Lamb Stew with Apricots from 13th Century Syria

My garden this year is producing rainbow chard.  This makes the squirrels very happy!  They eat the leafy green parts, leaving me the bare rib.  At least they don't eat all the leafy parts -- I do get some.  But those bare ribs got me thinking about recipes that ask for just the ribs, and that led me to Charles Perry's wonderful book, Scents and Flavors, A Syrian Cookbook.

ISBN 978-1-4798-5628-2

There were several candidates that looked tasty, so I made a list of their ingredients and visited my local farmers market.  When I saw how lovely the fresh apricots were, I know which recipe I wanted to make.  It is on page 139, and is recipe number 6.134.

Section on apricots, two recipes

The first recipe

Boil fresh apricots until they fall apart and thicken while boiling with a piece of bread or a handful of pounded rice.  Strain and put into a pot.  Add pieces of fat meat and leave on the fire until half done.  Add ribs of chard, mint, whole onions, and whole unpeeled heads of garlic.  Make large meatballs with rice, crushed chickpeas, and pepper.  Leave in the pan until the meat is fully cooked and falling apart, then ladle out.  If it isn't sour enough, add lemon juice.

My Redaction

2 pounds lamb shoulder

1 lb 10 oz fresh apricots (or more!)

13 ounces small onions

1 head garlic

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

1 oz rice, ground

1/2 cup garbanzo beans (chickpeas) from a can, rinsed and drained

5 oz chard ribs

1/2 oz uncooked rice for the meatballs

1 sprig mint

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt to taste

My Notes

Pit the apricots and slice them into eighths.  Put them into a saucepan with 2 cups water.  Mix in the ground rice.  Bring to a boil then reduce heat and allow to barely simmer until the apricots have fallen apart and the mixture is thickened, stirring occasionally.  This took two hours because I had it simmering very slowly.

Push the mixture through a sieve and discard the skins that didn't go through.  Return the mixture to the pan.

Here's where I had to make an interpretation:  The recipe calls for fat meat and for meatballs.  Were they two separate ingredients?  Or was I supposed to use the fat meat to make the meatballs?  I decided to use the meat to make the meatballs.  I think it would be fine to have them as two separate ingredients, too.

Put the lamb into the pureed apricots then slowly simmer.  I let it simmer for 10 minutes and then turned the pieces and let them simmer for another 10 minutes.  I noticed the meat's juices were mixing with the puree.  

I left the meat in big pieces, cut up only enough to fit in the pan.

Remove the lamb, cut the meat away the bones, and chop the meat coarsely.  I used a food processor.

This looked like it was cooked "half done."

Chopped!

Pound the garbanzo beans until they are mostly broken up and like a paste.  Mix that paste into the lamb, along with the pepper and whole rice.

Chickpeas before.

Chickpeas after pounding, then fluffed with a fork.

Form meatballs that are about 1 1/2 to 2 inches in diameter.  (They were very moist.)  Set aside.

Clean the onions by cutting off the ends and removing the outer skin.  

Clean the head of garlic.  I had trouble getting the dirt off the root end, so I decided to break apart the head and use unpeeled cloves.

Chop the chard into 1 inch pieces.

Remove the leaves from the mint sprig and finely chop them.

Onions, chard, and mint are ready for the pan!

Mix the mint into the puree.  Stir in the chard and then add the whole onions and garlic cloves.

Carefully place the meatballs into the pan.  I had to push the onions around to make room for them and to make sure they were surrounded by sauce.

Cover the pan and slowly simmer for about an hour.  I stirred it after 15 minutes and believe that was a mistake because some of the meatballs fell apart.  At the end of the hour, all the meatballs had fallen apart.  I decided that was not a problem.  

When I tasted it, I decided it needed a splash of lemon juice to make it more sour.  I estimate I added about 1 tablespoon, at the very most.  I also added a little salt.

The Verdict

I served this stew with some white rice and a watermelon salad that had mint, lime juice, olive oil, a little salt and pepper, and a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over the top.

