This month’s Weekend Cookbook Challenge is hosted by Mel’s Diner with the aptly chosen, Celebration Dishes as the theme. For this, I chose my newest cookbook, Nigella Express and made a lamb stew from it.

She calls it a tagine, but since I didn’t cook it in an actual tagine and I’m not familiar enough with Moroccan cooking to judge it’s accurateness, I’m certainly not going to call it a tagine. So, uh, no one get their knickers in a twist.

Anywho….I used a mix of olives here, mainly because that’s what I had — nicoise, kalamata and a handful of plain black, pitted olives. But, I’m thinking oil cured might be super tasty here. I also just made my own caramelized onions, rather than hunting down a jar of them (as the recipe calls for). I have never even seen jarred caramelized onions…maybe that’s a British thing? Another thing I changed is that I added carrots. I just felt the need for more vegetables with the big meatiness of the stew.

Let’s celebrate!

Lamb Stew with Olives and Caramelized Onions
Adapted from a recipe by Nigella Lawson
2 1/4 pounds diced leg of lamb
1 head garlic, separated into cloves
12 ounces pitted black olives in brine, 5 ounces drained weight to give 1 1/4 cups
1 white or yellow onion, diced roughly
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive oil
sprinkle of salt
3 tbsp capers
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground ginger
1 bottle red wine (I meant to use a merlot but I grabbed a cab by mistake — worked just fine!)
1 1/2 cups chopped carrots — about 1-2 inch pieces

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F.

Preheat a pan over medium heat — preferably a big Dutch oven that you can layer the whole recipe into for its trip into the oven. Add the olive oil and then onions and honey. Give a small sprinkle of salt. Cook until light brown and caramelized, about 20 minutes. Turn the heat down if need be to keep from burning.

Add the garlic, olives and lamb. Brown the lamb just for a few minutes, maybe 5 total, stirring a bit to get color on as many pieces as possible.

Next, add the wine, the capers, and the ginger and cumin. Increase the heat to high, give it a good stir and bring to a boil.

Put a lid on it and stick it in the oven for two hours total. After the first hour add the carrots and continue to cook until the lamb is super tender.

We had this with some couscous that I cooked with chicken broth, about a handful of shelled pistachios and a handful of golden raisins. What were we celebrating? Ah, a cold December evening!

Thanks again to Mel’s Diner for hosting WCC this month!

Well, it least it was a little while ago. Ahhhh, Spring.

This makes a lot (let’s say 6+ servings) so you can invite a couple of people over or have extra lunches for the week. It also freezes beautifully. In fact, jwa’s having a defrosted container of it for lunch today. Myself, I’m going to my new favorite lunch place, Voila Cafe on SW 9th. Today, the special is salmon over soba noodles. But, I believe that’ll be another post.

Baked Bolognese with Lamb
Adapted from a recipe by Dave Lieberman
For the tomato sauce:
2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground lamb
4 large cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp dried oregano
Couple dashes red chili flakes
1 (28-ounce) can whole peeled tomatoes
Sugar
Dash of ground cinnamon
1/2 cup red wine
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add oil to large skillet over high heat. Add ground lamb and saute, breaking up the meat as it cooks. Add garlic, oregano, dash of cinnamon and chili flakes and cook a couple minutes. Add the wine, stir and then the tomatoes and season, to taste, with sugar, salt and pepper. Simmer for 15 minutes, breaking up the tomatoes as it simmers.

For the bechamel:
3 tbsp butter
1 large onion
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white wine (I used a pinot grigio)
1 1/2 cups 2% milk, warmed
Dash ground nutmeg
2 cups grated three-cheese blend, divided

The Rest
1 pound parcooked rigatoni
1/4 cup pine nuts

In a large saucepan melt butter over medium-high heat until bubbling. Add onions and saute until translucent. Sprinkle with flour, stirring constantly and cook until the mixture begins to thicken. Gradually whisk in the wine, if using, and then gradually whisk in the milk and nutmeg and cook until smooth, thick and creamy.

Combine the meat sauce and pasta. Cover with almost half the cheese — I like to use a little more than half the cheese covering the top of the dish.

Then pour half of that into your baking dish (lasagna pan sized — 9 X 13 — works well for this).

Spoon the bechamel over the pasta and top with the remaining pasta, ending with the rest of the shredded cheese. Sprinkle pine nuts over the top. Bake 30 to 45 minutes until browned and bubbly.

