(Belated, Again) Chinese New Year Meal #3: Laghman (Ban Mian)

There are a few cookbooks out there that I have been thinking about buying for years.  Some of them are by cookbook authors whose cookbooks we already own.  One cookbook that I have been thinking about buying for years is Beyond the Great Wall: Recipes and Travels in the Other China by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid.  But everytime I convince myself that I don't need yet another cookbook.  We easily have 30-40 cookbooks in the apartment, some of which we have never used.  I tried to make a deal with myself a few years ago that I wouldn't buy another cookbook until I made at least one recipe from each cookbook.  Clearly that never happened.  Earlier today I was trying to find a recipe for Uyghur laghman noodles and after finding out that Beyond the Great Wall had a recipe for laghman I went ahead and ordered it on Amazon.  My compromise was to buy the cookbook in Kindle format so it doesn't clutter up the apartment.  I thought it made a lot of sense (although it does make it more difficult sometimes to find and use the recipes).

This dish is one of the dishes that I remember fondly from China, but haven't eaten since I left.  You don't get a lot of Uyghur food in the United States.  And when I showed Alex the recipe, he was a little shocked by how un-Chinese it all was.  This dish screams Italy more than China - it's like a pasta with a tomato and meat sauce.  It's a relatively homey and simple flavor combination - no spices (although we added cumin), no heat, just lamb, bell peppers and tomatoes.

Recipe after the jump!

Guinness-Glazed Lamb Chops

I have a lot of thoughts about this lamb dish, but I'm not sure exactly how to phrase them, while still being fair to the recipe.  Most importantly, I think the problems with this recipe were in large part caused by the cooking method we used.  The gas broiler on our oven only has one setting (kill) so we were afraid to try to broil the lamb chops and end up with little lumps of lamb coal instead of lightly charred lamb chops.  So we tried to sear them up in our cast iron.  Only they fit a little too snugly so we basically sauteed them instead of searing them.  And most of the glaze ended up stuck to the pan, rather than to the lamb.  If I had my way in the future (and if my broiler situation were a little different), I would broil the chops to caramelize the glaze and char it up a little.  Or I would grill them.  The smoky flavor either of those options would impart would do a lot to give the lamb chops more depth of flavor and provide a nice complimentary flavor to the glaze itself.  Because if I am being honest, the glaze really was interesting - a little funky, a little sweet and floral - and I think it would have been very nice if it had only stuck to the lamb itself.  I'm not sure that it had the potential to be my favorite lamb glaze out there, but I liked it because it was different.  Too often with lamb you end up with one of two flavor combinations - mint or herbs.  And this was a large departure from either of those typical combos.  But the glaze didn't stick to the lamb chops at all.  The very few pockets of glaze that did stick would have benefited from some char because they were still slightly wet and runny.  And drizzling the lamb chops after they were done cooking just resulted in the glaze continuing to slide right off. 

So I guess the best thing to do here is to post the recipe as written (noting that we used a different beer instead of the Guinness and used lamb loin chops instead of rib chops), rather than posting the recipe as we made it.  The only real difference between the actual recipe and our modification is the cooking method and I would have to give Gourmet the benefit of the doubt and assume that their broiler worked better than our cast iron...

Recipe after the jump!

Lamb Chops with Lemon

Growing up lamb was something I enjoyed on special occasions.  Every once in awhile we would go out to dinner and I would order myself a nice little rack of lamb, but we never really had it at home.  My mom wasn't the type to do a roast leg of lamb for Easter or anything.  The same goes for duck.  I had this thing for duck a l'orange but I only ever had the chance to occasionally eat it at restaurants.  Now that I am an adult planning my own meals, both duck and lamb have remained indulgences that we make at home a few times a year.  It is partially due to expense and partially to availability - you can certainly find duck breasts and lamb chops at a nicer grocery store like Fairway or Whole Foods (although not at your average D'Agostinos), but they are going to set you back a nice chunk of change.  Actually, I discovered about a year ago that CostCo is a wonderful source of reasonably priced lamb and picked up a boneless leg of lamb, with which we made Moroccan kebobs, Xinjiang kebobs, Mongolian lamb, and souvlaki.  Unfortunately, CostCo doesn't carry duck so I guess that duck is just going to have to remain special occasion fare.

