I try to sneak the flavors of lamb shawarma into as many meals as I can, and this meatball scratches that itch without much effort. Warm spices, zippy tahini dressing, bright sumac, and a red onion salad all come together in a pillowy pita. The real bonus is that everything is just as delicious when you turn the leftovers into a cold sandwich the next day. The mixture of crackers and water is called panade, and it helps the meatballs stay tender and moist. And we keep things interesting with a combination of cooked (onion, spices) and raw (parsley, more spices) aromatics for layers of flavors. Everything is thoroughly mixed until springy and sticky, then allowed to rest before cooking until deeply browned.
There are millions of recipes for stuffed peppers on the internet right now. Some call for the peppers to be blanched in advance or stuffed raw and cooked longer—either way, both techniques result in peppers that taste steamed rather than roasted. I much prefer to roast the peppers to soften, then stuff and roast them again. The first round in the oven guarantees some sweetness and caramelization. Then the second round ensures a pepper that is tender but not falling apart.
These are not straight-up Italian meatballs. The sauce has a bit of North Africa as well as the Mediterranean in it, so the dish is exotic and comforting at once. The sauce has a whiff of cumin and mint, both good friends to ground lamb. Just before I serve the meatballs, I add little blobs of yogurt, crack a few eggs into the pot, and let them poach.
This lamb recipe is a hybrid of several, but is closely related to and mostly based on a recipe from Janny de Moor's cookbook Dutch Cooking which is an excellent resource and has great photos and recipes for all food Dutch.
This dish is Tunisian-inspired, with admittedly tentative moorings to tradition. All the ingredients are roasted together (with the exception of the couscous), leading to
a balanced marriage of flavors. The resulting vegetables are soft, and seasoned with
pan juices. The finished sauce is complex and spiced, and the couscous downy, and
ever so slightly flavored with the good olive oil I stirred into it.
A well known recipe in Abruzzo and it's smaller neighbour, Molise, Agnello Cacio e Uova is a simple stew of diced lamb cooked until tender in white wine, which is then topped with a mixture of beaten eggs and Pecorino cheese.
Confession time...I can eat turkey leftovers for a week without getting sick of them. That being said, in the days leading up to Thanksgiving I do not eat any chicken or turkey. So I am good and ready for that Turkey and all of the yummy Thanksgiving leftover recipes I can throw together.
These little lamb logs can be found all over Bulgaria ( and I'm sure other parts of Eastern Europe). They're grilled and in Bulgaria traditionally served with a hunk of bread. We'll put them on a stick sometimes and like to serve them with tzatziki, tomato, red onion,cucumber, feta, black olives and pita. Prep and cook times are approximate.
This sweet-and-sour kebab is from Gilan Province in northern Iran, where people like their food extra tart. Its name in Farsi is "kebab-e torsh," or "pickled kebab," so named for the sour pomegranate marinade that gives it its flavor. The russet-colored marinade uses the same ingredients as the classic Persian stew known as Fesenjan, and is one of the tastiest discoveries I made while researching this book. Before grilling the kebabs, brush off the extra marinade, because it can burn and leave charred flakes on the meat. You can also make these kebabs using beef sirloin, fish, chicken, or vegetables. Start this recipe the day before you plan to serve it so that the kebabs can marinate overnight. (This recipe is from The New Persian Kitchen by Louisa Shafia).
I like to eat them straight out of the pan, while my mother likes to cook them again with chicken broth - steps for both are included. You can freeze the whole tray after its first bake, but it reheats better with the chicken broth preparation.
This is a perfect slow cooking, take your time, cool Sunday afternoon dish. Rich lamb is complemented by a bright gremolata. We ate it with a side of lentils, but it would also be great over polenta or maybe egg noodles as well.
My sister is spending the year in Berlin, 10 times zones and over 5000 miles away. She's been raving about a Turkish street food called gozleme. These filled flatbreads are prepared on large griddles for eager patrons who consume them standing up around crowded tables. I thought the distance between us might feel a little less vast if I could enjoy gozlemes too. I created this recipe to match my sister's description, with a yeast dough and fragrant lamb and spinach filling. We ate them, according to my sister's instructions, hot off the griddle, sliced with a drizzle of yogurt cucumber sauce. They were delicious, but Berlin still felt very far away.
I've created a recipe for Silk Road lamb burgers, inspired by romantic imagined scenes of travel on camel or horseback to exotic towns filled with spices, music, poetry and silk. The Silk Road refers to the many routes that plied 4,000 miles between Rome and China, connecting Turkey, Central Asia and Persia along the way. Marco Polo is famous for having traveled along this route. Valuable commodities carried west on the Silk Road included silk, porcelain and gunpowder from China, which also supplied peaches and pomegranates; pepper, batik, spices, perfumes, glass beads and gems from India; incense, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg from the East Indies; nuts, sesame seeds, glass and carpets from Persia; and coral and ivory from Siam. While functioning as an important trade route from the 1st century B.C. to the A.D. 15th century, the Silk Road also became an important crossroads of the arts, ideas and religions.
With education from Le Cordon Bleu and training from Shawn McClain under her belt, it's no surprise that Illinois native Stephanie Izard emerged from season four of Top Chef as the first female winner in the show's history.
I couldn't stop eating this chili! The ingredient list is a long one, but all those extra notes of spice and flavor combine into a complex chili with just the right balance of heat, sweet, and savory. Definitely don't skip the goat cheddar -- it really made a difference.
In choosing this recipe, I glanced quickly at the ingredient list and loved the idea of lamb shank, lemon and artichokes together -- what a wonderful combination! Then as I was going over the ingredients before going shopping, the full realization of the recipe hit me: black lemon? grains of paradise? preserved lemon? How was I going to procure all these things? So I ended up substituting grated lemon zest for the black lemons (per aargersi’s suggestion), 1 quartered lemon (and a little extra salt) for the preserved lemons, and some coarse ground pepper, coriander and cardamom to mimic (slightly) the flavor of the grains of paradise. I ended up cooking my lamb for about two hours, flipping the lamb every half hour or so, then taking the lid off for the last half hour. The end result was an amazingly succulent, flavorful dish. The lemons, artichokes, tomatoes, lamb and spices melded together to create a dish that was layered with flavor and texture. I am looking forward to trying this again with actual preserved lemons and grains of paradise, but for now, this was absolutely lovely.
Abra Bennett's All Day Lamb was a revelation. I've made lots of lamb -- it's hands down my favorite meat -- and have always turned to red wine, rosemary, garlic, all the standards for most of my lamb dishes. The addition of the sweet wine (I used half a bottle of Alsatian Riesling left over from a dinner and a split of Riesling Ice Wine from Canada, per The Dog's Breakfast's suggestion) infused the meat, the sauce and the carrots and shallots with a fantastic "what's that?" flavor. The house, as promised, smelled divine. Served this to a hungry group, driven nearly mad with the smells from the kitchen, with mashed potatoes, the delectable sauce, and a nice Rhone. No photos -- the guests had served themselves before I could even turn the camera on.
Single dishes that have it all -- vegetables, meat, and grain -- satisfy my inner hungry peasant. And if the dish involves a savory crust piled high with sausage and veggies, I consider it to be true comfort food. Only a salad is needed to make this into a perfect meal.