We had this with some broccolini on the side and a bottle of red wine. Delicious! Hopefully where you live, you can still sneak in one more cold-weather comfort meal before Spring hits in full.

This is a recipe I found on Epicurious about a year ago, emailed it to myself and then forgot about it. While cleaning my recipe folder out last week I came across it. Good things happen when you tidy up your email folders, people!

While the lentil soup was good, the meatballs make it awesome. In fact, a great appetizer would be to whip up a batch of the meatballs and serve them with some cherry tomatoes, chunks of cucumber and kalamata olives. Oh, okay, throw in some feta cubes, the yogurt and flat bread too. You could also impale the meatballs, cucumber and olives on wooden skewers and pretend you are Sandra Lee (but, you know, with actually appetizing and edible food).

Epicurious says that this recipe is adapted from Wolfgang Puck, “Adventures in the Kitchen”.

Lentil Soup with Lamb Meatballs
This makes 8-10 servings, so halve it if needed. That’s what I did and it worked fine. Just beat an egg first, then divide that in half.
Soup:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/2 cups chopped red onion
1/2 cup diced carrot
5 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tbsp turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 celery stalk
1 branch fresh parsley
1 branch fresh thyme
1 pound golden lentils (or regular lentils, if not available)
10 cups chicken stock or store-bought chicken broth (or turkey stock!!)
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Pinch chili pepper flakes

Meatballs:
1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/4 cup milk
1 pound ground lamb
1 cup blanched almonds, toasted and ground
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/3 cup raisins, coarsely chopped
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves
1/4 teaspoon chili pepper flakes
Salt and freshly ground pepper
2 tbsp olive oil, plus more for drizzling

Garnish:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint leaves
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp honey
Pinch salt

Start with the soup. In a large saucepan, heat up the olive oil. Add the onion, carrot, garlic, turmeric, and cumin. Saute over high heat until the onions are soft, about 5 minutes. Meanwhile, make a bouquet garni by tying together the celery, parsley, and thyme, and add to pan.

Stir in the lentils and the chicken stock, season lightly with salt, pepper, and chili flakes, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes, or until the lentils are tender. Skim as necessary.

Meanwhile, prepare the meatballs and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, soak bread crumbs in milk. In a mixing bowl, combine the lamb, almonds, soaked bread crumbs, onion, raisins, egg, garlic, parsley, cilantro, and chili pepper flakes. Season lightly with salt and
pepper. Drizzle olive oil on the platter you will place the meatballs on and rub oil into the palm of both hands. Form meat mixture into 40 golf ball-size meatballs, each approximately 1-inch in diameter.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large ovenproof skillet or saute pan. Arrange the meatballs in 1 layer in the pan, quickly sear meatballs over high heat, and then place in the oven. Cook until the meatballs are well
browned and firm to the touch, 8 to 10 minutes.

Prepare the yogurt garnish. In a small bowl, combine all ingredients. Refrigerate until serving time.

Now, return to the soup. Remove the celery bouquet. With an immersion blender, lightly blend soup (you want it to still be a little chunky).

Alternatively, transfer 2/3 of the soup to a blender. Blend until smooth and return to the saucepan. Adjust seasonings to taste.

Ladle soup into 8 or 10 soup bowls. Divide the meatballs evenly among the soup bowls and drizzle the yogurt mixture over. Serve immediately. Mmmm!

Okay. Now, it’s time to make more cookies!

Yeah, I know, I typically have a title picture of the finished meal but I couldn’t resist this one — my little lamb meatballs. They were so photogenic and pretty. The recipe is from Mediterranean The Beautiful Cookbook. You know, one of those huge, over-sized books with all the pictures that make you want to take a vacation to all the locales photographed within the pages. I came across it at the Borders in Beaverton on clearance for…I think it was under $10. I couldn’t pass that up.

While paging through the book, this recipe was one of the first that really caught my eye. This soup combines the meatballs, yogurt, egg yolk, mint, onion, garlic and noodles — some of my favorite things. In addition, I added some spinach to the meatballs and some bell pepper and tomato to the soup. I also used more noodle-product than the original recipe called for because, well, I like the noodle-product (gemelli, to be exact).

The soup goes great with some grilled flat bread or toasted baguette slices and a nice side of mixed olives.

