Lamb Burgers with the condiment I can't spell (tzatziki)

 So one of my favorite things to do with ground lamb is lamb burgers.  And instead of the ketchup that usually accompanies a beef burger, I prefer the condiment I have to look up every time I want to write about it, tzatziki.  It's super easy to make, adaptable, and delicious.

Ingredients:

1 medium cucumber, seeded, shredded and squeezed to remove excess moisture (I use a clean towel here to twist and wring out the moisture.

yogurt (I use greek 2%) to equal the amount of cucumber.

1 garlic clove, pressed or grated on a microplane

2-3 tsp lemon juice.

Salt and pepper

Directions

 Mix grated cucumber with yogurt, garlic, lemon juice and spices.  Chill and serve.

Here's a pic of a lamb burger w/ a tzatziki crown.  And tots.  Because tots are always allowed.

https://guilfordcsachallenge.blogspot.com/2021/07/lamb-burgers-with-condiment-i-cant.html

Peanut Chicken Soba Salad

 Adapted from Peanut Chicken Soba Salad Cooking Light 2004

 This is a great idea for a delicious chicken salad when it's hot outside.  I've adapted the original Cooking  Light recipe to work with what you've got and to include more veggies.  Serve 2 generously

•  6-8 oz cooked chicken
  
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 tablespoons sesame oil
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon honey or 1 tablespoon Kotterin Mirin 
• 1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Siracha) or more to taste
  
• 2 cups cooked soba noodles (about 4 ounces uncooked)
• 2-3  cups thinly chopped cabbage and/or grated carrot
• ½ cup thinly sliced green onions (oh shoot, I forget these)
• ¼ cup minced red onion (maybe a bit more since I forget the green onions above)
• ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (mint, thai basil and cilantro are great additions here and more of all is ok)
• 2 tbs chopped unsalted, dry-roasted peanuts 

Directions:

Acquire 6-8 oz of cooked chicken.  This could be leftover roast or rotisserie chicken, grilled chicken breast or thighs (my favorite is 9-10 oz of chicken thighs, seasoned w/ salt and pepper and grilled).  I reckon it could also be firm crumbled tofu, though I haven't tried that yet.

Put shredded cooked chicken (by whatever method) in a bowl.  Combine vinegar, oil, soy, Mirin/Honey,  chili sauce in a bowl (add more or less of any of these condiment to taste).  Pour over shredded  chicken and let stand at least 5 minutes.  

Chop cabbage, grate carrot, chop onion and herbs as you are using.

Put peanuts in plastic zip loc bag and smash lightly with meat mallet.

Cook soba noodles according to package directions.  When done, rinse briefly with cold water and add to bowl with chicken.  Add veggies and herbs (shredded cabbage and carrot, basil, mint and onions) and toss to combine). 

Portion between two bowls, garnish with smashed/chopped peanuts.

A pic or two:

When you forget the peanuts:

 

When you remember the peanuts:

Bratwurst Meatballs

 So I'm on a roll today (a meaty one).  As I've mentioned before, I've been getting pork from PTB Farms (If you follow that link you should also check out their instagram at https://www.instagram.com/pinetroughfarm/ as Hailey posts great stories about life on the farm.  In addition to every pork cut you could imagine, they also sell sausage of many flavors including bratwurst.  Thought the bratwurst is tasty, it's not the same as my favorite bratwurst, which was also the first bratwurst I'd ever had.  When I was in graduate school in Texas, there was a local butcher that sold the best brats.  Legend had it that one of the chemistry professors at A&M missed Wisconsin brats when he moved to Texas and took his grandmother's recipe to Readfield's Meats and they ended up being one of their bestselling items, as well as the star of many a GSAC cookout (damn, they have a website now, and merch!  And David and I thought we were so fancy writing the newsletter on his first gen Apple Macintosh).  Anyhow, I've not really had brats like that since leaving Texas.  

A few weeks ago, I watched this video from Sohla El-Waylly on making meatballs.  Her "Sohla Off-Script" videos on Food52 are short and fun, and she teaches you a basic technique that you can take in many different directions.  When she said that "meatballs are just a hand-formed sausage" I had the idea to try a bratwurst meatball.  And it went pretty darn well.

