Flashback Friday - Lamb unKebabs

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on May 13, 2013.

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My favorite flavor palettes come from China and Thailand and I find myself using them pretty frequently in my weekend dinner-making. Despite the vibrancy of seasonings like Sriracha, star anise, and Thai basil, eating similar flavors over and over can get, well, boring. So one recent weekend, I mixed things up a bit and prepared a meal with origins in the Mediterranean. And I don't mean Italy or Greece - Turkey's there too, along with Egypt and Syria, Albania, and Bosnia.

Lamb is a popular protein in that part of the world, and it is often flavored with what we might otherwise consider "sweet" spices. You know, the seasonings most familiar to us in pumpkin pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Combined with cumin and paprika, these sweet spices both camouflage and accentuate the characteristic "gamy" flavor of lamb.

These rather sausage-like lamb patties, borrowed heavily from a kebab recipe found in chef Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, would be perfect skewered and cooked on the grill, but they were also quite tasty when pan-fried and served with a sprightly salad of tomato, feta, and olives.

Lamb unKebabs (adapted from Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume)

1.5 lbs ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Mix all ingredients except molasses thoroughly. Form into eight small patties. Refrigerate on a covered plate for at least one hour and up to overnight to allow flavors to meld.

Cook patties in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serve with tomato salad and a drizzle of the pomegranate molasses.

Tomato Salad

2 ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into large dice
1/4 cup chopped black and green olives
1 tablespoon minced chives
splash balsamic vinegar
splash lemon juice
splash agave syrup or honey
pinch salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta cheese

Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavors can meld. Add cheese when ready to serve.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Flashback Friday - Kofte with Pistachio Sauce

This post originally appeared on Minxeats.com on November 19, 2012.

You may recall from my recap of Time Machine Chefs back in August that I expressed admiration for chef Silvena Rowe, of the restaurant Quince in London's May Fair Hotel. Her ballsy attitude on the show made me check if she had any cookbooks available in the U.S. - and yes, she does! A couple, actually, and I chose to buy Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, mostly because I liked the idea of purple citrus. :) While no actual purple citrus were harmed during the reading of that book, by the time I was done with it, I wanted to cook every recipe. I even bought a jar of grape leaves, which I have never used before.

The recipe that stood out most for me was for lamb kofte with pistachio sauce. Kofte are meatballs or small patties made from ground meat, and I just happened to have some ground lamb in the freezer. There were also pistachios and tahini kicking around for the sauce, as well as the last vestiges of our garden's fresh mint and all of the recipe's required spices. (Find the recipe here.)

Toasting and grinding the pistachios was the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. Well, not that either the toasting or the grinding part of the equation was difficult, but cleaning out the coffee grinder that I used for the purpose was not fun. (We have two - one for coffee, one for other stuff.) The sauce ended up tasting more of the tahini than the pistachios, which was a little disappointing, but the kofte were wonderful. I had swapped out the currants in the recipe for dried cherries, and they lent a lovely sweetness to the savory spice- and mint-flavored patties. I also chose to serve some home-made preserved lemons as a garnish, and their juicy salty tang was a perfect accent.

I hope to try other recipes from this book over the coming months and will post my adventures here. In the meantime, do try the recipe for yourself.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Maiwand Grill

Maiwand Grill, which bills itself as a restaurant serving authentic Afghan cuisine, opened on West Baltimore Street in 2015. It's just down the street from work, so I've popped in a couple of times to try various menu items.

The first time, I decided to sample three of the appetizers. The kaddo borawni, or sweet baby pumpkin topped with a garlicky yogurt sauce (with or without ground beef sauce) seemed sweeter than the same dish served at the Helmand (the restaurant that introduced the cuisine of Afghanistan to Baltimore), but it was tasty nonetheless. I also tried the aushak, ravioli filled with scallions, topped with more of that garlicky yogurt sauce, plus ground beef and mint. It was a little sloppy to eat out of a pound-sized plastic tub but it was also pretty good. Finally, the eggplant with tomatoes and peppers (and more garlic yogurt sauce) had too many green peppers for my taste (but that is my particular prejudice). All three apps felt slightly oily, which may not be the case if they are served on a plate.

Left: kaddo borawni. Top: eggplant. Bottom: aushak with meat.

And perhaps it was a bit of yogurt sauce overload for one meal (however, I ended up eating the leftovers for two additional days), but all three dishes worked nicely with the supplied flatbreads, which mopped up all of the sauce and juices quite nicely.