Tutmac Corbasi: Yogurt Soup with Lamb Meatballs & Noodles
Meatballs:
1/2 lb ground lamb
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup defrosted spinach, drained of excess water and chopped (after you drain it, you’ll have less — probably more like a 1/4 cup — trying to remember this morning exactly how much spinach I used and I believe this was more like it)
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika (I used smoked paprika)
2 tbsp olive oil

Soup:
3 cups plain yogurt (I used 1 cup regular yogurt and 2 cups low fat yogurt)
2 egg yolks
2 tbsp AP flour
2 cups lamb or chicken stock or water
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup dried egg noodles or ziti, casarecci, or gemelli pasta
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced
1 small tomato, diced
2 tbsp dried mint, crumbled

Start by making the meatballs. In a bowl, combine the meat, salt, pepper, paprika and drained spinach. Mix well. Form into tiny meatballs, about 1/2 inch in diameter.

In a frying pan over medium heat, warm the oil. Add the meatballs and fry, turning, until lightly browned on all sides, about 3-4 minutes. Set aside on a paper towel lined plate when done cooking. These will smell really good. Do your best to only try two to three meatballs while they are sitting to the side. They will call to you but be strong — remember, you need them for the soup.

In a bowl, whisk together the yogurt, egg yolks and flour until well blended. Place in a heavy-bottomed saucepan and bring slowly to a simmer. Add the stock or water and the garlic and bring to a boil. Add the noodles and reduce the heat. Simmer 10-12 minutes, until noodles are tender. Add the salt, pepper, and cayenne pepper.

While the soup is simmering, add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil to a small pan. Add the onion, bell pepper and dried mint. Cook until the vegetables are tender, about 8-10 minutes. Add the diced tomato to the pan, as well as the meatballs. Toss to combine.

Add the vegetables and meatballs to the sauce. Stir and let everything combine and come to temperature. Taste and adjust salt and pepper. Serve right away with the bread of your choice.

Whatever happened to IMBB? The last one I saw was the soy one (which kind of fizzled out during the recap). Does IMBB go on Summer vacation or is it broken? Anyone know?

This month’s theme is “Lucky Number Seven” — a very open-ended theme. As I was browsing through cookbooks, I picked up Anthony Bourdain’s Les Halles Cookbook. I had never made anything out of it before and thought it would be fun to do so for this WCC. Be sure to check out all of the entries here.

After a few seconds of browsing — there it is. Gigot de Sept Heures. Seven hour lamb. It doesn’t get much better (or luckier) than the word seven in the title! But, it’s July, I thought. There’s no way I will want the oven on for seven hours in July!

Silly me, this is Portland. Sure, in the beginning of the month we were in the 100’s but last weekend we had a high of 71 on Sunday. A high. Awesome. If that’s not the beginning of Post-Spring lamb weather, I don’t know what is. This was especially convenient too, as I hadn’t managed to find another recipe that I wanted to do for this challenge.

A Few Differences
I made a few changes in the way that I prepared this — in contrast to the written recipe. First, there’s only two of us. Instead of using a 6-pound, bone in leg of lamb, I opted for a 2.5 pound, boneless one. Now, eventually I think I will try this again with the big, full-on, honkin’, boned leg but for a test run, I felt okay using the smaller piece.

Okay, so there’s one more thing — I peeked. Hangs head in shame. See, you make a flour and water grout and seal up the pot while you bake it. Around hour four I got really nervous, thinking the Dutch oven would explode and I cracked it open a little. Yeah, I know, I shouldn’t have done that. It wouldn’t have exploded, I know. I know that now! Next time, no peeking, I promise.

Gigot de Sept Heures
1 leg of lamb (about 6 lb, bone-in or a 2-3 lb boneless one will work too)
20-24 cloves of garlic (just buy 2 heads), slice 3-4 cloves into small slivers, leave the other whole
1/4 cup olive oil
salt & pepper
4 carrots (or a whole bunch of tiny ones)
2 small onions, sliced
1 bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, a few sprigs of thyme and a few sprigs of flat-leaf parsley — I also added a rosemary sprig — all tied together with kitchen twine, bundled in cheesecloth if you have any lying around)
1 cup dry white wine (I used red, as I didn’t have any white wine on hand)
1 cup flour
1/2 - 1 cup water

Optional: 1/2 cup chicken or beef stock (add in with the wine if using a smaller piece of meat, to keep it a bit moister during the cooking time)

Prep the Lamb
Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Using a paring knife, make a lot of small incisions in the lamb and shove a sliver of garlic clove into each hole. Do this until you get tired of doing it — add any leftover slivers of garlic to the pot. When that is done, rub the lamb well with the olive oil and season it with salt and pepper.

