Costillas de carnero panadas -- Breaded Mutton Ribs, a Pinedo recipe

This particular Pinedo recipe appealed to me for several reasons:  it was a main dish using lamb (which I love) and it looked so simple -- just three ingredients!  I know the recipe says "mutton", but I could only obtain lamb, so I did my best.

I obtained a rack of lamb that was small, given that only two of us to eat the meal.  

Original recipe, pgs 86-87:

My Translation

Breaded Mutton Ribs

    Butter is melted and the ribs are put in it for a quarter of an hour. Before serving they are put over a very live fire, being careful to turn them when they have browned on one side.

    They are arranged in the shape of a crown, set aside and sprinkled with breadcrumbs on both sides, taking care that they are well covered.

    They are immediately placed in a platter, with breadcrumbs on top and bottom, and a quarter of an hour before serving they are put on the grill over a very active fire, being careful not to cook or burn the bread. 

 

My Redaction

1.7 pound rack of lamb's ribs

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter (I used salted)

1/2 to 3/4 cup dried bread crumbs

That's all, folks!

Over medium heat, melt the butter in a pan wide enough to hold the rack of ribs.  

Place the ribs in the melted butter over medium-low heat.  I had it just hot enough that the meat in the butter had bubbling going on.  Set the timer for 15 minutes.

At 7 1/2 minutes into the cooking, flip the ribs to cook on the other side.  

Remove the ribs from the butter.  Place them over a hot fire on the grill to cook them further and to brown them.

Remove from the grill, roll them into a crown with the rib ends up, tying it with a string to hold the shape.

Coat them thickly with all the breadcrumbs that will stick to the meat.  Take back to the grill to cook them more, allowing the heat to turn the crumb coating into a crispy, golden crust, but not burned.

Serve and enjoy!

My Notes

My thought was that most of the cooking was done in the butter, since the fire on the grill was supposed to be "lively", i.e., hot.  That is why I kept the temperature low enough to keep from cooking the outside too quickly.  My meat did brown, though.

Before cooking in the butter.

After 7.5 minutes.  One side browned.

Fifteen minutes was not enough to cook the thickest part of the meat, but it did cook it about halfway into that thickness.  

I was confused by her wording as I wasn't sure if the ribs would be cooked twice on the grill or not.  I chose to cook them twice because I thought that otherwise there would not be enough time for the meat to be cooked.  My goal with the first time on the grill was to get the meat browner and to cook the meat further.

Goal achieved!

My rack was too small to roll into a crown shape.  On the other hand, it was easy to coat with the breadcrumbs.

As many crumbs as would stick.

When I returned the meat to the grill, I turned the heat down so as not to burn the crumbs and to give them a chance to change from dried crumbs to something else.  The crumbs absorbed the butter and the fat in the meat to make a crust. 

Mmmm.  Look at that crust.

I think I probably rushed the second grilling, not giving it a full 15 minutes (timing it was a challenge while I was fixing other dishes for the meal).  I wish I had given it more time as I could see some pink to the meat.

The Verdict

I cut the rack into individual rib pieces and served it with flavored couscous and a sliced tomato salad.

And a nice pinot noir.

Some of the meat was rare, which my guest taster and I like, and some was very rare, I would saw raw, which my guest taster likes but I am not fond of.  I mostly served the rare pieces and set the raw bits aside for reheating (and thus more cooking) later.

The flavor was amazing.  For all that it was just meat, butter, and breadcrumbs, it was wonderful.  I think the salted butter was the right choice, even for someone like me who is not a big salt eater.  It bumped up the taste enough to make it more than "just meat."

The crumb crust added a lovely crunch to each bite, the butter was a subtle background flavor without being greasy, and the meat was tender and ... meaty ...  

We enjoyed our meal, and my guest taster said he would eat this dish any time I wanted to fix it.  We each cut the meat off the bone with our knives and forks, but had no restraint about holding the bones with our fingers to finish nibbling off the last bites.  