The next time I went, I tried one of the kabob dishes. Maiwand Grill has a couple styles of chicken kabobs, like the tikka kabobs (marinated with tandoori flavoring) and the malai kabobs (with a sour cream butter sauce--the one I tried), plus lamb, beef, kofta, and salmon kabobs. All come with salad, cilantro yogurt sauce, a naan-style bread, and a pile of cinnamon- and cardamom-scented rice. The chunks of white meat chicken in my dish were tender and moist, and everything else was well-seasoned.

Chicken malai kabob.

It was also a large portion, so I was able to enjoy it for two lunches. Not bad for $10.

Maiwand Grill's entree selection also includes lamb chops, shrimp, and a beef or chicken burger seasoned with Afghan spices. Baklava, rice pudding, and Afghan ice cream serve as desserts.

I would imagine they get the most business at lunchtime from the University and hospital down the street, but Maiwand Grill is a place to consider for lunch or dinner before or after an Orioles game--Camden Yards is just a few blocks away.

Maiwand Grill
324 W Baltimore St
Baltimore, MD 21201
(410) 685-0208

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Parsnip Hummus

Once again the end of the month showed up and that meant another stitch-n-bitch get-together with friends. Regular Minxeats readers know that I like to make both something dippy and something sweet for the ladies. Dippy, because it keeps the hands relatively clean, and knitters need clean hands. Sweet, because we all seem to have a sweet tooth.

This month's dippy component was homemade hummus, as it often is. I wanted to try something really different this time and leave out the beans completely. I had a bag of parsnips without a purpose in the fridge, so decided to use them. They were already hummus-hued, so why not?

It's best to par-cook the parsnips until they are quite soft, so the food processor doesn't have a hard time breaking them down (especially if  you use a Cuisinart mini-prep, like me). Parnips are denser and dryer than beans, so you'll need to use a bit of water to help in the processing, as well.

The resulting texture is much smoother than a hummus made with beans, but the flavor was somehow quite hummus-y. I was too lazy to cut up vegetables so I served it with Wild California brand Twice Baked Apricot Ginger Crisps. I had picked up a bag at the fancy food show in July and was waiting for the perfect occasion to serve them. Parsnip hummus seemed to be it. The light sweetness of the crisps worked well with the light sweetness of the hummus. The chips are also quite nice on their own, or eaten with cheese. If you've tried the Trader Joe's brand of crackers with fruit bits in them, then you already have an idea of what the Wild California ones are like.

This recipe makes about 1 1/2 cups of hummus. We put a dent in it, but we absolutely demolished the bag of crisps.

Parsnip Hummus

1 lb parsnips
Extra virgin olive oil
4 tablespoons almond butter
Lemon Juice
Garlic powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper
Harissa powder or cayenne

Peel the parsnips and cut into chunks. Put into a saucepan with water to cover. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and cook until parsnips are very tender, about 20 minutes. Drain parsnips, but reserve some of the cooking water.

Allow parsnips to cool to room temperature and put them into the bowl of a food processor with a few tablespoons of cooking water and a glug of olive oil. Process to a fairly smooth texture, adding a few more spoonsful of water or olive oil, if needed, to move things along. The consistency should be thick, not runny. Add the almond butter and process until completely incorporated. Season with a fair amount of lemon juice, plus garlic powder and cumin to taste (start with 1/2 teaspoon each). Salt and pepper, of course, also to taste, and if you want a bit of heat, add a bit of harissa powder or cayenne.

Scrape into a bowl and drizzle on some olive oil. Serve with crudite of your choice, crackers, pita, whatever.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Muhammara

A couple months ago, we took a field trip to Southern Maryland for a fishing tournament. Figuring the ride would be long, we took snack foods in the form of a box of Triscuits and a tub of Trader Joe's Muhammara. We'd never tried the stuff before, muhammara, but the combination of walnuts, roasted bell peppers, and pomegranate molasses sounded really good. And it was. Really good. I could have eaten the entire container myself (AND the whole box of sweet potato/onion Triscuits - yum), but I did share with Mr Minx.

When the next stitch and bitch rolled around, I decided to make muhammara. I typically make some sort of dippy thing, because it's the neatest thing to consume while knitting. There were only two of us this time, but we pretty much killed the entire batch. So tasty, and I think this recipe from Epicurious, with my adjustments (much less bread and oil), tasted pretty similar to TJ's version, only, of course, home-made, and therefore, better.

Muhammara (adapted from Epicurious)

1 large red pepper, peeled, seeded, and roasted, or 1 1/2 jarred roasted red peppers
5 tablespoons fine fresh bread crumbs
1/2 cup walnuts, toasted lightly and chopped fine
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice, or to taste
2 teaspoons pomegranate molasses
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Big pinch cayenne
4-5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Salt to taste

Blend everything together in a food processor until it's a fairly smooth paste. Serve with crackers or crudite.