We have been saving these lamb chops for awhile, but I decided it was finally time to break them out and enjoy.  The lamb chops were nice and with a little more salt these would have been really nice.  But we forgot to add the s&p to the olive oil, lemon juice and lemon zest mixture.  Oops.  Even without the salt, they were incredibly tender and tasty.  The combination of herbs, shallots and lemon was lovely, but a little additional seasoning would really have made them sing.  But given how tasty they were even without the salt, I think I will make them again in the future.  Only I will read the recipe a little more thoroughly next time...

Recipe after the jump!

Sizzling Cumin Lamb Burgers

So as much as I would like to (and I would really like to), I can't take full credit for this recipe.  For the most part, the ingredient list comes from a Danny Bowien recipe in Bon Appetit.  But I took his recipe for braised lamb shoulder over ramen and modified it to make it into a burger because I was in a burger kind of mood and we had ground lamb rather than lamb shoulder in the freezer.  So I modified the proportions of the ingredients and tossed out the ingredients that I didn't think we needed and we made burgers.  And they were awesome burgers.  As you would expect from Danny Bowien, all of the flavors went together perfectly.  Another thing you should expect from Danny Bowien - there was a lot of heat in that cilantro salad.  We decided to go ahead with the cilantro salad as a topping on the burgers because it was kind of like the cilantro salad they serve with the steamed pork buns at Fatty Crab.  I was originally thinking maybe some sliced cucumber or some other combination of toppings, but decided to just modify Danny Bowien's ramen topping to make it into a burger topping.  Even with all of our modifications it was more of a composed dish than a lot of other recipes we have made recently.  Both Alex and I were huge fans of the burger.  Actually, Alex thinks it is the most successful dish we have made in awhile.  And for him to say that about a burger is HUGE.

P.S.  The reason I have been flooding the blog with posts is that I finally got a new memory card reader (mine broke) so I can upload the pictures of all of the dishes Alex and I made over the past few weeks and post the recipes.  We cooked a decent amount last week so I still have a few more posts to get up in order to catch up, but I am going to keep uploading pictures and plugging away until we are up to date!

Recipe after the jump!

Moroccan Lamb Kebobs with Mint Dressing and Middle Eastern Yogurt Sauce

It's almost Easter!  Yay.  When I think Easter, I think roast lamb or honey-baked ham.   And Cadbury Mini Eggs, which are the best Easter candy ever.  If you have never had Cadbury Mini Eggs before I highly recommend running to the nearest Duane Reade (or Sam's Club, which is where my mom picked up the 36 oz package that she bought me) to pick some up.   Yum.  Anyway, I decided we should do some lamb kebobs in honor of Easter.  We obviously weren't going to roast a whole lamb leg or a honey-baked ham, so lamb kebobs seemed like a good compromise.  I found a recipe for a Moroccan leg of lamb with a Mint Dressing on the NY Times website so I stole the idea for the flavors of the lamb marinade and then made the Mint Dressing as written.  And then Alex decided to whip up a yogurt sauce (similar to a tzatziki, but without the cucumber).  So we ended up eating a dinner composed of store-bought pita, lamb kebobs with mint dressing and yogurt sauce, and a simple salad.  All things considered, it was pretty tasty.  My only complaint was actually with the Mint Dressing - which I found to be a little acidic/bitter.  I really wish that the flavor of the mint had dominated, but all I really tasted was red wine vinegar and shallot.  So I would probably cut back on the amount of vinegar and maybe up the amount of herbs - perhaps add in some cilantro?  I don't know.

Happy Easter everyone!

Recipes after the jump!

Chinese New Year Meal #3: Xinjiang Lamb Kebobs (Yang Rou Chuan) and Naan with Sauteed Watercress

I promised you guys another Chinese New Year meal and I delivered!  Actually, we made fried rice last night as well, but in the spirit of last year I decided not to count it as one of my seven Chinese New Year meals.  I will post the fried rice later as a bonus.  Whoo-hoo!  Go me.  Really I should say "go us" because Alex was instrumental in getting this meal started since the dough needed to rest and the meat needed to marinate for 2 hours.

