipe exactly but substituted leeks for the onions and replaced 4 of the carrots with cut up parsnips and turnips, and also added a large cut up yam. I increased the spices and broth to account for the increase in the veggies and let the lamb marinade for 48 hours prior to browning. I then simmered it all for 2 hours in a stovetop dutch oven. Served it with a side of brown rice.....so good!!!!! What a great autumn meal. Next time we'll try it using goat meat. Tnx.

An easy variation is to skip the broth and have cold, cooked egg noodles chopped up and ready. When the cabbage is near completion in the frying process, add the noodles and a bit more butter and continue frying till the noodles begin to brown slightly. We grew up on "cabbage and noodles" prepared this way.

Great recipe. The only change I made was to "blender" the marinade first to mix the ingredients better. I do this with every "oil and vinegar" based marinate to keep it from separating during the marinade process. I want the green onions and ginger to have a chance to "get involved" too.

Superb recipe!! The only change I made was to thoroughly heat the marinade sauce and then use it for basting on the grill. Hate to waste good ingredients.

To make it even more "perfect", don't shake it, just stirr slowly. Shaking infuses air into the drink and changes it's flavor (bruises the gin?). As a long time "shaker" I found could really tell the difference when this was pointed out to me years ago by a barkeeper in Manhattan. Just try it. James Bond was just plain wrong (but we knew that when he chose vodka over gin).