Lamb Pro-Am: Lamb Mechoui + Moroccan Marinated Carrots

by | Apr 15, 2013 | Braises, Meat, Salads

Editor’s note: thank you so much to everyone who voted for me in the competition! This was not only the winning recipe, but the winning competition dish. What a blast! 

Last week I ran out of my office in Haymarket, laden with my massive computer bag, and wearing flats, managed to sprint over to Tavern Road, a little over a mile, in 14 minutes. For a lamb party.

Tavern Road is the newest restaurant to pop up on Congress Street in Fort Point, and I’ve loved what I’ve seen (and tasted) so far. The restaurant is modern American, with as much attention paid to vegetables as to charcuterie. Last week I stopped by for a little pre-dinner, where I made my way through three vegetable dishes and a few slices of ham. The one that stood out was the grilled broccoli rabe with vanilla and hazelnuts, but everything was very good. They also have a well worn selection of cookbooks on the open kitchen counter, including Bertolli’s ‘Cooking by Hand’, which always leads me to judge a cook favorably. I’ll be stopping by often, so I’ll be sure to report back soon. {The only warning I have is that most of the parking turns into residential past 6pm. I learned this not because of the signs, but because of the 40 dollar parking ticket I earned last week for moving my car two blocks over from the lot to near the restaurant… yeesh.}

So about this party – the kind folks at BostonChefs.com invited me to participate in the American Lamb Board Lamb Pro-Am – a promotional event hooking up bloggers with local chefs to celebrate the most delicious of meats. (Seriously, I love it more than bacon.) At the party, we were served lamb meatballs, and provided with lamb swag, and a *massive* boneless leg of lamb to have our way with (and come up with a recipe for the competition).

I don’t usually participate in contests – let’s face it, they usually end up being a popularity thing – but I couldn’t turn down all this meaty goodness (especially in the midst of my gym challenge!). So here’s the deal – voting will begin on 4/17, and if you like lamb, and the possibility of hooking me up with a local chef to make you delicious noms, ewe should vote for me!  {UPDATE: Please VOTE for me here: http://bit.ly/ProAm2013 !! Click on that Lamb Mechoui + Moroccan Marinated Carrots on the right, and help me be victorious! Voting will end next Friday, 4/26 at 5pm} 

If you, like me, missed out on the Lamb Jam last month (everyone who went managed to make me jealous and bitter), never fear, the winners will be cooking up food for the masses at the official Lamb Pro-Am event on May 19th. If you’d like to gorge yourselves on the winning dishes, Pro-Am ticket sales have begun! Here’s a link to the event page: http://bit.ly/ProAm2013 and here’s a link to the ticket sales page: http://bit.ly/ProAmTix

Without further ado, let me wax poetic about lamb. It’s a little long, forgive me. If you get bored, just scroll though the photos – I did my best to make them lamb-tastic.

I think I’ve mentioned it often enough, but if you are new here, much of my culinary background comes from my Jewish and Turkish heritage, with a smattering of influence from French, Greek, and Moroccan relatives. I’ve grown up in a family who loves to cook, and who more importantly loves to eat – and so I’ve done a lot of it, all over the world, with dedication and gusto.

In my kitchen, Middle Eastern and North African flavors are the most prevalent. I love the rich, warm, sometimes smoky spices. I like spices that pack a punch – I cook with fistfuls of fresh herbs, particularly parsley and mint, and I use a lot of citrus.

Turks eat a lot of lamb – for centuries it has been the most popular type of meat, and pops up in hundreds of different dishes. You’ll commonly find it made into kebabs, pilafs, köfte (meatballs), and stews. Ground lamb is mixed with rice and stuffed into grape leaves, called dolma. It is roasted on spits, and strewn onto little flatbreads called lahmacun, or stuffed in tiny dumplings called mantı, topped with yogurt sauce. I’ve probably eaten a small herd’s worth in my lifetime.

For this recipe, I opted to draw from the flavors and techniques of Moroccan cooking, which feel deeply rooted in my hands and heart, despite never having been on Moroccan soil. (My uncle, however, grew up in Tangiers, so I’ve been gleefully eating Moroccan food since childhood.)

I decided to take a stab at Lamb Mechoui, a slow cooked lamb that is either cooked on a spit, or steamed, until it is falling apart tender, and can be pulled (like southern barbecue) with a fork. I flicked through a dozen cookbooks on my shelf for inspiration – I have a large collection of Middle Eastern, Moroccan, and Mediterranean cookbooks, fantastic titles by Claudia Roden, Paula Wolfert, Joyce Goldstein, Sam & Sam Clark, and Mourad Lahlou to name a few. I settled on the lamb and carrot salad combination from Jamie Oliver’s ‘Jamie Does‘, and decided to punch up the saffron and opt for a steaming/braising method at the suggestion of Mourad Lahlou’s ‘New Moroccan’.