I am really really excited about these recipes.  They are not perfect, but they are a much better approximation of the Xinjiang food I used to eat on the streets in China than anything else we have made in the past.  We even made naan like they used to make at the Xinjiang restaurants I used to visit (and love).  The kebobs could use a little tweaking, but we are definitely getting closer!  One of the biggest things I wish we could change about the lamb is that it would be that much better if we had a charcoal grill.  I really miss the char and the smoky flavor.  And the spice mixture needs to be tweaked a little - next time I am going to omit the Szechuan peppercorns and cut back on the amount of coriander seeds (I already cut back the recipe a little from what we made).  It was just a little too floral for me and didn't pack quite enough heat.  I like my yang rou chuan pretty spicy.  Alex had a problem with the texture of the meat - he didn't like biting into a layer of spices on the outside of the kebob.  Since that is how I remember the lamb kebobs as being heavily spiced (sometimes even more heavily spiced, almost furry with spices) I have no problem with it.  But I can see where he is coming from.  The bread I thought was a huge success.  The texture is a little different (and it was a little sweeter than I remember), but it was really good - nice and soft and slightly chewy.  We tried a variety of toppings on the bread - one round had sesame seeds, one had cumin seeds, one had scallions, and the other had all of those toppings, plus a few fennel seeds.  In the end Alex preferred the bread with sesame seeds.  I might have to agree with him, although I did really enjoy the combination as well.  The sauteed watercress is a dish that we have made in the past that I generally make with a heavily spiced meal that I don't want the vegetable to compete with.  I love how easily it comes together (and aside from the annoying process of tearing the leaves off the stems, it is a really quick side).

Recipe after the jump!

Stir-Fried Mongolian Lamb with Scallions

As a precursor to things to come, Alex and I have to decided to start slowly ramping up for our week of Chinese New Year meals by cooking one to two Chinese meals per week.  Last week Alex made Red-Braised Pork (Hong Shao Rou) and tonight we made this Stir-Fried Mongolian Lamb with Scallions.  This dish was one that I was considering for Chinese New Year, but it didn't quite make the cut.  Rather than forgo making it entirely, I decided to go ahead and make it tonight.

And as much as I generally like the combination of lamb with scallions, this dish was just ok to me.  I didn't think it was anything special.  I really didn't get the flavor from the Sichuan peppercorns and when I did, I wasn't sure that it actually went with the hoisin mixture.  Actually, I'm fairly certain that it didn't because the flavors didn't seem to meld together for me at all.  The flavor of the lamb was fine - a little gamey, a little savory, a little sweet, but it just didn't do it for me.  I guess if I had to give the dish a letter grade, it would be a solid B/B- (probably the B-, although I hate being that harsh).  If I were to make the recipe again (which I probably won't but if I were), I would throw the scallions in after the hoisin mixture.  I think stir-frying them for 30 seconds is more than enough to soften and mellow them, but leave a little crispness and texture.  Cooking them for the amount of time specified in the recipe was overkill.  Oh and we cut our lamb a little on the large size.  If I were to make this dish again, I would definitely cut the lamb into smaller pieces.  Oops.

Recipe after the jump!

Lamb Souvlaki Sandwiches with Tzatziki Sauce

I periodically tell Alex that we need to make more Mediterranean food.  Asian cuisine is our go-to, and failing that we end up making "American" food or Italian food.  Rarely do we make Mediterranean food, which is something that I really want to change for a number of reasons.  First, I love Mediterranean flavors - lemon, oregano, olive oil, olives, garlic, tart yogurts, etc.  The flavors are so simple and yet so satisfying and delicious.  I also love how healthy the diet is overall.  And while lamb isn't exactly as healthy as say, tofu, it is an indulgence that I enjoy from time-to-time and is totally fine when eaten in moderation.  I might try the recipe with chicken or pork in the future, as healthier alternatives to lamb, but we used lamb this time because I picked up some leg of lamb the other day with souvlaki in mind as the end goal.  I actually picked up several pounds of leg of lamb because there are several lamb recipes that I have been wanting to make, but haven't gotten around to because leg of lamb tends to be pretty pricey in NYC.