Posted on Minxeats.com.

Lamb unKebabs

My favorite flavor palettes come from China and Thailand and I find myself using them pretty frequently in my weekend dinner-making. Despite the vibrancy of seasonings like Sriracha, star anise, and Thai basil, eating similar flavors over and over can get, well, boring. So one recent weekend, I mixed things up a bit and prepared a meal with origins in the Mediterranean. And I don't mean Italy or Greece - Turkey's there too, along with Egypt and Syria, Albania, and Bosnia.

Lamb is a popular protein in that part of the world, and it is often flavored with what we might otherwise consider "sweet" spices. You know, the seasonings most familiar to us in pumpkin pie - cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. Combined with cumin and paprika, these sweet spices both camouflage and accentuate the characteristic "gamy" flavor of lamb.

These rather sausage-like lamb patties, borrowed heavily from a kebab recipe found in chef Silvena Rowe's Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, would be perfect skewered and cooked on the grill, but they were also quite tasty when pan-fried and served with a sprightly salad of tomato, feta, and olives.

Lamb unKebabs (adapted from Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume)

1.5 lbs ground lamb
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/4 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh mint
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
pomegranate molasses (optional)

Mix all ingredients except molasses thoroughly. Form into eight small patties. Refrigerate on a covered plate for at least one hour and up to overnight to allow flavors to meld.

Cook patties in a bit of olive oil in a hot pan until browned on both sides and cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Serve with tomato salad and a drizzle of the pomegranate molasses.

Tomato Salad

2 ripe tomatoes, de-seeded and cut into large dice
1/4 cup chopped black and green olives
1 tablespoon minced chives
splash balsamic vinegar
splash lemon juice
splash agave syrup or honey
pinch salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 cup cubed feta cheese

Combine first seven ingredients in a bowl. Allow to rest at room temperature for at least half an hour so flavors can meld. Add cheese when ready to serve.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Kofte with Pistachio Sauce

You may recall from my recap of Time Machine Chefs back in August that I expressed admiration for chef Silvena Rowe, of the restaurant Quince in London's May Fair Hotel. Her ballsy attitude on the show made me check if she had any cookbooks available in the U.S. - and yes, she does! A couple, actually, and I chose to buy Purple Citrus and Sweet Perfume: Cuisine of the Eastern Mediterranean, mostly because I liked the idea of purple citrus. :) While no actual purple citrus were harmed during the reading of that book, by the time I was done with it, I wanted to cook every recipe. I even bought a jar of grape leaves, which I have never used before.

The recipe that stood out most for me was for lamb kofte with pistachio sauce. Kofte are meatballs or small patties made from ground meat, and I just happened to have some ground lamb in the freezer. There were also pistachios and tahini kicking around for the sauce, as well as the last vestiges of our garden's fresh mint and all of the recipe's required spices. (Find the recipe here.)

Toasting and grinding the pistachios was the most difficult and time consuming part of the process. Well, not that either the toasting or the grinding part of the equation was difficult, but cleaning out the coffee grinder that I used for the purpose was not fun. (We have two - one for coffee, one for other stuff.) The sauce ended up tasting more of the tahini than the pistachios, which was a little disappointing, but the kofte were wonderful. I had swapped out the currants in the recipe for dried cherries, and they lent a lovely sweetness to the savory spice- and mint-flavored patties. I also chose to serve some home-made preserved lemons as a garnish, and their juicy salty tang was a perfect accent.

I hope to try other recipes from this book over the coming months and will post my adventures here. In the meantime, do try the recipe for yourself.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Sesame Butter

We're big fans of nut butters. I couldn't tell you how many giant tubs of peanut butter we (Mr Minx) goes through during the course of a year. Not only do we eat it straight out of the jar, either on bread or right off the spoon, but we also use it in cooking.

Unfortunately, my brother is severely allergic to peanuts and I always have to remember to skip those yummy Asian peanut noodle salads when I'm making party or pot-luck food. Anaphylactic shock is not a good thing. Sometimes I use almond butter, but then I'm disappointed that the flavor isn't quite as rich and nutty as when I use peanut butter. But I found a perfect substitution: sesame butter. Most folks know it as tahini, an essential ingredient in Middle Eastern food, particularly hummus.

Golden Millstone Sesame Butter is made from organic sesame seeds grown in Ethiopia, crushed using a 90-year-old millstone. It's free of additives and other nuts, and is both delicious and healthy.