Bratwurst Meatballs

Adapted from: https://food52.com/blog/26252-sohla-off-script-meatballs-guide and https://www.thepauperedchef.com/article/wisconsin-style-bratwurst

Ingredients

2 oz bread (sandwich bread, hamburger buns, etc)

½ cup whole milk

1 lb ground pork

2 tsp kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)

1/2 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/8 tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp ground marjoram (did not have so substituted a pinch of dried oregano, rubbed between my fingers to crush)

½ tsp freshly ground black pepper

¼ tsp dried ginger

12-oz beer (I used an amber ale)

1 large onion, sliced

1-2 tsp kosher salt

 

Directions

1.     Tear the bread into small pieces, ranging in size from small cornflakes to panko sized crumbs.  Mix with milk until everything is moistened and incorporated but still lumpy.  Let sit at least 5 minutes so all the starches are hydrated.

2.     Add the pork and the rest of the spices (through ginger) to the bread/milk mixture.  Mix in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment at medium speed for about 1 minute until the mixture is well combined and springy.  (if you don’t have a stand mixer, you can knead the mixture with your hands for 3-5 minutes until it is well combined and springy). 

3.     Transfer the mixture to a container and refrigerate overnight (24 hours).

4.     To form meatballs, measure out ¼ cup portions of meat mixture onto a greased sheet pan (lightly sprayed with cooking spray.  Wet your hands with cold water to help prevent sticking and roll each meatball in your palms to get a rounded shape. I got 11 meatballs with this mixture, but #11 was a little runty.

5.     Place the sliced onion, salt and beer in a 10” saute pan (you could also use a 5qt dutch oven).  Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes.

6.     Carefully place the meatballs in the poaching liquid, cover and simmer for 6 minutes.  Carefully turn the meatballs over, cover and simmer for 6 minutes.  Meatballs should be fully cooked at this point.

7.     To finish, grill meatballs over medium heat to heat through and get some grill marks on them.  Serve in a hot dog bun with mustard and sauerkraut and some of the onions from the poaching liquid.

 

fFformed and ready to poach:

 

 Served up with oven fries and homemade sauerkraut.

Lamb Barbacoa Tacos

 So I've mentioned that I have all this lamb in my freezer, and some of it is in cuts that you don't see too often at the grocery store, like lamb shoulder.  I've seen lamb shoulder chops occasionally, but never a whole shoulder at my local Harris-Teeter.  Lamb shoulder, like pork shoulder, takes well to braising, but when I've tried that with the chops I feel like I just get tiny bits of meat and lots of sharp bone fragments.  I found this recipe for Lamb Barbacoa and it came out great.  My shoulder was just under 2 lbs, but I made the recipe pretty much as written.  In addition to queso fresco and chopped avocado (tossed with lime juice, salt and pepper) I also served it with pickled red onions (from Smitten Kitchen - note that the recipe is part of a charred cauliflower taco recipe, I just quadrupled it) and this Cilantro Lime Slaw.

  Lamb Barbacoa Tacos

• 3 –5 lb lamb shoulder ( mine was bone-in, just under 2 lbs)
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• one large onion, sliced
• one orange, sliced
• 3 bay leaves
  

Marinade

•     2 dried ancho chilies -stems removed, seeds removed. No need to rehydrate.
•     1 chipotle pepper (from a can)  
•     4–6 cloves garlic
•     2  cups  water
•     Juice from one orange
•     2 tablespoons cumin  seeds
•     2 tablespoon whole coriander
•     1 tablespoon chili powder
•     2 tablespoons dried oregano (preferably Mexican)
•     2 teaspoons kosher salt (I used Diamond Crystal)
•     1 teaspoon cinnamon
•     1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
•     1 tablespoon brown sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325°F.
2. Score the fat on the lamb.  Generously season all sides of the lamb shoulder with salt.  Set aside while you make the marinade.
3. To make the marinade, de-stem the dried chilies, break them in half and discard the seeds ( you don’t need to remove every single one, a few strays are OK). Break the chilies apart into smaller pieces and add to the blender (dry) with the remaining ingredients.  Blend until very smooth, for a full minute. (Note: I toasted the coriander and cumin seeds in a dry pan briefly before I added them to the blender)
4. Heat a dutch oven to medium-high heat and add oil. Sear the salted lamb shoulder, patiently browning each side to create a deep colored crust.
5. Once all sides are seared, remove dutch oven from heat. Nestle the onion and orange slices all around the lamb shoulder along with bay leaves. Pour the marinade over top and shake the pan to get the marinade to the bottom.
6. Cover tightly and bake in a 325F oven for 3½-4 ½ hours (mine was done in 3.5 hours)
7. Roast is done when meat pulls apart easily.  Pull the meat off the bones and discard the bones along with any large chunks of fat.  Shred lamb and place into a serving dish. Strain the remaining marinade and pour over the meat keeping to keep it moist (I didn't get very much here!). (Note: I parked this in the fridge overnight and we had it the next day.  I heated it up on the stove before making tacos.)