Lamb Mechoui is typically a large cut of lamb such as a leg or a shoulder, smothered in smen (a type of fermented, aged butter), and coated liberally with spices. It’s not impossible to find smen around here (I’ve seen it at Russo’s), but it is expensive.

Joyce Goldstein mentions in ‘Saffron Shores: Jewish Cooking of the Southern Mediterranean’ that the Jews actually made a version of Mechoui, although it certainly wouldn’t have had any butter, as Jews don’t mix milk and meat.

For this recipe, I decided to use Ghee – clarified butter which has been removed of dairy solids. Ghee is sweeter than smen, but plays well with the spices, and I cook with it often. It’s also Paleo friendly and Whole 30 approved, if that matters to you! I’ve made my own with Kerrygold Butter, but was in a pinch this weekend, so picked up a large jar from Purity Farms.

I usually keep ghee at room temperature, but I softened it for a few seconds in the microwave so I could work the spices into it easily. The first step was to work in the salt and the saffron.

You don’t have to make this with saffron, but it lends a lovely unique flavor. When my mom went to Istanbul this summer, I asked her to bring me back kilos of spices from the spice bazaar, including a good amount of saffron threads. These come from Turkey, but I also have a stash from Spain. There’s always a big controversy over the legitimacy of saffron, but as far as I can tell, these both are as real as you can get. A small amount of saffron goes a long way!

The rest of the spices I added were coriander (typically I use ground, but I had run out, and it’s always easy to bash some in the mortar and pestle), cumin, chile powder (I get mine from Rancho Gordo), paprika, and turmeric.

Before spreading on the paste, I stabbed the lamb a dozen times, and stuffed the holes with sliced cloves of garlic. Then, I did my best to coat both sides with the spice mixture.

After coating the lamb, I let it sit at room temperature for two hours, to let the flavors permeate, and to ensure that the large piece of meat was fully at room temperature to help it cook evenly. I then transferred it to my large Le Creuset dutch oven, added a half cup or so of water, covered the pot with the heavy lid, and popped it in a 350 degree oven.

While in the oven, it requires a little attention – basting every 30-45 minutes with a turkey baster. I let it cook for just under three hours, then uncovered the pot, and let the skin crisp up a little bit for about 30 minutes. Then I took the lamb out to rest, put the pot on the stove top, and cooked down the juices into a thick, lamb-y sauce.

The final result was moist, tender, and exceedingly delicious. For an authentic eating experience, you might just ladle a bowl full of sauce, and dip pieces of lamb first in the sauce, then in some cumin and salt. I decided to have some balanced vegetables, and made some carrot salad to accompany it – the recipe is below!

Lamb Mechoui

The boneless leg of lamb from the American Lamb Board was a hefty 8 pounds, but this recipe is scaled down to a four to five pound roast.

1 leg of lamb (or shoulder)
4-5 cloves of garlic, sliced
50 grams of smen or ghee (about 1/2 stick of butter), at room temperature
1/2 teaspoon of saffron threads
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
1 Tablespoon ground coriander
1 Tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons chile powder
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon turmeric

Take the lamb out of the refrigerator, and cut slits in the lamb. Slice the cloves of garlic, and insert into slits.

In a small bowl, mix softened ghee (or smen or butter) with threads of saffron and salt. Then add cumin, coriander, chile powder, paprika, and turmeric, and stir into a paste. Liberally rub the lamb on the inside and out with the mixture, and let rest for an hour or two at room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees for half an hour. Place the lamb in a large dutch oven, skin side up. Pour about half a cup of water into the bottom of the pot, cover, and place into the hot oven. You can also make this in a deep roasting pan, being sure to cover tightly with a double layer of foil. Cook for about 3 hours, basting every 30 – 45 minutes. (It could take shorter or longer depending on the size of your roast.) The  meat should be tender, and pull apart with a fork. For the last half hour, remove the lid, and let the skin crisp up.

Transfer the lamb to a platter, and let rest for 10 minutes, before shredding with a fork. While the meat is resting, put the pot with all the juices on the stove, and bring to a low boil, reducing for 10-15 minutes until the liquid is concentrated. Serve the shredded lamb with the lamb reduction, wedges of lemon, and salad accompaniments. (A little bit of yogurt, drizzled with a little bit of olive oil, topped with a few pomegranate seeds is nice here.)