Oh, here I browned the lamb quickly. The recipe doesn’t say to do this but I thought it might give it a nicer color. I think it did but you certainly don’t have to.

Add all of your vegetables to the pan. Pour in the wine and add the herbs.

Next, you’ll make the flour/water grout. Mix the water into the flour until you have a thick paste. Use this to seal the lid to the pot. You can either place it along the inside and press the lid down into it, or run it alongside the outside of the pot, sealing it that way. I did a bit of both.

Now, into the oven. For seven hours. Don’t peek! Oh and can I talk about the smell briefly? Wow. The house smelled so good. It was amazing. Being able to smell the lamb cooking all day alone is worth the seven hours in the oven.

After the seven hours, then you will want to crack the lid off. You will think it won’t come off and start to panic. Don’t worry, just keep trying to pry it off with a butter knife or other object of your choice. If you actually break your object of choice before you get the lid off — then you panic. Nah, it’s okay. Just grab a bigger implement!

Before that point however, you may want to pan roast some potatoes. Let’s say about 15 minutes before the lamb is scheduled to come out. I just halved a bunch of small red potatoes, sprinkled with salt and cooked them in some olive oil and let them brown and crisp up. I sprinkled with pepper and fresh, chopped rosemary right before removing from the heat.

Okay, okay, let’s check out the lamb.

If it was wrapped in cooking twine, cut that away. The meat should be falling apart with slow-cooked tenderness. I lifted it out with the carrots and the other veggies I could find (some of the garlic melted into the sauce) and tried to strain out most of the fat and oil. The remaining lamb/wine liquid was excellent poured over the lamb and served on the side.

This was really good. The lamb was, for the most part, super tender. There were a few spots where it seemed a bit dry but I am blaming this on my peeking. It could also be using the smaller, boneless piece of meat. But hey — we both really liked it and the amount of tender, amazingly flavored lamb was much more than the few drier pieces. Next time, if using this size of lamb leg, I think I will add a little chicken or beef stock along with the wine and maybe pull it out of the oven after five hours.

If you are thinking about trying this recipe, I definitely would. I thought it was worth it and I’m going to make it again this Fall or Winter for sure.

Leftovers
As there are only two of us, we had leftover lamb. This I used the next night in a soup using a big can of whole tomatoes, some chicken stock, onions, carrots, lima beans and orzo. I also added some dried oregano and cinnamon to the mix and it was really, really tasty. The drier pieces of lamb were fine in this as the soup liquid sort of rehydrated them.

We each brought some for lunch on Tuesday and the rest is destined for the freezer, to be enjoyed one day this Fall. Thanks again to Sara at Weekend Cookbook Challenge for a creative theme this month!

I love lamb. During my years as a vegetarian (and I think I’ve mentioned this before), the only meat that I really missed was tasty, succulent lamb. It just has such a distinctive flavor. Add some grill marks and some olive oil, garlic and salt and you really can’t go wrong.

These lamb chops have a few more ingredients and they were delicious. I made them last weekend and jwa and I both thought they were so good. I highly recommend them. Instead of mincing the garlic, I just chopped each clove into two pieces and stuck that in my grill pan too, after the marinating time. Then, there was crispy, grilled garlic to top the lamb chops. Excellent.

Red Wine, Garlic & Honey Grilled Lamb Chops
From Bon Appétit magazine.
3/4 cup dry red wine
1/4 cup olive oil
3-4 sprigs fresh oregano
4-5 garlic cloves, chopped in half
2 tsp red wine vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
8 1- to 1 1/4-inch-thick loin lamb chops (serve 2 per person)
2 tbsp honey

Mix the red wine, olive oil, oregano, vinegar and garlic in large glass baking dish or large zip lock bag. Pour yourself a glass of the leftover wine. Okay, continue. Add lamb chops and coat. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight, turning and basting often.

Transfer lamb to plate and whisk the honey into marinade. Grill lamb to desired doneness, turning once and basting with marinade often, about 10 minutes for medium-rare (145 degrees internally). You can either do this outside on the grill or inside on a grill pan. Discard the leftover marinade.

Pile on a plate and let rest (covered with foil) for about 5-10 minutes. When you put two lamb chops on each plate, divide the leftover lamb juices between the lamb chops.