Success!  And put a bowl on the table to hold the discarded bones.

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.  

The "Making Do" Challenge -- Stuffed Eggplant

I decided that I needed to "up" the challenge of maintaining an historical food blog during a pandemic by cooking an historical recipe without running to the store for all the ingredients.  This is what they had to do:  cook with what you have and still make it taste good.  (I've been doing that a lot lately and love the creativity it inspires!)

Two eggplants were telling me they needed to be used.  I kept thinking about a recipe I did a long time ago for this blog,  Eggplant -- The Perfect Way.   It is wonderful, with cheese and basil and spices.  But I did not have the right cheese and definitely no basil -- the snails made short work of that in my garden and the seedlings are not big enough yet.

But I did have a packet of ground lamb in the freezer.  Lamb and eggplant are a good pairing, and both together suggested a particular geographic location to consider for recipes.

ISBN 978-0-520-26174-7

I really like this book.  The foreword was written by food historian Charles Perry who deftly puts the recipes and time period into context.  It even contains a description of how to make murri, a soy-sauce-like condiment used at the time.  The recipes themselves are easy to understand and enticing to make.  The color plates are mostly of art, servingware, and kitchenware from the time period.

I chose Recipe 44, on page 94.

Stuffed Eggplant

Ibn Razin, in one of seventeen recipes for stuffed eggplant, calls for extra stuffing to be spread over the eggplant before it is put in the oven.

Take some of our large eggplants.  Remove the head [ris] of each eggplant and hollow out the inside in order to extract the pulp while taking care not to cut the skin; indeed, [the skin] should be of a good thickness.  Then take some meat and pound it in a mortar and boil it.  When it is cooked, pound it in the mortar [again] in order to make it still more tender.  Put [it] in a pot [dast] and add fresh sheep tail fat, dry coriander [seeds], caraway, pepper, Chinese cinnamon, and fresh chopped coriander [cilantro] and parsley in great quantities.  Fry all of it until it is roasted.  Add salt and stuff the eggplant with this mixture.  Close up [the stuffed eggplants] with what was cut off [i.e., the head].  Insert [in each eggplant] three sticks of good-quality wood that has been smoked [in order to reattach the head], then put them in the pot and cook over a lively fire in the sheep tail fat until they are well cooked.  Then put them on a serving dish [zubdiyya] and sprinkle with dry coriander.  At the moment of serving, remove the sticks and throw them away.



My Notes

I had no cilantro so I decided to use just parsley (from my garden!).  Instead of sheep tail fat, I used olive oil.

I thought it interesting that there was no mention of "purging" the eggplant, after having read Perry's discussion of how eggplant was unpopular until it was discovered that salting it would remove the bitterness.  I decided to follow the preparation directions in order -- that is, hollowing the eggplants before cooking the filling -- so I put the prepared eggplants into salted water while making the filling.

Honestly, I wasn't sure which end of the eggplant was the head.  I decided it was the big end so it would be easy to hollow it and still leave thick walls.



I used a knife with a long, slender blade to roughly cut a circle into the length of the eggplant.  This defined the thickness of the walls.  Then I used a sturdy spoon to scoop out the flesh.  Sometimes I poked the flesh a few times with the knife to make it easier to scoop.

Considering the meat I had was already ground, I decided I didn't need to pound it, boil it, and pound it again in order to make it tender. 

The one pound of lamb was sauteed in olive oil and I added

     1/4 teaspoon powdered coriander
     1/4 teaspoon caraway seeds
     1/2 teaspoon pepper
     1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
     1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

Nearly done

Once it was cooked, I added 1/4 teaspoon salt and stirred it in well.

Stuffing the eggplant was easy.  I just spooned the filling in, pushing it down to compact it after every few scoops.  My goal was to stuff it to the brim and just a little past.

Stuff it!

I didn't happen to have any smoked sticks around so I decided to use toothpicks instead.  Then I fried the eggplants in olive oil, turning them to cook on all sides.

The picks were angled a little to help hold on the head.