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This lamb dish is quite rich, and needs a tart salad to brighten things up. For our feast, I put together Moroccan Marinated Carrots – my favorite go to salad.

Moroccan Marinated Carrots

I make a version of this salad on a regular basis, sometimes substituting roasted, or even raw shredded carrots for the steamed ones I’ve used here. The garlic powder is untraditional (and possibly tacky), but it dissolves well in the dressing. Sometimes, I add a little bit of runny honey to bring out the sweetness. It’s a bright, spiced side, that goes well with all types of roasted and grilled meats. Or, you could add chickpeas and toasted almonds, for a vegetarian meal. A fistful of mint is also a nice addition.1 pound carrots, peeled and cut on the bias into thick rounds.

1 clove garlic
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
a few large pinches kosher salt
juice of a lemon
olive oil
a large handful chopped parsley

In a large pot of boil in boiling, salted water, add the carrots and garlic, and boil 6-8 minutes until soft. Drain. (Or, steam carrots in the microwave for 5 minutes with a little bit of water.)

In a small bowl, add cumin, coriander, paprika, cayenne, salt and lemon juice. Whisk together, and slowly pour in olive oil, whisking to combine. Pour over warm carrots, and then let marinate – at least half an hour, or overnight in the fridge. Lasts quite well for three to four days, although I usually add a new handful of fresh herbs to perk things up.

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Please vote for me here: http://bit.ly/ProAm2013 (Voting will end next Friday, 4/26 at 5pm)

I received a leg of lamb from the American Lamb Board and BostonChefs.com to create a recipe with, although I was not compensated for this post. My opinions of lamb are my own – ewe can count on it! 

Braised Lamb Shanks with Tomato, Eggplant, and Anchovies

by | Oct 12, 2012 | Braises, Meat

There are two Nigel Slater recipes for lamb shanks that I use often. The first is his lamb shanks with anchovy (you can watch the video of him making it), and the second, his Moroccan spiced lamb shanks with aubergine from Real Cooking. Left with what is likely my last eggplant of summer (there’s supposed to be a frost tonight!), and an abundance of good anchovies from Eataly, I decided to combine the two. I love throwing anchovies in braises because they lend a salty-umami taste without screaming out “there’s a fish in here!”

To make this dish, you’ll want two lamb shanks. These were actually quite small, but you could easily get larger ones if you are feeding more people.

I drizzled them with a little bit of olive oil, seasoned them in salt and pepper, and seared them off in my deep skillet in a little bit of tallow (rendered beef fat, a gift from the awesome folks at M.F. Dulock). A dutch oven would work well for this, but my dearly beloved Le Creuset 7 1/4 Qt. is currently injured, and I haven’t been able to send it back to get a replacement. While doing this, I turned the oven to 300 F to preheat.

After browning the shanks, I added the chopped onions and a few cloves of garlic to the pan. I sprinkled on some rosemary and added a few Turkish bay leaves my mom smuggled back from a tree in Istanbul.

I then chopped the anchovies, added them to the pot, added tomato paste, an eggplant chopped into large cubes, and some water to come halfway up the shanks. You could easily use some red wine and stock here if you had some. The anchovies are quite salty, but I tasted the broth and gave it a final seasoning.

I brought it all to a simmer, put on the lid, popped it in the oven, let it cook for an hour, turned the shanks, and braised for an hour more. The result:

I served Devon’s off the bone over some pasta with parmigiano, and my bowl with a double portion of eggplant, and a grating of lemon zest and sprinkle of parsley.

Braised Lamb Shanks with Tomato, Eggplant, and Anchovies

2 lamb shanks
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, roughly chopped
3 whole cloves garlic
2 sprigs rosemary (or about 1/2 Tbs. dried)
2 bay leaves
4 anchovy fillets, chopped
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 medium eggplant, chopped into large cubes
1 can diced tomatoes (15 oz.)
about a cup of water
lemon zest + parsley to serve

Preheat the oven to 300 F.  Season the shanks with salt an pepper, and brown them in a dutch over or deep skillet in some olive oil or good fat (I used tallow). When the shanks have browned, add the onions and garlic. Nestle in the rosemary and bay leaves. Chop the anchovy fillets and add them to the pan, then add the tomato paste and gentle stir. Add the chopped eggplant, pour over the diced tomatoes and the water to reach about half way up the shanks. Bring to a simmer. Once simmering, put the lid on, and bake in the oven for two hours, turning the shanks half way through.