We had these lamb chops with some Parmesan flatbread and a bunch of healthy, tasty side dishes. I chopped some tomatoes and tossed them with kalamata olives, fresh basil, salt, feta and garlic. I also peeled and diced a hothouse cucumber and tossed that with a little red wine vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper and fresh, chopped dill. That was great — I can’t believe just a little while ago I didn’t like cucumber.

The last side was a Greek lima bean dish, from Gourmet magazine. I added the lemon and a bit of dried oregano to make it extra Greeky.

Greek Lima Beans
1 (10-oz) package frozen baby lima beans
1 cup water
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/2 lemon juiced and zested
1/2 teaspoon salt

Cook lima beans, water, oil, garlic, lemon juice and salt in a 2-quart heavy saucepan, tightly covered, over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender, 17 to 20 minutes. Season with salt and pepper and transfer to a bowl. Serve sprinkled with the parsley and lemon zest.

Tomorrow: Happy Birthday to Je Mange la Ville. Grab a plate and let’s celebrate with both lemon and chocolate stout cupcakes!

Recently, I was very much in the mood for Greek food. During this time, I stopped at Trader Joe’s and found some lamb loin chops and got them for dinner. Took them home and had a feast.

We bought hummus (although it’s very easy to make some) and some flat bread and had the lamb with those sides, as well as kalamata olives, chopped tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, feta and garlicky-yogurt sauce. It was so good and a bit of an accomplishment — I’d never made Lamb chops before. I shouldn’t have been apprehensive because they turned out wonderfully!

Garlic Grilled Lamb Chops with Cucumber, Tomatoes & Other Fixin’s
4 loin lamb chops
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
salt & pepper

hummus
2 tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup pitted, kalamata olives
1/2 red onion, diced
1 English cucumber, peeled and diced
4 pieces, flat bread, warmed

Heat a grill pan over medium high heat. Brush lamb chops with half of the olive oil and mince one clove of garlic onto the chops. Season with salt and pepper and place on the grill pan, seasoned side down.

Rub the side that’s facing up with the rest of the olive oil, garlic and some salt and pepper. Flip after about 5 minutes and cook on the second side about 5 more minutes or until the internal temperature is 140 for medium-rare.

When done, plate lamb and cover with foil, letting it rest while you put together your fixin’s. Place diced vegetables, hummus, feta, flat bread or pita and yogurt sauce in little bowls.

Garlicky-Yogurt
1 1/2 cup plain yogurt
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
dash cumin
salt & pepper

Mix the garlic into the yogurt. Add the cumin, salt and pepper. Mix well and refrigerate until ready to eat.

I think this will also be a perfect summer dish as the lamb can easily be grilled outside and the vegetables and sides will be all cool and refreshing. As our lamb chops were a little small, I almost think at least 3 might be a good amount to have per person or perhaps we were just really hungry!

It was the day before Saint Patrick’s Day and I was hunting for a good recipe to make for dinner. Something timely. Something festive. Something with beer! I’d never made lamb stew before but I wanted to try it. I came across this recipe at the Food Network site and it looked very interesting, as I love roasted vegetables. Oh and Guinness? Well, okay then!

For this recipe lamb shoulder is the best. When I went to Zupan’s, they didn’t have any of this. The meat guy said that lamb leg meat would work for a stew and, while I browsed the aisles looking at the tasty things, he cut a pound of it up into 1-inch cubes for me. I have no idea if he was actually knowledgeable about what a good substitution for the lamb shoulder would be but I believed him. So, I guess, try to find lamb shoulder and if that fails, ask the person behind the meat counter what to use instead.

I halved the recipe, so as listed below it will feed 3-4 people. Double it up for double the servings.

Lamb Stew with Guinness & Roasted Vegetables
2 tbsp olive oil
1 pound lamb shoulder, cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces (or lamb leg meat)
Salt
2 leeks, cleaned and sliced
8-10 button mushrooms, sliced
1/4 cup flour
4 tbsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup Guinness stout
1.5 cups beef stock
2 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large parsnip, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 1/2 lb)
2 carrots, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (about a 1/2 lb)
1 large russet potato, peeled and cut into 2-inch pieces (about 1 lb)
6 cloves garlic, peeled
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary, plus 2 tsp chopped
1/2 cup peas, (fresh or frozen)

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

In a heavy-bottomed pot, heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Salt and pepper the lamb lightly and when the oil is hot, add the lamb and brown evenly.