Since lamb (and all red meat with the potential exception of bison) isn't exactly super healthy, Alex and I made a resolution about a month ago to only eat it at restaurants or on the weekend.  No cooking red meat during the week.  But we broke our resolution this time because we had guests coming for the weekend and I really wanted to make my souvlaki.  Oops.  In order to lighten this sandwich up, we used multigrain flatbreads and added chopped up baby spinach, tomatoes and onions.  We also used nonfat Greek yogurt to make the tzatziki, rather than the whole-fat variety.  I find that when you make tzatziki with nonfat yogurt instead of whole-fat, it is a little thinner and less creamy.  Since we were using the tzatziki as the sauce for our sandwich and not a dip that was supposed to stand alone it was absolutely fine that it was a little thinner.  The end result was that the dish wasn't as heavy (or detrimental to your health) as it could have been, while still retaining a lot of flavor.  The rosemary and garlic in the marinade made the apartment smell delicious while we pan-roasted the lamb, and marinating the lamb overnight gave it really nice flavor.  I'm glad I stuck to my guns on this one because it was a really nice and satisfying meal.  Maybe I will try it out with pork next time, but then again, maybe not...

Recipe after the jump!

Minced Lamb with Mint Stuffed Zucchini and Rice

I would rank this both as one of the most interesting and the most satisfying meals we have cooked recently.  I have never made stuffed zucchini (or any sort of stuffed vegetable with the exception of these Stuffed Portobello Mushrooms we made last month).  And I have never tried either of these recipes from Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey.  Madhur Jaffrey suggested stuffing her Minced Lamb with Mint into tomatoes before roasting the tomatoes in the oven, but I have a longstanding prejudice against stuffed tomatoes.  I really don't enjoy them.  Alex and I both really enjoy zucchini and Google turned up all sorts of stuffed zucchini recipes when I searched.  Plus stuffed tomatoes are all gross and mushy.  So I decided that stuffed zucchini sounded like a better option.  And I decided that we should make some fancy rice rather than plain basmati rice.  I really prefer plain basmati rice, but I know that Alex really enjoys spiced rice so every once in awhile a try to throw him a bone.  And this rice was really nice.  The sweetness and floral quality of the spices was a nice counterpoint to the spicy lamb mixture.  As for the lamb, it was just delicious.  It had some serious heat, but the spice wasn't  overpowering.  You could still taste the aromatics and the spices in every bite.  The zucchini really soaked up some of those intense flavors, but still provided a nice textural counterpoint to the ground lamb mixture.  It was just a really really nice dish.  Both the lamb and the rice take some time and effort, but they are more than worth it.  The best endorsement that I can give for this meal?  I would make it again and I wouldn't change a single thing.  It really was that good.

Recipes after the jump!

Tikka Kebabs with Homemade Flatbread and Cucumber Raita

I'm not sure what drew me to this assortment of recipes, but I have been thinking about making these Tikka Kebabs with some homemade flatbreads or naan for some time now.  I originally wanted to make the Home-Style Tandoor Naan from Mangoes & Curry Leaves: Culinary Travels Through the Great Subcontinent so that the entire meal would come from the same cookbook, but I didn't have the patience (or the time) to begin preparing the dough for the naan about 4 1/2 to 10 hours before I wanted to eat the naan.  So I went with a recipe for homemade flatbread that I cobbled together from a bunch of recipes I found online.  There are hundreds of recipes for homemade naan or flatbread online so I had a lot of resources to work with.  If you don't want to make homemade flatbread or naan, the kind you pick up at the grocery store will work just fine.  Alternatively, you can serve the tikka kebabs with basmati rice and a nice salad, instead of serving it with flatbread.

I was very happy with this meal.  The lamb was tasty and very tender.  The flavors were very simple, but delicious.  If I were to make the tikka kebabs again I would probably add some more cayenne pepper to the marinade to give the dish a little more kick.  The yogurt in the marinade, plus the yogurt in the raita cooled down all hint of spice and I wouldn't mind if just a little more heat had come through (although I didn't really miss the heat, Alex did bring up that criticism/comment so I thought I would pass it along).  I also might add a little more garlic or something to the marinade - perhaps a little ground cumin?  I don't know.  It smelled delicious while it cooked and it was really nice, but it could be improved.  Our homemade flatbread turned out better than our last experiment with Instant Flatbread.  I might play with the recipe in the future and try to use different toppings with the flatbread.  Or brush it with melted butter once it's done to make it taste more like naan.  I thought that the Cucumber Raita was a very nice accompaniment, particularly if you are planning on serving the tikka kebabs with flatbread.  If you are serving the kebabs with basmati rice I think that the raita would be unnecessary and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice would be more than sufficient.  We added some scallions for color and flavor to the kebabs, but again if you were serving them with basmati rice I'm not sure that they would be necessary.