I cooked them until the head fell off and the stuffing starting coming out. 

To serve them, I put them on a plate with the head next to it, after removing and throwing away the toothpicks.  Then I sprinkled them with some powdered coriander.

The Verdict



I served them with a tossed green salad and some of the sorrel puree that had been thinned and flavored with beef bouillon. 

The stuffing was great -- very flavorful and I think I got the spice balance just right.  The eggplant was slightly undercooked in places, making it harder to cut than the well-cooked parts.  But the combination of eggplant and filling was tasty! 

The eggplant was a little bland by itself, which served as a good support for the filling.  The combination was savory, spicy, creamy (the eggplant), slightly chewy (the filling).  I noticed that the coriander sprinkled on top was warmed by the hot eggplant and provided a lovely, enticing, spicy scent when I sat down to eat.

Success!

The ends of the eggplant were not cooked well at all.  I believe this is because they never touched the hot oil in the pan.  The sides were all that were eaten.

The note in italics at the beginning of the recipe came to mind at this point.  If I had baked the eggplants instead of frying them, I think they would have been thoroughly cooked, even at the ends.  I would not have had the issue of needing to stop cooking when the head fell off, either. 

If I did this again, I would try baking them.  I might even spread more of the filling over the top before doing so!

I did have extra filling, which went well in a quesadilla for my lunch the next day.

Chakapuli, a Lamb Stew from Georgian Russia

A few months ago I was treated to dinner at a Russian restaurant.  I had looked at the menu online in advance, so I knew I wanted to try chakapuli.  It was described as a lamb stew with onions, tarragon, wine, and plum sauce.

I had no idea how it would taste but I knew I wanted to try it.  And it did not disappoint:  The lamb shank was served in the bowl and rice was on the side, which I mixed into the stew as I ate.  The broth was rich and flavorful, and I loved every bite.

That, of course, meant I needed to try it at home!  There was a challenge in making it myself:  the plum sauce was made from unripe plums, which are not always found in the markets.  I read many recipes online and some of them said to use tkemali sauce, which is made from the plums and can be purchased online.  Well.  I really wanted to avoid purchasing the tkemali sauce because I had found recipes for it.  But it all came down to finding the unripe plums.

My local imported foods market had never heard of tkemali sauce but the other day I went in hoping to find canned unripe or sour plums.  I asked for them and -- hooray! -- was sent to find fresh, FRESH unripe plums that looked just like all the pictures I had seen online.  I was happy to bring a bag home, along with a bunch of fresh tarragon that was just asking for my attention.

I had already procured the lamb shank, so I felt like I was ready to try chakapuli.

I don't have a specific recipe that I followed for this post.  Chakapuli is such a beloved stew in Georgia that there are many variations, probably as many as there are families who make it.  Some called for hot chilies, others for waxy potatoes.  Some required tkemali sauce but others just said to use the plums and add the spices that would be in the tkemali sauce right into the stew.   I wanted to reproduce the version I had in the restaurant, so I decided to skip making the tkemali sauce.

For the seasoning, I chose the spice mix my daughter brought home from her trip to Uzbekistan.  My Russian friend tells me it is a "Universal Spice Mix", and it has dried herbs and vegetables as well as a variety of spices.  I've tried it before on baked chicken and in other stews, and liked it.



The ingredients are approximate as I didn't really measure.  Basically I crossed my fingers and hoped for a good result.  Do you know how hard it is to cook with your fingers crossed?

My Version

1 lamb shank
1 - 2 tablespoons butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups white wine
4 cups water
a good sprinkling of the Universal Spice Mix, or whatever spice mix suits your fancy
a heaping teaspoon of minced garlic
half a bunch of tarragon
half a bunch of green onions
about 1/2 cup parsley
8 to 10 unripe plums

I used about half of the herbs and onions you see here.

I used a big Dutch oven for the whole process.

Melt the butter and then add the lamb shank.  While it is browning, strip the leaves off the tarragon stems, throw the stems away, and coarsely chop the leaves.