Cilantro Lime Slaw

•     3/4 cup plain Greek yogurt (I used Fage 2%)
•     1/4 cup mayonnaise (Hellman's Light)
  
•     1/2 cup tightly-packed fresh cilantro
•     1/4 cup freshly-squeezed lime juice
•     1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
•     1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
•     1/4 teaspoon freshly-cracked black pepper
•     3 green onions (just the green parts) -I think I subbed some garlic scapes here -’tis the season
•     2 garlic cloves
•     (optional) 1 jalapeño or serrano pepper, stemmed and cored (I used a few good shakes of Tapatio)
• 8 cups shredded cabbage (could also use a bag of coleslaw mix)

Directions

1. Combine the Greek yogurt, cilantro, lime juice, cumin, salt, black pepper, green onions, garlic and jalapeño (if using) in a blender or food processor*.  Pulse briefly a few times until the mixtures is combined.
2. Place the cole slaw mix in a large mixing bowl.  Drizzle the sauce on top of the cole slaw, then toss until the mixture is evenly combined.  Season with extra pepper and/or lime juice if needed.
3. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate for up to 24 hours.

Some pics!  With and without slaw:

 

 

Kefta (Lamb meatballs)

 So there's no Guilford College CSA this summer, but we do have a weekly farmer's market (4-6pm every Tuesday at the Guilford College Farm - check it out!).  However, while I don't have a CSA challenge this summer, I do have a another challenge, the whole lamb from Enno Farm that's currently stuffed in my freezer, along with the remains of a 1/4 of a pig from PTB Farm last December.  So this year's challenge is much more meaty, but there will be vegetables included!

I had posted my first recipe with lamb chops a couple of weeks ago, and I'll need to branch out into the different cuts in my freezer.  I commonly make lamb burgers and top the with  tzatziki (I'll post that soon) but I thought it would be fun to branch out a bit with the ground lamb so I decided to try these Kefta and Zuchinni Kabobs from Smitten Kitchen.  I made them pretty much as written, except that I used 2% Greek yogurt to make the sauce, and a lonely hamburger bun I had around for the bread.  The meatballs I threaded onto soaked wooden skewers as suggested, but the zucchini I put on these cool double skewers that are great for grilling because whatever you stick on them doesn't spin around!  However, they were a little too small for these petite scant 1 tbs meatballs.  I found I couldn't turn them over on the grill without the meatballs trying to pull off the skewer so I just kind of eased them over with a spatula.  No in-process pictures, but a nice shot of the final platter before we had dinner:

 

Note: I had tried to post this a few weeks ago, but Blogger was mysteriously not letting photos upload.

Lamb and potatoes

 So it's been a minute...

Lots of stuff has happened since last I posted, but I'll leave that alone for now.  

I was fortunate enough to buy a lamb from my friend Angela King of the Wake Forest University Chemistry Department and Enno Farm in Stokes County NC.  Today I pulled out a random selection of chops and seasoned them up w/ salt, pepper, fresh rosemary and garlic.  

They're in a plastic bag b/c I cooked them sous vide for 2 hours at 127°F before I plopped them on the grill for a couple of minutes on each side. I tried sous vide b/c I was scared to death to overcook these babies and sous vide lets you get it up to temp and then finish on the grill, about 2 minutes per side.  It worked out great.

To accompany I made "Crash Potatoes" which I got from the Pioneer Woman's web site but that I'm sure she didn't invent.  Happy accident here, I put them on at 450°F for the first 20 min on convection, I did realize it but it made them very crispy and delicious.  I used Yukon Gold potatoes from a lovely bag obtained at Harris Teeter.  No paremsan, but a big sprinkle of chopped fresh rosemary was yummy.

Lastly the sauce.  This is a version of chimichurri I got from the "Sauced" column on Serious Eats, one of my favorite places to get recipes (note I put in all the ingredients in order, but the vinegar and oil I just throw the food processor at the end with the rest of the ingredients). I've also made this chimichurri with carrot tops!  All in all, I think it came out pretty great.  There was a cesear salad to go along with it, but it's not pictured.