Lamb Meatballs: Recipe from the NY Times

We are very fond of lamb at our house, and I'm always eager to try a new recipe I run across.  The other day there was this recipe in the New York Times.  Today I made the lamb meatballs, and I can say they are delicious with the spiced tomato sauce.  I followed the recipe exactly except I had no fresh mint leaves so I used chopped parsley instead to garnish.

Meatballs ready to go under broiler to brown.

Browned meatballs resting in tomato sauce and ready for the oven.

The mildly spiced tomato sauce makes a nice bed for baking the meatballs.
While the meatballs are baking, cook pasta, couscous or bulgur wheat to serve with the meatballs.

Out of the oven.

I chose to serve the meatballs over bulgur wheat. Bulgur is wheat that’s been parboiled, dried, and cracked into tiny bits. It cooks very quickly.  A full cup of cooked bulgur has only 150 calories,  8 grams of fiber, and nearly 6 grams of protein.  It is a tasty and nutritious food.

Fully cooked bulgur wheat.

I served the meatballs with the sauce on the bulgur and added some crumbled Feta cheese and finely chopped parsley for garnish.

Lamb meatballs ready to eat. 

This was yummy!!!!

Go HERE for the recipe. 

Easy and Perfect Lamb Chops

I bought some wonderful lamb chops at Costco over the weekend, and found this recipe from Giada De Laurentis of the Food Network.  If you like lamb, and we do, this is a fool proof way to prepare delicious lamb chops. 

Grilled Lamb Chops   Prep Time:
5 min
Inactive Prep Time:
1 hr 20 min
Cook Time:
5 min

Serves:

 8 servings

Ingredients

2 large garlic cloves, crushed
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary leaves
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves
Pinch cayenne pepper
Coarse sea salt
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
8 lamb chops, about 3/4-inch thick

Directions

In a food processor fitted with a metal blade add the garlic, rosemary, thyme, cayenne, and salt. Pulse until combined. Pour in olive oil and pulse into a paste. Rub the paste on both sides of the lamb chops and let them marinate for at least 1 hour in the refrigerator. Remove from refrigerator and allow the chops to come to room temperature; it will take about 20 minutes.

Lamb chops ready to marinate in fridge.

Heat a grill pan over high heat until almost smoking, add the chops and sear for about 2 minutes. Flip the chops over and cook for another 3 minutes for medium-rare and 3 1/2 minutes for medium. 

Sear for two minutes on one side.

Flip over and cook 3.5 minutes for medium.

We like ours medium.  You don't want to overcook lamb.  It should be a little pink in the middle when done.  

Lamb Couscous with Vegetables

Lamb with vegetables over couscous.

I was looking for a one dish meal the other day so I thumbed through my recipes and found this recipe for Lamb Couscous.  I usually make the full recipe and freeze what we don't eat.  It freezes quite well.  It's easy to get a quick meal by grabbing a container from the freezer and heating it.  Couscous, which we almost always have on hand, can be prepared in about 5 minutes.

Lamb Couscous with Vegetables

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil

¾ lb boneless lamb stew meat

2 cups cubed zucchini

1 cup cubed rutabaga (yellow turnip)

½ cup chopped carrot

1 cup chopped onion

3 cloves garlic minced

1 cup low sodium chicken broth

4 tablespoons raisins

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 ½ teaspoons ground cumin

¾ teaspoon ground coriander

Fresh ground pepper to taste

2 (15 ounce) cans low sodium chick peas drained

1 (14.5 ounce) can no-salt-added tomatoes undrained

1 ½ cups water

1 cup uncooked couscous

Preparation:

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large pot over medium heat.  Dredge lamb stew meats in flour to coat.  Brown meat and then set aside.

Brown lamb that has been dredged in flour.

Add 1 tablespoon oil to pot .  Add zucchini, onion, carrot, garlic and rutabaga.  Saute for 5 minutes.   

Vegetables ready to be sauteed.

Stir in chicken broth, lamb, spices, tomatoes, and chickpeas. 

Add chicken broth, spices, lamb, tomatoes, and chickpeas and simmer covered.

Cover, reduce heat, and simmer for 10 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally.

While the lamb stew simmers, prepare couscous.  Bring water to a boil in saucepan; gradually stir in couscous.  Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 5 minutes.  Fluff with a fork.

Serve stew over couscous.  

Yields 6 servings.  (1 cup stew, ½ cup couscous)

We each had a serving, and there are four more servings in the freezer ready for a cold winter day.

Shepherd's Pie

On these cold wintry days, Shepherd's Pie provides warm comfort food.  This is one of our favorites, especially in the winter, and it's so easy to make.  I usually make it with lamb but you can use ground beef (in this case it's referred to as Cottage Pie).

Brown 1 lb. ground lamb in 2 tbs. olive oil.

Cook small package of frozen peas/carrots in microwave 8 to 10 minutes.

Mix lamb and veggies with 1/4 cup of HP Sauce.

Place mixture into 4 greased individual casserole dishes.

Top with mashed potatoes.

Shepherd's Pie is a great way to use left over mashed potatoes.  I often use prepared mashed potatoes adding butter and a bit of milk or cream to make them spread more easily.

These work well if you don't have left overs or you don't want to prepare mashed potatoes from scratch.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes until bubbly or brown on top.  You can add grated cheese to top for the last 15 minutes.

You can bake in one large casserole dish, but I like to have the small individual servings.  I often add rosemary to the lamb when I'm browning it and sometimes onions as well.

Yummy!

Opa! now ela!

ela! Greek Taverna in Bayers Lake Shopping Center.

Last May when Dan and I were in Halifax we discovered this wonderful Greek  restaurant, Opa!, in the Bayers Lake Shopping Center.  Eager to return, we found that the name had been changed to ela! Greek Taverna as the outcome of a trademark issue.  The menu, the food, and the service have all stayed the same we are happy to report. 

Grilled octopus over chickpea salata.

Dan’s cousin, Bruce, and his wife Becky joined us there the other day for lunch.  I was looking forward to having ela’s grilled octopus seasoned with oregano, lemon, olive oil and capers served over chickpea salad that I had enjoyed in May.   If you like calamari (squid), then you will likely find octopus its close relative tasty.  (As a biologist, I know that the squid and the octopus are both cephalopods and closely related and that’s your biology lesson for the day.)  Although I like calamari, I find octopus even more delicious.

ela! lemon roasted potatoes.

The grilled octopus is featured as an appetizer, but it was quite filling as an entrée with a side of ela! lemon potatoes oven roasted in olive oil, lemon and garlic. 

Rotisserie leg of lamb, Dan's choice.

Dan chose the herbed rotisserie leg of lamb topped with sautéed mushrooms and onion.  The succulent lamb comes from Colchester County, and ela! selects the freshest, highest quality items from local organic farms whenever possible.

For dessert, I had the Bougasta, a rich orange flavored custard pie in a flaky filo pastry with a light cinnamon honey syrup.

Bougasta for dessert.

Yes, the restaurant name may be ela!, but all I have to say is “Opa!”