Check the shank and turn it to keep browning it.

Trim and slice the green onions.  Pull the parsley off the stems (a few stems are fine) and chop those.

Lovely herbs!

When the lamb is nicely browned, pour in the white wine and reduce by one half or more.  You can see it deglazing the pan.

Browned and now the wine is reducing

Once the wine is reduced, add in the other ingredients.  I saved the spices for last and sprinkled it all over everything.

Getting hotter now

Bring it to a simmer, put the lid on, turn the heat to low, and go do other things for a few hours.

It is ready when the meat is tender and falling off the bones.  The smell is heavenly but you have to wait patiently!

Now a lovely stew

I added a little salt (about 1/2 teaspoon) at the very end.  I also pulled the rest of the meat off the bone.

The Verdict

I served it over some very dry European style bread.  More (fresh) bread was on the side as well as some butter.  White wine (the same as in the chakapuli) was the beverage of choice.  Fresh apricots were dessert.

You really want more plums than this in your bowl

The meat was tender enough to cut with a spoon but not overcooked.  The hard plums had softened into squishy balls of fruity-but-tart morsels.  (Beware the pit.)  The broth was rich and meaty, and the herb flavors came shining through.  It was also a little tart but more like a background flavor.

The broth was very well balanced in flavors, but every so often the slight licorice flavor of the tarragon dominated in a spoonful.  This was not a problem!  It made for a tasty dance on my tongue.

The dried bread made a perfect sponge for this stew which I would have called a soup because of the amount of broth.

Success!!!

It was just the right amount to serve for two.

I know that fresh, unripe plums have a tiny window of sales in the market.  I think I just happened to get lucky that the market had them on that random day I wandered in.  What will I do if I want to make this at another time of year?  It is traditionally a springtime dish, which coincides with the plums.  I think, if I can get some more, I will freeze them.

One wonderful feature of this recipe is how easy it is to prepare:  all of it uses one cooking pot; once everything is in, you put the heat on low and ignore it, and you serve it in a bowl.  Simple, savory, good.

I can also say that this recipe gives me a heightened appreciation for fresh herbs in my cooking.

The Second Time

I tried the recipe again the next day, using a lean, boneless pork roast, about 2 pounds in weight.  I used up the rest of the plums and put the roast in whole for cooking.  There were about twice as many plums in this batch as in the previous.

Once it had cooked for two hours, I took two forks and shredded the pork.

The result?  Everything was still very tasty -- the broth was a little more sour than previously but not in a negative way.  The only thing I could say is that the pork wasn't as tender or flavorful as the lamb.  It was a little dry, even after the shreds soaked in the broth for an hour or so.  But we still ate and enjoyed it!  I would recommend the lamb over pork, or to try a fattier cut of pork.

Lamb with Red Cabbage -- Another recipe from the Transylvanian cookbook

It is time to pick a recipe from the Transylvanian Prince's Cookbook!

This is the digital translation of a book in Hungarian that I have tried recipes from before.  Here is the book reference:

The Prince of Transylvania’s court cookbook 

From the 16th century 

THE SCIENCE OF COOKING

You can find a copy of it here:
 http://www.fibergeek.com/leathernotebook/files/2018/05/Transylvanian-Cookbook-v3.pdf

The recipes I have tried are here:  Prince of Transylvania's court cookbook

Today I picked recipe number 82, found on page 20.


Lamb with red cabbage. 

Put the lamb on the fire, cut it, boil it, then roast it, add some bacon, but you can do it without. Boil it until tender, put it to the fire and let it cook, clean the red cabbage, poach it, wring it out, then put it with the meat, then add some honey and spices. 

I love how this recipe gives me so much room to experiment.  Spices?  Which spices?  I look around at other lamb recipes in the book and only got a glimpse of what our author might choose.  Garlic didn't seem right but Recipe 84 suggested black pepper and ginger.  Some websites I browsed suggested that you need spices that would stand up to the stronger flavor of lamb.  So I decided on pepper, ginger, and cinnamon.