Recipes after the jump!

Chinese New Year Meal #3 - Lamb with Chili, Cumin and Garlic

During the year that I lived in China, my favorite late night food was chuan (grilled skewers of meat or vegetables).  Late at night there were people (traditionally Uyghurs from Xinjiang Province) who would set up these tiny portable charcoal grills and sell you lamb, chicken, and beef skewers that you could order la (hot - as in spicy and not temperature) or bu la (not hot).  If you were lucky your chuan man would have a few ears of corn, maybe some sliced potatoes and some other veggies in his cooler that he had threaded onto skewers.  If not, you made do with glorious skewers of grilled meat.  There is a chuan man in NYC's Chinatown who has a cart under the bridge.  I have heard that there are chuan men in Flushing, but haven't tried any of their chuan yet.  But one of my absolute favorite things about chuan isthe flavor combination of lamb, chili and cumin, which is a similar flavor combination to Mongolian lamb.  So when I saw Mark Bittman's recipe for his variation on Mongolian lamb in his recent post on his 25 favorite recipes from his blog, I was pretty excited.  I prefer chuan, but Mongolian lamb will do when chuan isn't an option.  As a side note, Mongolian lamb is generally prepared with sliced lamb, rather than cubes of lamb, but cubes are easier to prepare.

So this dish is missing the heat (I always ask for my chuan to be served spicy) and char that the charcoal fire imparts.  Those are my two complaints.  But seeing as this recipe isn't meant to be chuan my complaints are kind of unfair.  As far as Mongolian lamb goes, this dish had a lot of flavor.  I love the flavor of the toasted cumin seeds and the scallions.  I would like the lamb to have a better sear on it, so I will cook it accordingly next time.  I might also add some sliced onions, just for an extra level of flavor and texture.  I might also up the amount of cumin seeds slightly.  I found another recipe on the NY Times website for Crispy Lamb with Cumin, Scallions and Red Chilis (which is the Dongbei equivalent of Mongolian lamb), and I might have to give that one a try next!  And for the record, we served the lamb with an nontraditional combination of fried rice (which you really don't eat much in China) and store-bought scallion pancakes.

Recipe after the jump!

Charmoula Lamb Chops

When I was younger I had a serious love of lamb and duck.  Chicken and beef were fine and all, but somehow I preferred less common variations on the same theme.  As I have grown older I have re-discovered chicken and beef, particularly when cooking for myself at home (partially because they are so much cheaper than the alternatives).  I would say that we make lamb about once every 3-4 months, and the same with duck.  And when we do make lamb, it tends to be ground lamb - perhaps lamb burgers or lamb kebobs.  In the past year I think we have only made lamb chops once and they were shoulder chops for our Indian Lamb Chops with Curried Cauliflower, rather than loin chops or rib chops.  So I guess in another 3-4 months we will attempt some lamb loin chops.  And after today's experiment I am looking forward to the loin chops!

These Charmoula Lamb Chops were delicious.  Charmoula (or chermoula) is a sort of Middle Eastern variation on chimichurri that is used in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian cooking.  In this charmoula I used mint, cilantro and parsley in addition to evoo, garlic, shallot and lemon juice, but I have seen other recipes that are vastly different.  I even found a recipe that called for red bell pepper.  But it is my understanding that the common components to any charmoula are herbs, oil, lemon juice and spices.  I love that this charmoula is fresh and flavorful.  It really makes lamb, which can come off as a little heavy and greasy, taste vibrant and fresh.  The only problem is that the chops could have used a hint more char.  That was partially my fault because I was afraid to really turn the heat up without burning the herbs in the marinade or overcooking the lamb, since I prefer it medium-rare.  But a little more char is definitely in order in the future.  A grill would really help with that, but unfortunately I don't have access to one.  I think this dish would be a really nice dinner party entree.  I actually said the same thing about the Rainbow Trout we made last night, but I think this would be even more ideal.  The dish is elegant and refined, as well as delicious. 

