Tunisian Carrot Salad and Lamb Kabobs

I read a great article in the New York Times about French Rosh Hashanah recipes with North African origins, and the three recipes in the article sounded so good I couldn't get them out of my head. I really want to make the semolina pastry with dates, but since I'm going out of town tomorrow I didn't think it made much sense to make three dozen pastries a couple days before leaving. I decided on the Tunisian Carrot Salad, and some lamb seasoned with ras el hanout.

Serves 6-8
2 pounds carrots, peeled
1 teaspoon salt, or as needed
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground caraway
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon harissa or other hot sauce
Fresh lemon juice, as needed, optional.



1. Bring a pot of water to a boil, and add carrots and 1 teaspoon salt. Boil until almost tender, about 15 minutes. Meanwhile, set aside a bowl of ice water. Transfer cooked carrots to the ice bath and chill.

2. Drain carrots, and cut into disks about 1/4-inch thick. Transfer to a bowl and add olive oil. Sprinkle with cumin, caraway, and coriander. Add harissa or hot sauce, and mix gently. Season with lemon juice and salt to taste. Serve at room temperature.



So you may notice A. the lack of pictures, and B. the lack of carrots. There were so few steps I barely had anything to take pictures of. And I cut the recipe into 1/4, to serve two people. The flavors in the carrot salad were great. Instead of making harissa, I bought a little bit from the falafel/schwarma place by my apartment.



I served it with cous cous with arugula mixed in, and lamb kabobs seasoned with ras el hanout. This was the first time I used ras el hanout and it was really good. It's a North African spice mixture with sometimes as many as 30 spices, although it greatly varies depending on where you get it. Some of the spices that are almost always included are coriander, cumin, cinnamon, peppercorn, and turmeric. I had to go to the Spice House to get it, as well as the caraway for the carrot salad. And I'm SO MAD that I forgot my camera because it's such a great store. Next time.

Have a great Labor Day weekend, I'll be back next week!

Bastille Day

Happy Bastille Day! Yes, I know it's on the 14th of July and not the 13th, but by the time all three of you readers read this it will probably be the 14th. I had our festivities a bit early because I already had plans on the 14th. And maybe since I'm writing this early someone might feel inspired to make a Bastille Day feast of their own? Peut-être?

And now, a petit history lesson. In France, it's more commonly called "le quatorze juillet" rather than Bastille Day (same as the 4th of July rather than Independence Day). This holiday celebrates the anniversary of the storming of the Bastille in 1789, during the French Revolution. Vive la France!



Storming of the Bastille in the 18th century = reason for me to make a tasty dinner. I consulted many online travel guides, blogs, food websites, and a few other articles on what a traditional Bastille Day meal should be. There's not really one food that exemplifies this holiday, but I read about dishes like oysters, various sausages including merguez, frites, potato salad, tomato tart, seafood salad...I could go on. So here's what I decided on: grilled merguez sausages with white beans, herbed potato salad, green salad, and chocolate and vanilla pots de creme.

Merguez is a spicy lamb sausage from North Africa, but very popular in French cuisine. I was counting on Fox & Obel to have merguez, but I called that morning and they didn't have any. Zut alors! I went to Whole Foods instead, hoping for the best. No dice. However, the very nice man at the butcher counter said it wasn't too busy and he could make some lamb sausage for me. I didn't want to press my luck by requesting a lengthy list of specific spices, so I just asked him to make it spicy. Grilled for about about 10 minutes...perfection. Maybe not the authentic thing, but very good. I added some cannellini beans on the side.



That was actually the part of the meal I cooked last. Earlier in the day I started the potato salad. I wanted to do a different version than I made over Easter, so I found this one on Martha Stewart's website.

2 1/2 pounds fingerling or small new potatoes, halved (quartered if large)
Coarse salt and ground pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 small shallot, minced (2 tablespoons)
3 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme
1/4 small red onion, sliced

Place potatoes in a large pot; cover with cold water by 1 inch and season generously with salt. Bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook until potatoes are tender, about 15 minutes. Run under cold water to cool slightly, then drain.



Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together oil, mustard, vinegar, shallot, parsley, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Add potatoes and onion and toss to combine. Serve at room temperature. (To store, refrigerate, up to overnight.)




As far as adjustments - I cut the recipe in half, used champagne vinegar instead of sherry (only because I already had it on hand), no red onion but extra shallots instead, and I used a grainy mustard.

And now for dessert. I've been eyeing this recipe for awhile now on latartinegourmande.com, a really beautiful website (also found on the right side of the page). I had a chocolate pot de creme at Crispo a year or two ago that really stuck in my mind, and once I saw a recipe for it I knew I wanted to give it a try.

2 eggs + 1 egg yolk
1/3 cup blond cane sugar
2 cups whole milk
1 vanilla bean, split open and seeds scraped out
50 g dark chocolate, 64 % cocoa
1 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder

In a pot, pour the milk and add the vanilla bean and seeds. Bring to a boil and then stop the heat, cover and let infuse for 30 minutes. Filter.



In the meantime, melt the chocolate in a double-boiler and keep on the side.



