Mishmishaya! And other hearty Mediterranean fare...
In my last article, I concentrated on recipes containing lots of healthy vegetables - this piece is strictly for the carnivores among us, though! As fall is approaching, I am thinking about cooking hearty, substantial foods again. I have recently pulled some of my favorite meat dishes out of both my at-home and on-line recipe files, and I would like to share some of them here.
Even though a lot of people think of lamb as springtime food, I love to eat it all year round. For dinner last night, we had a leg of lamb, roasted with rosemary and garlic, and served with roasted potatoes and grilled vegetables. I have to admit to a weakness for the very non-Mediterranean mint sauce, but besides that it was a perfect "end of summer" feast, paired with a summery, and totally inappropriate, though very tasty, White Zinfandel. It would have been far more Mediterranean of us to have enjoyed it with a rich Italian red wine, but it was good nonetheless!
Other great ways to cook lamb: roast it slowly, then about 20 minutes before it is done, coat it with a mixture of yogurt, freshly squeezed lemon juice, and middle eastern spices. Put it back in the oven, and let the yogurt "set" as the meat finishes roasting. This adds a great tangy flavor to the roast. Serve with couscous for a nice change from potatoes!
My favorite lamb dish, though, is a recipe that I found last year in Joyce Goldstein's wonderful book The Mediterranean Kitchen. It is from the Middle Eastern area of the Mediterranean, and is called "Mishmishaya." Don't worry about trying to pronounce it - just cook it! This recipe is prepared in a few stages, and is fairly labor-intensive, but definitely worth the trouble. Because it requires copious amounts of saffron, I use the cheaper American saffron - the real Spanish stuff costs about as much as gold-dust, and this has proved to be an acceptable alternative, for this dish at least. I have also substituted meatballs made from ground lamb for some of the lamb shoulder meat in the past - it works just fine, though I still prefer the cubed meat.
Mishmishaya
Middle Eastern Lamb Ragout with Apricots
Marinade: 1/2 cup olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
Other ingredients:
3 pounds lamb shoulder, trimmed well and cut into 2-inch cubes
1 teaspoon saffron threads
1/4 cup hot stock or water
3/4 pound dried apricots
1 cup dark or golden raisins
1/2 cup unsalted butter 1/3 cup olive oil
2 large onions, diced
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
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