Remove the lamb from the pot and set aside. Add the leeks and mushrooms — sauté until soft. Add the butter and melt. Add the flour to make a roux. Turn the heat down to low, and cook the roux until it is evenly brown, about 10-15 minutes.

Whisk in the beer and stock. Add the tomatoes and the reserved lamb, bring to a simmer, and cover. Simmer, covered, for 1 1/2 hours. I stirred the stew occasionally and in doing so got a face full of steam. It smelled really, really good.

While the lamb mixture is simmering, combine the parsnips, carrots, potatoes and garlic in a large bowl. Toss with 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper and rosemary sprigs. Place the vegetables in a roasting pan and roast in a 400-degree oven for 45 minutes. Halfway through the cooking time, turn the vegetables over and shake the pan a bit. When done, set aside, discarding rosemary sprigs. Some of the leaves will fall of the stem, that’s fine — just leave those with the vegetables.

After the stew’s 1 1/2 hours of simmering is done, add the roasted vegetables and the peas to the lamb mixture.

Cook for 10 minutes, then add the chopped rosemary. Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Serve with buttered and parsley-ed noodles. I used the no-yolk variety — proceed as you wish. If you can get your hands on some fresh noodles or pappardelle well, that’d work just fine.

To set a mood, perhaps put on some U2 or some Pogues or a little Damien Rice. Then, dish your stew into a bowl, on top of whatever noodle you can procure and enjoy.

jwa and I both enjoyed this and the sauce that all the beer and stock and lamb fat made was just delicious. Mmmmm…lamb fat.

This is an amazing recipe out of the March issue of Saveur. I saw it at the store and was immediately intrigued by what I thought was a big block of hard Irish cheese on the cover alongside some dark bread. It is, you see, an issue devoted to the foods of Ireland. Upon further contemplation at home, however, I have come to the conclusion that the block of pale yellow to the left of the bread is some butter. A little disappointing, but I’m sure the bread and butter are still good. Although, if I had done the cover, the bread and cheese would have been accompanied by a pint of Guinness.

Anyway, while leafing through the magazine, I saw a recipe and article (on page 20), not for an Irish delicacy, but a Turkish one. “Mad for Manti: These Turkish Dumplings Prove Highly Addictive.”

Why, yes, they do.

This dish is most prevalent in Anatolia, a region of Turkey with huge archaeological importance, including the site of Çatalhöyük. This, besides being a Neolithic settlement dating from about 7500 BC, is a really fun word to say. (Ca-tal-ya-hook). It was an active site up until the Bronze Age and had a smaller settlement during the Byzantine Empire. This is a good book if anyone is interested.

But, let’s get back to the dumplings. I took a shortcut with my stock and used packaged, free range chicken broth that I simmered with a cinnamon stick and a few cloves. I thought this worked well, but I’ve summarized the recipe to make your own stock at the end of this post. I also added some chopped tomatoes and caramelized onions to my version.

Manti — Turkish Lamb Dumplings
(from the March Issue of Saveur)
1 package (about 3.5 - 4 cups) chicken broth (Imagine or Pacific are good brands)
4 black peppercorns
3 cloves
1 cinnamon stick
2 eggs
1/4 cup water
1 2/3 cups flour (I used AP)
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lb ground lamb
1/2 a white onion, diced
2 tbsp chopped, fresh parsley
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp butter
2 tomatoes, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic
salt
2 cups thick, strained yogurt (or Greek style yogurt)
1/4 cup chopped, fresh mint
1 tbsp Urfa chili flakes (or crushed red pepper flakes)
Olive oil

Add the stock to a large pot and add the peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove cloves, cinnamon and peppercorns and reserve stock.

Dumplings:
Put the eggs, flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/4 cup water in a bowl and mix until a ball forms (1-2 minutes). Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for about 10 minutes. Divide dough into 4 balls and cover with a damp kitchen towel. Let rest 30 minutes.

Sauté onion in a pan over medium heat, with one teaspoon olive oil. Let cook for about 20 minutes, until onions are caramelized and golden.

Meanwhile, combine lamb, parsley, remaining salt and pepper in a bowl. Cover and set aside.

Roll one ball of dough out to a 11 X 11 inch square. Okay, so my dough was more of a rectangular shape. I think the main thing here is to roll it out, keep it kind of thin, and trim the edges so that you have a clean shape, be it a square or rectangle.

