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Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

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Some like it SPICY and some like it HOT but I like it spicy hot!

Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

I mean it makes me do the happy dance when ALL those delicious middle eastern spice combinations blend together and marry into a pan of ground lamb, ground beef and blistered tomatoes making your kitchen smells like a spice shop in the marketplace of downtown Istanbul! Put the icing on the cake and finish the dish with braised eggs, fresh herbs, and a cool yogurt-tahini mixture and I’m done; it’s like an opera happening right in my mouth!

I think the first time I experimented with all these complex flavors was after our trip to Rhonda, Spain. I know, I know, you are probably saying “Spain”? What? Well, because Rhonda is really close to Morocco, a lot of the flavor profile is rolled into the cuisine and OMG it is heavenly…seriously heavenly.

Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

After coming home I was so inspired that I went down and purchased a TON of spices to attempt to recreate the dishes at home. Has this ever happened to you? Your on vacation in a magical destination, you are completely engulfed in the culture and experience….eating incredible food and drinking delicious wine. Then at the end of the meal, you ask to speak to the chef and have him explain the preparation (after a bottle of wine and dessert drinks #notwise and you are CONVINCED you will remember EVERY detail! After two weeks and several more meals and bottles of wine, you’re home and ready to conquer……good luck. I can’t remember yesterday much less more than that so, I had to rely on my pallet, some research, and a lot of memories of special nights tucked away in the magic of the restaurants in Rhonda.

Several, I mean several attempts at this particular dish, I was happy (or maybe just ready to be happy) either way, it tasted good…really good and at least as close as I could get to the flavor profile tucked away in my memory……fondly tucked away.Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

If you decide to make this, it is SO important to make sure your spices are FRESH and that you cook it together for awhile…nothing can replace time and slow cooking to tenderize the meat and create flavor depth, nothing…..so make sure you have great ingredients and an afternoon (and a bottle of wine) and just enjoy the magic of being transported somewhere across the pond…..

Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

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Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Serves: 8
Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 2 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 jalapeño, chopped fine and seeds removed
  • 12 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • 1 lb ground lamb
  • ½ lb ground beef
  • 2 teaspoons coriander, plus extra to garnish
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon ground cardamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 1 cup toasted, unsalted pistachios, coarsely chopped
  • ½ cup toasted pine nuts
  • 2 teaspoons harissa powder (store-bought)
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon peel (store-bought )
  • 2½ cups baby heirloom tomatoes
  • 1 cup chicken stock
  • 8large free-range eggs
  • ¼ cup cilantro leaves
  • ¼ cup parsley leaves
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Yogurt Sauce:
  • 1 cup Greek yogurt
  • 1½ tablespoonstahini paste
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
  1. Turn oven to 375
  2. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium, heavy-bottomed frying pan for which you have a tight-fitting lid. Add the onion, jalapeño, and garlic and sauté for 6 minutes to soften and color a bit. Raise the heat to high, add the lamb and beef, and brown well, 5 to 6 minutes. Season with the coriander, cumin, clove, cardamon, sugar, some salt, and some black pepper and turn to simmer, add ½ cup of chicken stock and cook for 30 minutes, covered. Turn off the heat, stir in the nuts, harissa, and preserved lemon and set aside.
  3. While the onion is cooking, heat a separate small cast-iron or other heavy pan over high heat. Once piping hot, add the cherry tomatoes and char for 4 to 6 minutes, tossing them in the pan occasionally, until slightly blackened on the outside. Set aside.
  4. Prepare the yogurt sauce by whisking together all the ingredients with a pinch of salt. It needs to be thick and rich, but you may need to add a splash of water if it is stiff.
  5. You can leave the meat, tomatoes, and sauce at this stage for up to an hour. When you are ready to serve, reheat the meat, add the rest of chicken stock, and bring to a boil. Make 8 small wells in the mix and break an egg into each well. Cover the pan and cook the eggs place in an oven at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. Place the tomatoes on top, avoiding the yolks
  6. Remove from the heat and dot with dollops of the yogurt sauce, sprinkle with a little coriander, and finish with the cilantro and parsley. Serve at once with warm naan bread and white rice.

Lamb With Blistered Tomatoes, Braised Eggs, and Tahini

Greek Lamb Shanks

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Greek-Lamb-Shanks-with-Cipollini-and-Potatoes

Greek-Lamb-Shanks-with-Cipollini-and-Potatoes

Whenever I ask Enrique what special meal he wants on a Sunday, 9 times out of 10 he asks for this recipe. It really is quite the marriage of flavors and couple that with “fall off the bone tenderness” and you truly have a magical experience.