There were no meatballs -- the meat was disbursed throughout the sauce.  Since I had chopped the meat coarsely, the pieces were visible and did not melt into the sauce.  I liked the way it looked.

The onions appeared to be cooked through.  I could not see the garlic cloves.

I loved the flavor!  It was subtle; you should not think it was bland.  I thought it was well-balanced.  None of the supporting flavors stood out or dominated, and there was a definite lamb flavor.  But when I focused on what I was eating, I could get the hint of apricot.

The onions cut apart easily and were cooked through, so were very mild.  Having to cut them made for a texture and activity change while eating, which was welcome.  I could choose to either cut them into pieces and mix the pieces into the stew in my bowl, or eat chunks of onion.  I did both, and liked it.

The garlic was interesting.  The cloves were cooked all the way through, so they were also mild, with just enough of a garlic burst to make it interesting.  However, my guest taster and I did not like having to pull the skins out of our mouths when we encountered them.  I think if I had been comfortable in putting the whole head of garlic into the stew, I would have removed it once the cooking was done and no one would have gotten it in a spoonful.  Perhaps the peeled cloves could have been served as a spread on bread or added to the stew as a garnish? 

It was an enjoyable meal.  My guest taster had three servings!  The watermelon salad was a refreshing, sweet-and-sour accompaniment, and we included a nice pinot noir.  

Success!

If I were to do this again (and my guest taster says I should), I think I would use at least double the amount of apricots.  It would be nice to have that flavor stand out more.  I would also use more mint, so I got its distinctive tang on my tongue while eating.  I would not want to shift the balance of flavors too much, as the subtle blend was very good.  

It would be fun to try the option of having both meat and meatballs.  I suspect that was the original intent.  The meatballs would be a good visual aspect and make the eating experience more interesting.  I think the pepper would have a chance to stand out more.

I also think I would try pearl onions, although I didn't mind the onions I used in this attempt.  

I might also start with dried garbanzo beans and pound them to a powder.  I suspect this would help bind the meatballs to keep them from falling apart.

Leftovers:  I reheated the stew and the rice, served them side-by-side, but this time I drizzled some pomegranate molasses over the top of the stew.  It was an excellent addition, adding more sweet and sour to the overall flavor balance.  

Dried Apricot Cake - A Shaker Recipe

Sometimes when I am thinking about this blog, I just pick a random book off the shelf and browse through it, looking for ideas.  Today I was drawn to The Best of Shaker Cooking, by Amy Bess Miller and Persis Fuller, which was published originally in 1970 and this revised edition in 1985.

ISBN 0-02-584980-8

Shaker cooking is interesting because of the use of herbs and also because those folks really used and polished their recipes.  Cooking tasty, nutritious food was a noble goal in their eyes, as evidenced by this "Comment on Kitchen Education" from the Shaker Manifesto, published in 1883:

The origin of many of the troubles which afflict mankind may be traced to a disordered stomach. ... Give the stomach good, wholesome food, and it will fill your veins with pure blood; which in turn will give you a healthy brain and drive away the whole brood of manufactured troubles. 

The manifesto quote is on page 434 of the cookbook, and is followed by the authors' "Note on Shaker Cooking."

Shaker cooking is not a collection of recipes but rather an attitude toward food and its preparation.  In Shaker kitchens meals were planned and cooked to satisfy both bodily and, in a sense, spiritual hunger.  The Sisters prepared food as efficiently, nutritiously, and tastily as possible.  ... They knew, too, that meals must "create contentment, joy and satisfaction in those who partake of them."

I look at each recipe as one that is proven and pushed to be its best.

In skimming through it, I realized first that I wanted a dessert (my sweet tooth was speaking loudly to me) and second, I had a bag of dried apricots that needed to be used.  A dried apricot cake seemed to fit the requirements.  This recipe had the added bonus that it required sour cream (which I had) and not milk (which I didn't have).  It is credited to the North Union Shaker Village, Ohio.  You can read more about the history of the village by clicking here.