Recipe after the jump!

Lamb Kebobs and Quinoa Tabouli

Traditionally tabouli (or tabouleh) is almost all vegetables with very little fine bulgar.  Since I don't have any bulgar in the apartment, but I do have quinoa, I decided to substitute quinoa for the bulgar and ramp up the amount of quinoa a bit to make the salad a little heartier without messing with the traditional flavors of tabouli.  I love the freshness of the tabouli, so I didn't want to mess with that at all.  I just wanted to make it into more of an entree salad and less of a side dish.  Plus I really love the taste of quinoa, so I wanted to make sure that it didn't get lost in all of the vegetables.

Generally I design my meals around the protein, but this time the quinoa tabouli came first and then I had to decide what protein to serve with the tabouli.  Kebabs seemed like a natural choice.  Luckily I had some ground lamb in the freezer that I have been talking about using for a week or two now.  So I threw together some ingredients for the kebabs with the help of my food processor and we had kebabs.  I think the flavor of these kebabs is fantastic.  You get the hint of spice from the cayenne, the warmth of the allspice and cinnamon, and plenty of fresh herb flavors from the parsley and cilantro.  Don't chop the pine nuts too finely because they provide some much needed texture.  The pita keeps the kebabs very moist, but can make them feel a little mushy.  You want to sear the outsides of the kebabs so they have some nice crust and texture to them for some contrast to the moist, soft interiors of the kebabs.

Recipes after the jump!

Merguez Lamb Burger on Pita

I was shopping at Bloomingdale's today and we stopped in at FLIP to grab a milkshake.  There was an Eastern Burger with an exotic lamb blend, herbal yogurt dressing and a tandoori onion ring, rolled in naan flatbread.  That got me thinking.  I had been planning on serving a Greek-inspired lamb burger with feta cheese, spinach, red onion and a play on tzatziki sauce, but that Eastern Burger sounded way better.  So after a successful conclusion to our shopping trip, I decided to make a play on a merguez sausage kebob/burger that I would wrap in some nice pita I purchased on Thursday.  But I decided to go ahead and use the spinach and shaved red onion that I had been planning on using with my Greek burger.  And then I made a sauce for the burger with the Greek yogurt I had been saving, mixed with harissa and lemon juice.  So good!  I love burgers, but this recipe is one of my most successful for a first time attempt.

Recipe after the jump!

Hummus with Cinnamon Lamb (Houmous bil erfeh lahem)

Somehow I have never made hummus before.  I always have it in the fridge and I go through phases where I eat Tribe's jalapeno hummus by the truckload.  I absolutely love spicy hummus - the spicier the better.  Why have plain old hummus when you can spice it up?  

That was the rationale behind trying out this hummus recipe.  It had a fascinating sounding list of spices and ingredients - cinnamon, garlic, red chili flakes, cayenne pepper, lemon juice, parsley, lamb and evoo?  Yum.  And this recipe totally lives up to its promise.  The interplay between the spices and the freshness of the lemon and parsley make for a very unique and seriously delicious mouthful.  This was the first recipe I have ever tried from this cookbook (after literally bookmarking dozens of them to try), and I am totally going back for more.  I love street food!


Recipe after the jump!

Indian Lamb Chops with Curried Cauliflower

After this weekend we have been on an Indian kick.  A few weeks ago I came across this recipe in the January issue of Bon Appetit and decided that I had to try it.  I rarely get the chance to cook lamb, and this looked too good to pass up (with a few modifications of course).  Seeing as we finally have all of the necessary ingredients (our lack of mango chutney had been holding me up), I decided to pull the trigger on the recipe.

I have never tried cooking lamb shoulder blade chops, and in the future I might substitute lamb rib chops, or even a rack of lamb for the shoulder blade chops.  The shoulder blade chops were a little fatty and had lots of bone and other undesirable chewy bits.  Even with the somewhat strange meat choice, this dish was really nice.  The curried cauliflower is seriously delicious.  Alex said that he would serve the curried cauliflower over, or with, any kind of meat, including chicken, beef or lamb.  I think it tastes great with the rich fattiness of lamb, but would also be delicious as a side dish on its own.  This dish would be lovely served with spiced rice.

Recipe after the jump!