The book's translators noted:  "This preparation for lamb, spit roasting, slicing, cooking in broth, then a final roast appears in nearly all the lamb recipes in this section".  I assumed that the spit roasting happened with large pieces of lamb, since you slice them and then continue the cooking.  As I had purchased boneless lamb steaks for this recipe, I decided I would start with the "cooking in broth" step.

My Redaction

2 lb. boneless lamb steaks
2 1/2 cups beef broth (enough to barely cover the lamb in the cooking pot)
1/2 pound bacon, sliced
1 large head of red cabbage (mine was 2 1/2 lb before preparing); cored and sliced or shredded
1/4 cup honey
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

And broth

Put the lamb in a covered pan big enough to hold the meat in one layer.  Put in the broth and bring to a gentle simmer.  Simmer, covered, until fork tender.  Mine simmered for 1 1/2 hours and would have benefited from more time.  I turned the meat twice, once after 30 minutes of cooking and again at 45 minutes.

The beginning of the cooking

Place the meat in a greased oven-proof pan and cover the top with the sliced bacon.

The more bacon, the better!

Core and slice or shred the red cabbage and put into a large, covered pot.  Strain the broth and pour it over the cabbage.  (Mine was about 2 cups broth.)  Bring to a boil over medium high heat, cover the pan, and cook the cabbage.  Stir occasionally and taste test for tenderness.  My goal was to cook it to tender but not limp.  I didn't note the time but it was less than 20 minutes.



When is cabbage is done, remove pan from the heat and stir in half of the honey (I approximated rather than measured) and all of the spices.  Mix well.  Scoop into serving bowl, leaving most of the pan liquid behind.  Taste for seasoning.  I put in the rest of the honey at this point.  My mixture was only slightly sweet and the spices were tingly on my tongue.

Broil the lamb until the bacon is crisp and the meat is browned.  It doesn't take long so watch it carefully.



The Verdict

I plated a piece of lamb covered with a piece of bacon on top of a nest of cabbage.  It was served with a side of baked butternut squash and a nice pinot noir.



My guest taster was happy with the tenderness of the lamb, but I was not.  I wished I had let it braise longer (but I ran out of time).

Most bites consisted of lamb, bacon, and cabbage, and that was lovely!  We both agreed that the lamb and cabbage was a good combination but it was the crispy bacon that pushed the taste to excellent levels.

The spices did hold their own against the lamb flavor; in fact, I felt that the flavors all blended nicely together and that none actually dominated.  This is interesting because when I ate the cabbage all by itself (still a good thing), I could really taste the pepper and ginger.  The honey seemed to just mellow the cabbage flavor and shift it to a gentle sweet.

Success!  Lovely!  A nice way to serve lamb without a lot of fuss.  I think it would be fun to try different spice/herb combination in the cabbage to see if there are any better versions out there.

One last note:  The leftovers are tasty, too, although we needed more bacon...

Maraqat al-Khudra -- Ragout of Green Vegetables with Mutton (Tunisia)

I had a large, lovely bunch of rainbow chard that was calling out for some interesting and new preparation.  What answered was the book, A Mediterranean Feast, by Clifford Wright.

ISBN 0-688-15305-4

I've used this book before with excellent results:  Spinach with Raisins and Pine Nuts, Eggplant the Perfect Way, and Maccharruni con Pesto Trapanese.  I felt confident in choosing another recipe from it.

This recipe was a bit of a challenge for me.  Not because of the cooking techniques but because of one ingredient:  harisa (harissa) sauce.  He gives a recipe and mentions you can buy it premade, so that was not the problem.  So what, then?  I am a wimp when it comes to chiles, peppers, hot spices that have fire.  Can I handle this?  I needed to know.

