Lamb Kofte

In my search for new and different meals to bring for lunch, I stumbled across this Bon Appetit recipe for lamb kofte. I wanted food that was portable and utensil-less, making for easy eating during the work day. I've always found it weird to wield a fork a knife to cut a piece of chicken inside of a Gladware container. Lunch should not be a struggle, but rather a small moment of respite.

Enter the lamb kofte. Pita is a great option when another ham sandwich won't cut it. Of course, you could just make a ham pita. But instead of letting your lunch fall flat, let it fall on flatbread. Let's put some flavor into the mid-day meal with this Middle Eastern classic.

Lamb Kofte
Yields 6 servings, adapted from Bon Appetit Magazine

Ingredients
Yogurt Sauce
1 cup plain yogurt
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
Kofte
2 lbs ground lamb
1/2 cup fresh mint, minced
1/2 cup onion, grated
4 cloves garlic, minced
3 tbsp paprika
1 tbsp cumin
1.5 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
6 pitas
2 tbsp olive oil, divided
2 large onions, halved and sliced
Muhammara
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp molasses
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped

Directions
For the yogurt sauce, combine all ingredients in a medium bowl. Cover and chill.


For the kofte, gently mix lamb, mint, onion, garlic, paprika, cumin, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Use gentle motions and don't overwork the meat or else you'll have tough meatballs. Roll the mixture into 1.5" meatballs. Arrange them on a baking sheet lined with plastic wrap.


Heat 1 tbsp oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the sliced onion and sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper. Saute until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Set aside.


To make the muhammara, add roasted red peppers to the same skillet used to cook the onions, stirring for 1 minute over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 cup water and 2 tbsp molasses (pomegranate if you wish). Bring to a simmer, scraping up any brown bits. Cook until reduced to 2/3 cup, stirring occasionally, about 4 minutes. Mix in parsley. Season to taste with salt and pepper, then transfer to a small bowl.

Add 1 tbsp oil to the skillet and place over medium-high heat. Saute the meatballs in batches until just cooked through, 7-8 minutes.


To assemble the pitas, tuck the meatballs in the pocket (or place on flatbread if that's what you prefer). Top with onions, muhammara and tahini sauce. You can eat it cold or warm, depending on what you like.

What a perfect lunch this sandwich makes. No sliced deli meat and wilted lettuce. Instead, it's packed with delicious Middle Eastern flavors with that lovely caramelization in the background to unite it all. Tired of the usual bag lunch? Then you should opt for something decidedly international, but still totally portable.

Lamb Chops with Pomegranate-Fig Relish

Ever since I came to live in North Carolina, I've come to truly appreciate seasonality with fruits and vegetables. This past year I had many weeks of fresh produce that changed from month to month. I'm even starting to anticipate the arrival of various items at the grocery store. This is mostly because (and this may sound dumb) produce in its season is just so much better. Strawberries are the most salient example: we now have strawberries year round, but they are really at their peak of flavor in summer. Right now, pomegranates are in season, so I've taken advantage of these beautiful fruit to make an easy weeknight dinner.


I bought two pomegranates and de-ariled them while watching TV. Two pomegranates yielded enough arils to fill a large cylindrical Chinese take-out container. For dinner, I made lamb chops with pomegranate-fig relish. You first grill up the lamb chops with a little salt, pepper and cumin. Then you top it with a mixture of pomegranate arils, chopped dried figs (I prefer the black ones), mint, cumin, molasses, and olive oil. The relish forms a lively mixture that complements the lamb (mint and lamb is a combination as old as mint jelly). On the side, I served some couscous and broccolini sauteed with olive oil to keep with a Middle Eastern-ish flair. This dinner was great during the work week because the amount of time it takes to prepare is just about equal to the time it takes to cook the lamb.

Lamb with Greek Salad

Some people in my life have been going low-carb recently. During my last year of high school, I was on the Atkins diet, so I know a little bit about cutting down on the carbohydrates. One problem I had with the diet was learning to eat reasonably. If all you’re counting is carbs, you don’t have to worry about eating as much bacon as you want. That’s a huge problem for the inevitable point when you go off the diet and you don’t know how to judge what’s a reasonable meal. For those who want to cut down on carbohydrates, from refined sugars to pre-made pastas to overly starchy vegetables, here’s the simple formula: meat + lots of veggies + good seasonings. The main goal is to use the vegetables in a way that you don’t miss the rice or potatoes. Make the dish feel whole so you don’t realize what you’re omitting from the diet. The same principle applies to low-fat, low-cal and most other diets where you are purposefully removing something from the diet.


For dinner this week I went Greek. Lamb is a tasty meat that is underused by most families. It has it’s own characteristics that set it apart from the “blank slate” meats that need a lot of coaxing to imbue with flavor. The meat itself was flavored simply with some salt and pepper, then cooked in olive oil until it was a healthy pink on the inside. Spinach was sauteed in the juices afterwards until it was wilted. The last component was the Greek salad made from sliced cucumbers, tomatoes, onion, feta, and a little bit of Italian dressing to help meld the flavors and textures together. To plate it, I decided to build upwards so that my focus was on the main stack and not on a lack of carbs. Salad, topped with spinach, topped with sliced lamb. Everything tasted good and I felt filled in stomach and fulfilled in mind, all because I did not focus on what I was missing and let the dish languish. Instead, I made sure to utilize the ingredients I still have available to their fullest.

Lamb & Couscous - 3/25/08

After a busy week, it was nice to be able to put this meal together very quickly, but still have it be very enjoyable.


The lamb technically needs to marinate in some soy sauce, sherry, vinegar, sugar, cornstarch, salt, and pepper for an hour, but I only did it for 15 minutes and it came out quite good. Some sliced leeks are then cooked in some sesame oil until tender and removed from the pan/wok. The lamb is then cooked with minced ginger in more sesame oil until it is no longer pink. The leeks are added back in with more sherry. All of this came together nicely and the flavors melded.


As a side dish, I wanted something Greek to go with the lamb. I chose couscous salad since it is very easy and flexible. This recipe has you prepare plain couscous with red onion in the pot. This is then tossed with kalamata olives, golden raisins, feta cheese, parsley, and pine nuts. For a dressing, equal parts of lemon juice and olive oil are whisked together with chopped garlic, oregano, salt, and pepper. This dressing is then mixed into the couscous. This salad was absolutely delicious. I did not expect the raisins to go well with the salty ingredients, but their sweetness was muted. Couscous salad can be made with all sorts of other flavors, including basil, lime, curry, tomato, eggplant, dill, and pretty much anything else you want. It is a pasta, though, so don't think it is a healthy, whole-grain rice. This salad would also be good cold or at room temperature, but I prefer it piping hot.