Shaker Dried Apple (or Apricot) Cake (page 213)

1 cup dried apples (or apricots)

1 cup molasses

2/3 cup sour cream

1 cup sugar

1 egg

1 3/4 cups flour, sifted

2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

The apricots were soaked the night before.  Just apricots and water left on the counter.

Soak dried apples in water overnight.  In the morning cut fine and simmer in molasses for 20 minutes.  Cool.  Combine cream, sugar, and egg and beat until smooth.  Combine dry ingredients and sift several times.  Blend both mixtures and beat until smooth.  Add fruit and molasses.  Turn into buttered bread pan and bake in  moderate 350 degree F. oven for 1 hour.  This is a very tasty dessert; the dried apples take on a citron flavor.  Makes 1 cake.

My Notes

Plan ahead of the day you are making this cake because you have to soak the dried fruit overnight.  

I took the drained, soaked apricots and first sliced them thinly, then chopped them until they were small bits.  Some bits were smaller than others.  

I love the ulu knife.

I put them in a pan with the molasses, brought them to a simmer over medium heat, then reduced the heat to low for the 20 minute simmer.  I stirred them occasionally.  

Before cooking

When the 20 minutes was up, I turned off the heat to let them cool.  This was a good time to start preheating the oven, although it took more than an hour to cool the fruit.  This is also a good time to butter the loaf pan.  I put the oven to 325 degrees because I was using a glass loaf pan.

After cooking

For the rest of the recipe, I just followed along through the steps as directed.  Here is the sour cream, sugar, and egg after mixing.

Then, in a separate bowl, I placed the dry ingredients.  It is helpful to have the brown spices because instead of sifting the mix, I whisked it until it looked well mixed, and the brown spices show me that.

Both mixtures blended together nicely.

And then the fruit and molasses mixture went in.

I noticed that the mixture started bubbling right away, so I moved quickly to get the batter into the bread pan.  Since I wasn't sure how much the cake would rise, I was concerned that putting in all the batter into one pan would overflow it, so I grabbed another loaf pan, buttered it, and put the rest of the batter in it.  Both pans were no more than 2/3 full.

After one hour of baking, the loaf pans came out.  I was disappointed to see that both had collapsed in the middle, although poking in a pick told me they were cooked through.

I let them cool for a little while, then pulled the cakes out of their pans and let them finish cooling on a rack.  Having them upside down made them look better, but I don't think Paul Hollywood of the Great British Baking Show would have been fooled by this.

The Verdict

These are dark cakes and the scent of cinnamon and cloves filled the house.  Very nice!

The texture was fine, the crumb was moist and tender, and the fruit came through as little bits of chewy dispersed throughout.  I thought it was interesting that I could not tell they were apricots, as the flavors of the molasses and the spices were dominant. 

It was sweet but not cloyingly so.  The exterior was a little chewy and slightly crisp, which was nice.  Later it was not really crisp but very sticky.  If you don't like cloves, find a substitution because they were very dominant, along with the molasses.  I found that there was a pleasant bitterness, which my guest taster thought was wonderful.  He decided this cake would be perfect with his 80 year old madeira, so I gave him some pieces to take home.

My conclusion was that this cake needed a frosting, so I took some cream cheese and spread it on a piece.  That was good, but what was better was mixing cream cheese with a little powdered sugar and a splash of lemon juice, mixing it until it was smooth, then spreading it on the cake.  

That was excellent.  The frosting added another layer of complexity and also balanced the bitter, sweet, and spice with a creamy texture and a little sour from the lemon juice.

I think this cake would be good with a robust tea or hot coffee.  I also think it might be good with a little finely slivered bits of candied ginger in the batter.  Perhaps replacing the cloves with powdered ginger would be good.  A sprinkling of slivered almonds over the frosting would be pretty and tasty, too.

Success!  The recipe "felt" like a quick bread but some of the techniques (cooking the fruit in molasses, mixing the wet with the dry ingredients thoroughly) were different.  I don't know what I did wrong that made the tops sink in, but it turned out to be no big deal once I turned them over.  It is very reminiscent of a gingerbread, but softer and very moist and tender.