Since I know how often the request for this recipe is coming, I always have some shanks in my freezer. I have an awesome local source that makes this dish that much more amazing; gotta love these farmers and purveyors!

Another special element that highlights this dish is when I remember all the amazing lamb dishes we have had when we travel. I could eat lamb everyday and in everyway but infused with lemon, white wine, and fresh herbs is probably one of my most favorite preparations. I think for both of us, some of this fondness comes from our 8th anniversary spent in Greece.

We were on the Island of Santorini for 1 of the 2 weeks we spent in this amazing country. If you haven’t been to Santorini, you need to put it on your bucket list immediately! If you have been to Santorini, you already know how completely enchanting this island is so you won’t be surprised that we had a delightful anniversary dinner in a small, local restaurant on the second floor with our own balcony overlooking the sea. I probably could have been fed rocks and dirt and been in bliss completely due to the ambience…. but top it off with a delicious Grecian dinner and I think we probably were transported to Heaven’s main gate; in fact, I am positive we were.

The evening began with 2 appetizers of various fresh fishes, simply prepared both fried and grilled and combined with fresh herbs and local olive oil. Next was a simple salad topped with grilled Mediterranean vegetables and fresh lemon juice. I couldn’t have imagined anything could get better until they served us the lamb shank prepared in the outside wood burning oven with herbs, white wine, lemon, and olive oil. It was succulent, rich, and decadent. Dessert was fresh fruit and local cheeses. Simply divine and one of the best anniversary dinners we ever had…..

So this recipe is my interpretation of that memorable lamb dish overlooking the sea in Santorini…..try this for Valentine’s Day and transport yourself….

Greek-Lamb-Shanks-with-Cipollini-and-Potatoes

Greek-Lamb-Shanks-with-Cipollini-and-Potatoes

 

Greek Lamb Shanks
 
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Author:
Recipe type: Main
Cuisine: Greek
Serves: 4
Ingredients
  • 4 Lamb Shanks (each about 1¼ lbs., 1 shank is a portion)
  • Parsley Leaves, lightly packed
  • 4 T Dried Oregano
  • 8 Garlic Cloves, minced
  • 4 Lemons, juiced
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt and Pepper
  • 1 Cup White Wine
  • Chicken Stock
  • 1 lb. Small Potatoes
  • 12 Cippolini Onions or 4 Sweet Onions, quartered
Instructions
  1. Squeeze lemon should be about ½ cup total
  2. In a food processor, add ½ garlic, 2 T oregano, bunch of parsley and a little oil, blend together. Rub lamb shanks with mixture, set aside.
  3. In same food processor, repeat process above. In a bowl, add onion and potatoes and toss with mixture. Add salt and pepper and set aside.
  4. Heat oven to 375
  5. Heat dutch oven and salt and pepper the shanks and then brown all over med-high heat. Add lemon juice and white wine, reduce by half.
  6. Add back shanks and add chicken broth until ½ way up sides of meat and add bay leaf. Put in oven for 1½ hours. After 1½ hours, reduce oven to 350 for another 30 minutes.
  7. Remove shanks from oven and pull out of dutch oven. Add potato onion, juices, salt, and pepper. Add back shanks and more chicken broth, if needed. Reduce heat to 325 and cook for another 1½ hours.
  8. Serve with naan and a greek salad

Beef and Lamb Meatballs with Fava Beans and Lemon!

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BEEF AND LAMB MEATBALLS WITH FAVA BEANS AND LEMON

This dish just makes me happy. I’m going to start this post with that statement because I can. It is just the BEST of all worlds when you bring in every element.

I found this brilliant gem in Yotam Ottolenghi’s book Jerusalem. This book is stacked full of simply delicious recipes and I find myself pouring through its contents on a regular basis.

What makes it fun is to read his memories of the dishes and go then back to the archives of my travel ventures and compare notes. While I haven’t been to Jerusalem, I have had the pleasure of eating many a delish meal heavily influenced by the Jewish traditions and ingredients.

So this trip down memory lane brings me to Spain, if you can believe that. Yeah, I know, it’s a bit FAR and I’m not even in the same arena but hang with me, there’s a story.

If you have ever had the chance to go to the Andalucía area of Spain, the food simply rocks, really. We ate our way through the cities, villages, train stations, wherever. Nowhere was disappointing.