Serve topped with lemon zest and parsley. Or, remove the meat from the bone, and serve over pasta with a grating of parmigiano. Leftovers taste particularly good on day two with a few poached eggs.

A beef stew for a cold fall day.

by | Sep 29, 2012 | Braises, Meat

Waking up to the whistle and hiss of old metal heaters in our house just starting to kick in, I’ve been thankful these past few nights for my L.L. Bean comforter. Summer has left us, and we are on to crisper weather and shorter days. Fall necessitates comfort, warm sticky stews, roasted root vegetables, bowls of mashed potatoes, spice breads, and poached fruit.

Around this time of year I start thinking of cooking traditions again, after exploring out and about all summer long, I long to be home in the kitchen, the oven filled with roasting vegetables, or the rising batter of my favorite pumpkin chocolate chip cake. One of my favorite fall dinners is my mom’s Osso Bucco (braised veal shank). When she cooked it, the house would smell delicious for hours, and the reward would be a big meaty treat in each of our bowls. We’d impolitely gnaw down to the bone, and loudly suck out the wobbly marrow.

When chilly air hits us, this is the first thing I want to make. It’s a wonderful project for a Sunday afternoon, requires minimal effort and leaves plenty of time to curl up with a good book while you wait for supper. This stew is largely put together with bits and pieces in my kitchen, but that’s sort of the beauty of it – you can make it how you want. I use lots of carrots, but adding potatoes would be good too. Finding quality pastured veal is difficult, so usually I’ll substitute beef shanks, but you could even make this with stew meat and you’d be rewarded at the end.

To start, I turned the oven to 350 F. These are cross-cut beef shanks I picked up at M.F. Dulock, which I seasoned with salt and pepper. I then heated up my big skillet over medium heat, and cooked some onions in a little schmaltz (chicken fat!) with some La Quercia pancetta.

Then seared off the shanks, a few minutes on each side.

I then took out the meat, added a large chopped carrot, deglazed the pan with some stock and tomato sauce (I used Rao’s Marinara), nestled the meat back in, added a handful of whole garlic cloves, seasoned it all with some dried porcini mushrooms, rosemary and bay leaves, salt and pepper, covered it, and let it cook for a few hours.

After two hours, I added some thickly cut carrots, and cooked it until they were tender, about one more hour. Devon got his served over a big bowl of mashed potatoes.

I got mine with an extra serving of carrots. To finish off the dish, I added the winning combination of parsley and lemon zest, a sort of deconstructed gremolata.

beef shank stew
serves 2 – 4

1 tablespoon good fat (I used schmaltz, you could use butter or olive oil)
1 small onion
1 ounce pancetta, chopped
2-4 large beef shanks (1 per person, 3/4 – 1 lb. each)
1 large chopped carrot
several whole cloves garlic
1 cup tomato sauce
a few cups homemade chicken stock
water (or one part water, one part red wine)
a few dried porcini mushrooms
a bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon. dried rosemary (or a sprig of fresh)
3 large carrots, chopped into coins

for the gremolata:
zest of a lemon
a small handful of parsley, chopped

Start by turning on your oven to 350 degrees. Season your beef shanks with salt and pepper, and set aside. Heat up the fat in a large heavy bottomed skillet or large dutch oven over medium heat. Chop up your onion and add to the pan with a good pinch of salt. Cook for a few minutes and add the pancetta, and a few grinds of fresh pepper from a mill if you have one. Stir about for a few minutes as you chop your carrots, and set them aside.

Raise the heat to medium-high, push aside the onions and pancetta, and place the shanks in the middle of the pan, searing them off a minute or two on each side to brown them. Then, take the meat out, and set aside. If you have four shanks, do this in batches to avoid crowding the meat to get a good sear.

Lower the heat back to medium, add the carrots to the pan, and cook for a few minutes until just slightly softened. Add the stock to the pan to deglaze all the sticky brown bits, stir, and add the tomato sauce. Put your beef shanks back in the pot, add the garlic cloves, and add a few cups of water just to make sure the shanks are almost covered.

Stir in a few dried porcinis, a bay leaf, and a 1/2 teaspoon of dried rosemary, or preferably a sprig of the fresh stuff. Bring to a simmer, cover, and pop in the oven for two hours. After two hours, add the carrot coins or other vegetables you’d like (potatoes would be good), and cook for another hour until the carrots are tender. Serve as is, or over a heaping portion of mashed potatoes. Top with a generous zesting of lemon, and some chopped parsley.

The next day, add some extra cooked meat you have on hand, or use the meaty broth to poach a few eggs in. Here’s mine on day two with some crumbled pork sausage.