If you'd like to try GM Sesame Butter for yourself, I have an exclusive 40% off discount code for Minxeats readers. Just go to http://sesamebutter.com and enter MINXEATS at checkout to receive your discount. And while you're at the site, check out the recipe section, including this one for Cold Chinese Sesame Noodles.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Casablanca Halal

One of the newer food trucks to hit the UMMS area is Casablanca Halal, which might better be described as a food cart, since it's towed by a truck and sometimes finds itself on the sidewalk rather than at the curb. Like many halal carts, Casablanca Halal serves up chicken, beef, and lamb, pre-sliced and seasoned, alone or in combination, as a salad or a gyro-style sandwich. The portions are generous and the prices are inexpensive, making it a near-perfect lunch for the hungry and omnivorous.

 

My first sampling of Casablanca Halal's food came in the form of their popular chicken and lamb combination dish, which for $5.99 provided enough for two lunches. The gyro meat was tender, as were the chunks of chicken breast meat, both served over cumin-seasoned basmati rice. Lettuce, tomato, and onion were arrayed on top, with the option of adding "white sauce" (yogurt-based) or hot sauce as well.

Just as delicious but not quite as gut-busting is a gyro or chicken sandwich served on a freshly-griddled pita for the very reasonable price of $3.99. It's a bit messy, but worth the napkins.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Shakshouky

Every year my group at work has a holiday party, and every year I like to take the opportunity to show off my culinary chops, especially since more and more folks are bringing store-bought food. There's usually at least one vegetarian around, so I try to be nice and prepare something that they can enjoy. The thing is - we have limited fridge space and only two microwaves with which to reheat food, so, ideally, I need to make a dish that needs neither refrigeration nor warming.

I usually end up making the same brownies or Asian noodles (that I can keep plenty cold on the windowsill in my office), but this year I wanted to do something completely different. I got my inspiration from my birthday dinner, a selection of mezze at Lebanese Taverna; my favorite dish of the evening was shakshouky, a cold salad of eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes, seasoned with lots of garlic and olive oil. Served on LT's warm pita bread, it was an absolute delight.

After determining that both resident vegetarians enjoy eggplant, I poked around online and found Lebanese Taverna's recipe, which I modified to make up for my lack of pomegranate molasses. I made a test batch to try at home, and it was a roaring success. Let's hope they love it at tomorrow's party.

Shakshouky

1 eggplant
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 scallions, white and green parts, chopped
1/2 jarred roasted red bell pepper, diced
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 clove garlic mashed with a pinch of salt
teaspoon of honey
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds

Preheat oven to 350F. Cut eggplant in half from top to bottom and place, face down, on a foil-lined baking sheet. Bake for about 40 minutes or until soft. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.

Scrape eggplant into the bowl of a food processor. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil and puree. Place eggplant into a bowl; add the remaining oil, the scallions, bell pepper, lemon juice, garlic, and honey. Mix well. Add salt and pepper and taste for seasonings, adding more lemon juice if necessary. Stir in pomegranate seeds.

Serve on bread-like substance of your choice.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Cazbar On the Go

Charles Street restaurant Cazbar is now delivering tasty Turkish-style morsels to the masses via their new food truck, Cazbar On the Go. After several weeks of wondering if they'd park near the University of Maryland and actually hang around for more than five minutes (once in a while there'd be a rumor that the truck was outside, but by lunchtime, it had disappeared), I was able to catch it twice in one week. I took the opportunity to try a little bit of everything.

On my first visit to the truck, I tried two of their Turkish "tacos" - literally taco-sized flour tortillas stuffed with your choice of doner or chicken kebab, or felafel.

The chicken taco featured tender chunks of chicken breast with a subtle char-grilled flavor. The doner (couldn't tell if it was beef or lamb or both) was also very tender. Both tacos included a tangy yogurt sauce, chunks of lettuce, and a nice bit of heat. At $2.50 a taco, they make for a cheap - and delicious - lunch.

Not as reasonably-priced is the baklava, at $4 for an order of three man's-thumb-sized pieces. The portion I got was a little soft and soggy, and seemed completely devoid of nuts apart from a hint of green between the layers of pastry. I understand that Turkish baklava features nuts that are coarsely ground, but if there were pistachios in there, they were finely ground.

On another day, I had a honking huge salad - for $6! - topped with doner meat, shredded carrots and red cabbage, two different yogurt-based sauces, AND a tangy vinaigrette. The salad is also available with chicken or felafel.

Not realizing I'd be getting a restaurant-sized dollop (nor that the salad would be so huge), I also ordered a side of creamy baba ganoush. It was served with slices of could-be-fresher bread (as was the salad) on which to spread the eggplant and tahini concoction - I would have preferred pita. The baba ganoush itself was pretty good though.