Preheat your oven at 320 F.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and egg yolk with the sugar, then add the hot milk slowly while beating.




Divide the cream in two equal halves, and add the melted chocolate and cocoa to one half.



Pour the vanilla and chocolate creams in small ramekins or jars — make sure to remove the foam that might have formed on top — and place them in a dish filled with hot water, so that they are half immersed.




Place in the oven and cook for about 30 minutes (for the chocolate creams) and 35 to 40 minutes for the vanilla creams. Check regularly after 30 minutes. The middle of the creams should still be moving a little — the creams will settle once they cool down. Take the jars or ramekins out and let them cool down. Place a plastic wrap on top and place them in the fridge to rest for a few hours before eating.



So...this hasn't been my week. I made a chicken tikka masala a few days ago that we won't speak of, and then something went a little awry with the chocolate pots. I suspect it was either that the melted chocolate was too hot for the cooled off milk when I added it (I didn't melt it at the beginning of the recipe, but right before adding it), or that the water I put in the glass dish wasn't hot enough. Either way, the chocolate pots had some separation in the middle - they were nice and thick and chocolatey on top, and when I put my spoon in it was liquidy and light in color in the bottom. Don't get me wrong...a chocolate dessert is still a chocolate dessert, so I mixed it up a bit and ate every last bit. The vanilla turned out fine. I'll definitely give it another try though.

All in all, a delicious French feast.

Lamb Burgers

I've been on a lamb kick recently. No particular reason. When I think about what to make for dinner my mind goes first to seafood, then steak, then chicken, and I guess lamb is last. So I had kind of forgotten how much I love it. These lamb burgers are pretty much the burger form of the marinated kabobs I made a couple weeks ago.



3/4 - 1 lbs. ground lamb
1/2 lemon
2 Tbl. chopped fresh oregano
2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
pepper
olive oil or canola oil, for grilling

Combine lamb, juice from half a lemon, oregano, garlic, salt, and pepper together in a bowl. Use your hands to break up the meat and evenly distribute the other ingredients. Form into 2-3 patties, depending on how much meat you have.




Brush the burgers with a bit of oil on each side to prevent sticking to the grill (or use olive oil or canola spray). Grill on each side for about 5-6 minutes. For garnish, I used feta cheese crumbles, tomato slices, and tzatziki. And pita bread for a bun.

Greek Lamb Kabobs with Tzatziki and Tomato/Cucumber Salad

Last night I wanted to break out of the usual fish, steak, pasta/pizza routine. Chicken can be so, well...boring. So I thought, why not lamb? Rack of lamb can be really expensive, but lamb shoulder - not too bad. And perfect for kabobs. And then the menu started forming in my head. Kabobs with lamb and red onion, tzatziki sauce for dipping...and some pitas, of course. And a refreshing tomato and cucumber salad on the side.

After looking at many, many Greek marinade recipes online I came up with this one. and I must say, the fresh oregano made the difference. I usually just use dried oregano, but since this marinade only had a few ingredients, I figured I should go for the fresh version. It smelled so good!



juice of 2 lemons
4-6 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil (depending on how much lemon juice you have - the oil should be double that amount)
2 Tbl. fresh oregano, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
1 lb. of lamb shoulder, cut into 1-inch cubes
1/2 red onion, cut into square slices for kabobs
wooden skewers

Mix all ingredients except oil and lamb in a bowl or tupperware.



Slowly add the oil while whisking, so the mixture emulsifies.



Add the lamb and put the lid on, or plastic wrap if you're using a bowl, and shake just a bit to get the lamb covered by the marinade. Marinate in the refrigerator for at least 2, but up to 8 hours.



Put the lamb onto skewers with pieces of red onion in between, and grill for about 5-6 minutes on each side.

Tzatziki sauce:
1 7-oz. container Greek yogurt (I used 2%, but use whichever fat content you like)
2 Tbl. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl. lemon juice
2 Tbl. fresh dill, chopped
3-4 Tbl. cucumber, skinned, seeded, and minced
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix until smooth. I think it's important to use Greek yogurt for this sauce because, a. it's a Greek sauce, and b. the texture is so much richer and thicker than regular yogurt.




And last, the salad:
2 large tomatoes, preferably beefsteak
2/3 of a large cucumber
1 tsp. extra virgin olive oil
1 Tbl. white wine vinegar
big pinch salt
freshly ground pepper

First I should make a note - 2/3 of a large cucumber sounds weird, but what happened was that I bought one big cucumber and used 2/3 of it for the salad and the other third for the tzatziki. So that's where the measurement came from.

Chop the tomatoes and cucumbers into a medium/large dice. When cutting the tomatoes, try to get rid of the seeds and guts. Combine in bowl with the rest of the ingredients.



Heat up some mini pitas in the oven at 350 for 3-4 minutes, and there's your Greek feast! The nice thing about this meal is that 90% of it can be done in advance, and left in the refrigerator until you're ready to eat. The lamb, tzatziki, and salad all get more flavorful the longer they sit in the fridge - so all you have to do once you're ready to eat is cook the kabobs and heat up the pita bread. Opa!