On one of our gluttonous jaunts, we stumbled across a Moroccan restaurant in Rhonda, Spain. We found it off the beaten path from the old town center. The outside tables were across a small street in a park so of course we chose to sit there. Plus it was fun to watch the waiters carry food and drink out while dogging the cars zipping through the square. It was impressive and I wondered how they interviewed for their staff? “Looking for waiters who are talented in stunt work”.

The menu itself was an inch thick and I immediately thought, HOW can they be this good at ALL of this? Well, we were here and if nothing else, the entertainment was worth it and I can always drink wine.

I decided we would need 3 days to study the menu so we asked the stunt man, I mean waiter for his recommendations. As he started page by page, we quickly realized we just needed to entrust this multi-talented man with the task of satisfying our pallets.

He was very calculated as he chose the dishes he felt would please our curiosity and us; he didn’t disappoint. Three hours later, we were filled with the most exquisite combinations of spices, herbs, nuts, and fruits emulsified into sauces and dressed over appetizers, salads, and then fish and lamb. The flavors were so complex and their layers lingered through the entire experience of the dishes.

One of the highlight dishes we had were lamb meatballs laced with almonds, herbs, and various spices and then placed in a delicate sauce of lamb stock, beans, and onion. I dreamt of the restaurant and this dish for days and returned twice in hopes of conquering the menu but always ended up with this favorite.

This recipe takes me back to the park across the street from the little restaurant.

Beef and Lamb Meatballs with Fava Beans and Lemon!
 
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Pair up the fava bean with another springtime delicacy, lamb and finish it all with the brightness of lemon and you have the PERFECT dish! Mop this up with fresh pita bread OR serve it over basmati/orzo rice…perhaps do BOTH, which is my favorite! I also add a yogurt-tahini sauce to the top which mixes in a creaminess to the complex flavors.
Author:
Recipe type: Entree
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Serves: 6
Ingredients
  • For the meatballs
  • ½ lb minced beef
  • ½ lb minced lamb
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs
  • 2 tbsp each chopped flat-leaf parsley, mint, dill and coriander, plus ½ tbsp extra of each to finish
  • 2 large garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbsp baharat spice mix, recipe below
  • 1 tbsp ground cumin
  • 2 tsp capers, chopped
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 4½ tbsp olive oil
  • 1½ cups fava beans, fresh or frozen
  • 
4 whole thyme sprigs
  • 6 garlic cloves, sliced
  • 8 spring onions, cut at an angle into 2cm segments
  • 2½ tbsp lemon juice
  • 
2½ cups chicken stock
  • salt and black pepper
  • Baharat spice mix:
  • 4 tablespoons ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons ground coriander
  • Fresh cinnamon stick
  • 2 tablespoons ground cloves
  • 3 tablespoons ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
  • 4 teaspoons fresh nutmeg, grated
  • 4 tablespoons paprika
Instructions
  1. Put all the ingredients for the meatballs in a large bowl. Add three-quarters of a teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper, mix with your hands and form into balls about the size of ping-pong balls. Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in an extra-large frying pan for which you have a lid. Sear half the meatballs over a medium heat, turning them until they are brown all over – this will take about five minutes. Remove from the pan, add another half-tablespoon of oil to the pan and cook the other batch of meatballs. Once browned all over, remove these from the pan, too, then wipe it clean with paper towel.
  2. While the meatballs are cooking, throw the fava beans into a pot with plenty of salted boiling water and blanch for two minutes. Drain, refresh under cold water, then remove and discard the skins from half the fava beans.
  3. Heat the remaining oil in the meatball pan, add the thyme, garlic and spring onion, and sauté over a medium heat for three minutes. Add the unshelled fava beans, 1/1/2 tablespoons of the lemon juice, ⅓ cup of the stock, a ¼ teaspoon of salt and plenty of black pepper. The beans should be almost covered by liquid. Pop on the lid and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes.
  4. Return the meatballs to the pan, add the remaining stock, cover again and simmer gently for 25 minutes. Taste the sauce and adjust the seasoning. If it is still very runny, remove the lid and reduce a little. Once the meatballs stop cooking, they will soak up a lot of the juices, so make sure there is still plenty of sauce at this point. You can leave the meatballs now, off the heat, until you're ready to serve.
  5. Just before serving, reheat the meatballs and add a more broth, if needed, to get enough sauce. Gently stir in the remaining herbs, lemon juice and the shelled fava beans and serve immediately.