Overall, everything was generally excellent and, for the most part, reasonably priced, which makes Cazbar On the Go yet another great addition to the roster of food trucks that are cruising downtown Baltimore.


Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Baltimore Restaurant Week Summer '08 - Lebanese Taverna

It's Restaurant Week once again and Mr Minx and I have chosen two places to visit this year, both new to us. (The event is a great way to audition a restaurant without fear of breaking the bank.) Our first destination of the week was Harbor East's Lebanese Taverna, at the corner of President and Lancaster Streets, right across the street from the construction of the new Legg Mason tower, sure to be another blight on the shoreline and a helluva way to ruin a perfectly good view. But...I don't blog about architectural monstrosities here, just food, so I'll move along to just that....

Lebanese Taverna is an outpost of the Arlington restaurant mini-empire that includes six restaurants and four cafés plus a market. I read good things about the place over the years and was happy that Baltimore now had its own restaurant. Now was the perfect time to check it out.

The space is large and high-ceilinged, decorated in shades of brown and white. It's spare and modern (check out the long rectangular metal mesh lamps, below) but with ethnic touches such as the tiled wall at the back of the room and the beaded curtain that separates the main dining room from the bathroom area. Lebanese music (including some throbbing disco) was piped in at a nicely quiet level over the sound system.

The one thing I found weird about the decor is the wall separating the dining room from the kitchen. You can't see it too well in this shot because of the glare, but it appears to be covered in brown wood grain-patterned Contact Paper, making it look like something from Dean Martin's living room, ca. 1972.

It was early, and we were the only folks in the place for a few minutes as we perused the menu and decided to stick with the Restaurant Week offerings. We were brought a basket of freshly-baked pita breads and a little dish of olive oil with za'atar (a blend of herbs like thyme, oregano, marjoram, plus sesame seeds and salt. Sometimes Lebanese za'atar contains sumac, but I didn't notice any in this particular blend).

Mr Minx had the Kibbeh appetizer (ground beef and crushed wheat shells stuffed with ground lamb, beef, pine nuts and almonds) . The description made them sound like they would be little meat tarts, but instead they were meatball-like objects. They were crisp on the outside and tender and dry-textured inside, spiced with cinnamon and perhaps nutmeg. Served with very rich yogurt sauce, the four large pieces were almost a meal unto themselves. We both enjoyed them and I wouldn't mind attempting these at home.

I went for the Shrimp Arak (shrimp sautéed with garlic, onion, cilantro, Arak). I was disappointed that I could not taste the Arak, a Middle Eastern anise-flavored liquor. Instead, the sauce was extremely tangy (but in a good way) and did not need those additional lemon slices. The shrimp tasted like they had been grilled before being sautéed with the sauce, which was a nice touch.

For his entrée, Mr Minx chose the mixed grill, a heaping helping of lamb, chicken, beef, and kafta skewers, onion salad, rice, and a ton of barely-grilled zucchini, pearl onions, and green pepper, all liberally sprinkled with fresh parsley. The chicken (breast meat) was a little dry, but everything else was tender and juicy, particularly the beef.

I had the salmon meshwi, despite having had salmon the night before. The difference between the Lebanese Taverna dish and mine was like night and day (my adventure with salmon will be chronicled later in the week). LT's was cooked to medium, enough to just melt the fat and render the meat tender and unctuous. I particularly enjoyed the crispy top layer. The salmon was served with couscous decorated with tiny chick peas (which I picked out since they tend to make me sick), a ton of grilled veggies, and a bit of tomato sauce. I loved it.

For dessert, Mr Minx had the Halawet Jiene, crepes stuffed with sweet cheese and sprinkled with finely ground semolina pistachio brittle and candied orange zest and drizzled with a honey-like sauce. Somewhat bland, it was also cool and refreshing after all of the grilled meat, and the brittle lent a crunchy counterpoint. I liked it better than my dessert, warm "kaak" (a type of Arab bread) bread pudding with fig puree, sesame seed caramel sauce, and a disk of crispy katafy (a type of shredded pastry). The fig puree was more like Fig Newton filling - chunky and rich. The dessert was good, but a bit heavy for such warm weather. I think I would have preferred it with a thinner puree and a bit of ice cream or custard.

We washed all of this goodness down with bottles of Sam Adams, which was included in the $30.08. (The menu offered LT draft, or a glass of red or white wine. We opted for the draft, which they did not have, hence our choosing a more expensive bottled beer.)

For the amount of food they gave us, I'd say Lebanese Taverna was quite a bargain. And the flavors were excellent, so we'll definitely go back for more at some point in the future.

Lebanese Taverna
719 S President St
Baltimore, MD 21202
(410) 244-5533