Ludicrous Lamb!

The dinner party went well. I did not snap as many pictures as I intended or should have. I really only can offer the view of the table while setting up and the cheese plate. Sigh. Best of intentions, down the drain. Such is my life! Oh well. Here are the few I have.






Now onto one of the best lamb dishes I have ever made I must say. I think this would be great in a crock pot to.

Leg of lamb

4-6 small or half cloves of garlic
Salt
Pepper
Oregano
1 large can crushed tomatoes
1 large can petite diced tomatoes


Cut slits in lamb and put garlic cloves down in, salt and pepper lamb well. Put in a covered dish ( I used s turkey roasting pan with lid) pour both cans of tomato with the liquid over. Cook at 250 pretty much all flipping day. I cooked mine for about 7 hours.


It ends up coming out like pulled pork. Tender, all shreddy (I know that is not exactly a word). I then fished the diced tomatoes, and a ladle or the crushed from the bottom of the pan. I put it in my food processor and gave it a quick pulse or two with about a teaspoon of oregano. I didn’t processes it too much because I wanted it thick and chunky. Ladle over meat and eat.

No pictures of this either. It was gone too quickly!

Lamb and Goat Cheese Eggplant Rollatini

Filling

1 tbs olive oil
1 onion diced
6 oz of mushrooms chopped
1 large clove of garlic grated
2 tbs oregano
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp salt
2 tbs dry vermouth
1/8 tsp Penzeys lamb seasoning (optional)
¼ lb soft goats cheese
1 lb ground lamb

Eggplant

1 large eggplant slice thin
Salt
Cooking spray

Sauce

1 c. chicken stock
12 oz Greek yogurt (or sour cream)
1 tsp oregano
1tsp thyme
½ tsp salt
2 tbs goat cheese
Any leftover meat filling

Honestly when I made this my intention was to use ground veal. If I could not get that, I would use ground pork. Sadly 2 supermarkets and 1 butcher later, only to be told finally that there was some odd shortage of both??? I settled on lamb. I also borrowed my parents meat slicer for the eggplant so I could get even and thin slices (a surgeon, I was never destined to be).

I started by slicing the eggplant longwise, then I salted it and let it sit.

In a skillet heat your oil to medium and add onion. Cook for about 3 minutes.

Add the mushrooms, garlic, thyme, oregano, salt and vermouth. Let cook for about 5 minutes.



Add the lamb and cook until done. Suck off (there has got to be a better way to say that… is drain correct??) the excess grease.


Add the goats cheese and stir to incorporate, set aside.




While the meat mixture was cooking I took another skillet and coated it with cooking spray and cooked the sliced eggplant for about a minute on each side. I removed and set aside.

Once the eggplant and the meat mixture is done, I took about 2 tsp of the mixture and put it at one end of the slice of eggplant and rolled it up. I put it in a baking dish. Roll until you are out of eggplant or out of meat.




In a skillet I added the chicken stock, yogurt, seasoning, goat cheese and leftover meat filling (if you have) and heated to let thicken a bit (about 3-5 minutes). Once thickened, remove from heat and pour over rollatini. Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

Lamb and Rosemary Stew

This is an adaptation on one of my favorite winter dishes. The original is a wine stew with beef. I simply change the beef out with a leg of lamb, and added rosemary.

3-4 lbs of cubed lamb
1 qt (small bottle) red wine
2 can tomato soup
2T kitchen bouquet (can find in seasoning isle)
3bay leaves
2 TBS fresh rosemary chopped up
6 medium potatoes quartered
6 carrots chunked
6 stalks of celery in chunks
4 medium onions (cut into large piece, quarter than half the quarter)
2 c. frozen peas
Salt to taste
1 tbs of fresh rosemary chopped up

Season meat (salt pepper, garlic..whatever) and brown. Combine the first 6 ingredients and cook over low heat for 2 hours. Add vegetables and cook an additional 40 minutes before serving. Stir occasionally add water if needed. Add the last TBS of rosemary about 10 minutes before done or when you reheat it if you make this the day before serving (see note below).

One very important thing to note with this is that it is better if made a day a head of time which makes it ideal for a dinner party.

Kofta---Kind Of

I have to say, I did not invent this, I have augmented this with feta. My parents lived in Turkey and this is the way they were taught to make this dish. That said, it does not even remotely resemble what you would find in a cookbook other than it is lamb dish--so go figure.



½ onion grated (grating is key)
1.5-2 lbs ground lamb
5-7 leaves of fresh mint minced
2 eggs
2 TBS Penzys Turkish seasoning (or use salt, pepper, cumin, and garlic powder)
Feta (sorry guys, you will have to eyeball this, look for about a 3 meat to one part feta ratio)

Mix together and form into equal size ovals about the size of two eggs(don’t ask me why you don’t make the traditional meatball ball. I am sure it would work, it just wasn’t the way I grew up having it). I think these are best grilled; however a broiler will work in a pinch. These get dry easily (how I don’t know?) so I would really recommend a meat thermometer if you aren’t one of those few that have grilling down to an art. I would cook it to medium. Now, we always ate these with tzatziki sauce and Tabuli as a side. However it is awesome in a pita with tzatziki on it and little lettuce, tomatoes, and sliced onion. Below is how I make tzatziki

1 individual container of plain yogert
¼ cucumber grated
1 tsp minced garlic (pre-minced stuff not fresh)
½ tsp lemon juice
salt and pepper to taste

Sometimes I put some feta in too, because I am a slave to all cheese, but that is your call.