Maraqat al-Khudra -- Ragout of Green Vegetables with Mutton (pages 108-109)

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 pound boneless lamb or mutton shoulder, trimmed of all fat and cut into 1-inch cubes
1 1/2 teaspoons tabil (see recipe below)
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 medium-large onions (about 1 pound), chopped
1 pound Swiss chard, washed well, trimmed of the heavier part of their stalks, and chopped
Leaves from 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
2/3 cup cooked chickpeas, drained
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 1/2 teaspoons harisa
1/2 cup water
Juice from 1 lemon
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons ground red pepper, such as Aleppo or cayenne

And the chard!

1.  In a medium-size nonreactive casserole, heat the olive oil over high heat.  Toss the lamb or mutton with the tabil, salt, and pepper.  Brown the meat and onions in the hot oil, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently.

2.  Reduce the heat to low and add the Swiss chard and parsley with the water clinging to them from their last rinsing.  Cook until this liquid is mostly evaporated, about 10 minutes.

2.  Add the chickpeas, tomato paste, and harisa diluted in the water, the lemon juice, and black and red peppers.  Mix well, cover, and simmer over a very low heat until the meat is very tender, about 2 hours, moistening the ragout with small amounts of water if it is drying out.  Serve.  (Makes 4 servings)

My Notes

I had a nice piece of lamb shoulder, which I cut off the bone and cubed.

**********
The tabil recipe is on page 522:

2 large garlic cloves, chopped and dried in the open air for two days, or 2 teaspoons garlic powder
1/4 cup coriander seeds
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
2 teaspoons cayenne pepper

In a mortar, pound the garlic with the coriander, caraway, and cayenne until homogeneous.  Store in the refrigerator or freezer.  Keep in the refrigerator if using fresh garlic for up to 2 months or indefinitely if using powdered garlic, although the pungency will decline as time goes by.

I used garlic powder.  My coriander was already ground, so I pounded the garlic powder, caraway, and cayenne together, then added the coriander to get about 1/4 cup.  I doubt if this mixture is as pungent as intended, but it is what I had.

**********

When I got ready to brown the meat, I put the onions in first.  This had the advantage that the meat did not stick to the bottom of the pan.  I set the timer for 5 minutes and let it cook.



I used a 6 quart pan for this, and the chard-plus-parsley mix filled it to the top.  Once it cooked for a little while, the mass reduced in size.  In ten minutes, most of the liquid was gone.

Then I added the rest of the ingredients.  Yes, the entire 1 1/2 teaspoons of the pungent harisa!  (Store-bought.)  I also used cayenne for the red pepper.



The heat was at its very lowest and the lid was on tight.  I checked it every 30 minutes to make sure it wasn't drying out.  It wasn't, not even getting close.

After 1 hour and 15 minutes, I tested the lamb.  It was so incredibly tender that I declared the cooking done and got it ready to serve.



The Verdict

I served it with a mushroom and herb couscous, which seemed like it would be a mild counterpoint to a spicy dish.

You can't really see the heat it contains...

The maraqat was not dry.  In fact, it was rather juicy, so when I scooped it, I tried not to pick up the extra liquid on the bottom of the pan.

The lamb was tender and flavorful.  The sauce was spicy!  Almost too much for me, but I persisted (and drank milk with the meal).  It was hard for me to get the other spice flavors out of any bite because I was dealing with the heat.

I did like it!  The meat and veggies together were a nice blend of textures, and I really liked that there were more veggies than meat.  The garbanzo beans added a slightly chewy blandness, to give some relief from the fiery sauce.  The veggies gave it a slightly earthy flavor, which I liked very much.

My guest taster felt that the heat was just right.  Overall, he liked the flavor combination.

Success!

I had the leftovers the next day and included a spoonful of sour cream on top, which was a good addition.

I really wanted to see what it tasted like without so much heat, so I made it again and used only 1/2 teaspoon of the harisa.  The result was also good!  I liked it much better and could taste the other spices.

Overall, it was easy to prepare and cook.  The result was tasty and filling.  I think that some time I will try it with more lamb, just to shift the balance towards the meat.  The tenderness and flavor are worth it.