Cut the rolled out dough into 1 ” X 1″ squares. Put about 1/8 - 1/4 tsp of filling in the center of each square. I found it helpful to divide my lamb mixture into 4 equal sections, so that I knew how much filling to use for the four original balls of dough.

Pull (and stretch a little) the opposite two corners of the square to the middle. Pinch to seal.

Now, fold the other two corners to the middle and pinch those to seal as well. You should now have a little dumpling! Repeat this process for the squares you have rolled out. Then roll out the other three balls and repeat. I piled all of my dumplings in a single layer, on a big plate. I ended up getting about 12 dumplings from each roll — so, my total was about 48.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Butter a casserole dish and place dumplings into a single layer. Cover with sautéed onions. Bake until dumplings are golden, about 30 minutes.

Pour stock over dumplings and onions, cover with foil, and bake until much of the stock has been absorbed, about 25-30 minutes.

Combine yogurt with a pinch of salt and minced garlic cloves. Set aside. When dumplings are done, place some chopped tomato in each serving bowl. Cover with some dumplings and sauce. Add a scoop of the garlicky yogurt and a drizzle of olive oil. In the original recipe, they drizzled clarified butter over the dumplings instead of olive oil. Sprinkle each dish with some of the chili flakes and mint to complete the dish.

Sit down and enjoy!

To make your own stock
Combine 1 lb. skinless chicken pieces, 1 carrot, celery rib, 1 leek, 1 onion, chopped, 2 sprigs parsley, 4 peppercorns, 3 cloves, 1 cinnamon stick and 1 tbsp of rice in a pot with 9 cups of water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for about 2 hours. Season to taste with salt. Strain and reserve about 4 cups of the stock for this recipe.

Oh, look, it’s more bubbling, baked things! Isn’t that what Winter is for? Why yes, yes it is. I really love moussaka. This, too, I would get at Greek Islands. I don’t know, there’s just something about lamb, red wine and cinnamon…

While I was a vegetarian, the one meat I think I thought back fondly about the most was probably lamb. Not that I ate it that often, because I didn’t, but because it was so interesting tasting. Nowadays, I probably have lamb a few times a year and moussaka is a great way to do that.

For these — instead of making a big lasagne-sized casserole — I made individual moussakas in oven-safe bowls. So cute!

If you had one cup or a bit bigger ramekins, you could easily make four moussakas with this recipe. If you had bigger soup bowls and were starving, you could make two big moussakas (and possibly have leftovers).

Eggplant Component:
2 small eggplants
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Lamb Component:
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup red wine
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Béchamel Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
Pinch nutmeg
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp grated parmesan + 1 more tbsp (or so)

Incidentals:
1 more tomato, sliced
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1/2 tsp dried oregano

For the Eggplant:
Wash eggplant and cut off both ends. Peel the purple skin off (I used a knife, but a potato peeler might work too) and slice it across into about 1/2 inch thick circles. Salt both sides of eggplant pieces and let stand for 30 minutes in a colander. Rinse and pat dry. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan, and fry the eggplant on both sides, until golden brown. Drain well on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the Meat Filling:
Heat the teaspoon of oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until onions are tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the lamb and cook until brown, about 6 more minutes. Drain out excess grease, then add the wine to the lamb mixture and cook for for about 5 minutes. Add in tomato paste, tomato, water, parsley, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Simmer for 30 minutes more, then remove from heat and cool.

For the Béchamel:
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Blend in the flour, and gradually stir in the milk. Cook, stirring, until thick and smooth. Add in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cool. Add 2-3 tablespoons of parmesan and blend well.

For the Assembly:
Here, I used individual, oven-safe bowls. As mentioned earlier, you can certainly also do this in a casserole dish. Start off by layering tomato slices in the bottom of each bowl.

Then, place some eggplant circles, followed by lamb mixture. Repeat eggplant and lamb mixture layers until both are used up. Top with the Béchamel and sprinkle with the extra one tablespoon of parmesan, then a little feta cheese (just a few crumbles on top to make it look pretty). Complete the masterpieces with a sprinkle of dried oregano on top of each.

Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and golden on top. Remove to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

For the Eating:
Serve with a salad of spinach leaves, kalamata olives, tomato and feta. Oh, and red wine. There must be red wine.

Then, open the box of Baklava you might have gotten for a holiday present. How convenient! Mmm!

Tomorrow: Spirited Cooking.

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On a different, non-lamb casserole note, congratulations to Christy & Dave. Yay!