Serendipity is when you have a dozen dried figs that have been soaking for 2 weeks in brandy and looking for a worthy cause, and then you find a lamb shoulder already butterflied and ready for stuffing on sale at the butcher counter!

FIG STUFFING
Makes about 4 cups stuffing

12 dried figs, soaked overnight (or 2 weeks) in 2 cups brandy
4 slices stale whole wheat bread, torn into 6-8 pieces each
2 TBL olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small onion, finely diced
1/2 tsp rosemary leaves
1 tsp oregano
sea salt and ground black pepper
3 TBL minced fresh parsley
additional brandy or water as needed

Rough chop the dried figs and return to the soaking liquid, along with the torn bread.

Heat small pan over medium high heat. When heated through, add oil and onions, and reduce heat to medium. Cover and cook onions until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary and oregano, and stir through to combine. Cook together 2-3 minutes, or until you can smell the garlic and herbs.

Remove from heat and add to the figs and bread. Season with sea salt and ground black pepper, and add parsley. With your hands or a wooden spoon, combine the ingredients thoroughly. If mixture is a little dry, drizzle brandy or water over until it just holds together. Set aside until needed.

STUFFED LAMB
Serves 4 persons

2.5 lb/ 1kg lamb shoulder, butterflied
sea salt and fresh ground black pepper
2 cups Fig Stuffing (above)
kitchen twine or metal roasting skewers

Lay butterflied lamb roast on work surface. Season well and fill center with about 2 cups stuffing. Bring ends of lamb to center and secure with kitchen twine or metal skewers. Season outside of roast. Place remaining stuffing in an oiled baking dish, drizzle with about 2 TBL of water or broth, and cover with foil (I also place a piece of wax paper or parchment between food and foil).

Pre-heat oven to 350F/180C.

Heat large skillet over high heat. Add olive oil, and lay roast in pan with open side of roast down. Brown well — the meat will release from the pan when sufficiently browned, about 2 full minutes. Brown all sides well.

Place browned roast in an oiled oven-proof pan, and into pre-heated oven. Roast for 15 minutes, then turn oven down to 325F/162C for remainder of cooking time — it took about 40 minutes more for this 2.5lb roast to reach medium doneness (160F/70C on an instant-read thermometer) at the center. See the American Lamb Council’s time and temperature recommendations for roasting lamb.

(Start gravy by browning mushrooms while the roast is in the oven)

Place leftover dressing in oven for the last 30 minutes of roasting time. Remove lamb to serving platter and allow to rest for 15 minutes before slicing. Meanwhile, finish the gravy from the pan drippings.

MUSHROOM & PORT WINE GRAVY
1 lb. cremini (aka baby bella) mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
2 TBL olive oil
1 TBL/ 15g unsalted butter, in small dice
1/2 cup/ 120ml water
1/2 cup/ 120ml red wine
1/2 cup/ 120 ml port wine
1 TBL soy sauce
4 TBL/ 60g unsalted butter
1/2 tsp oregano
sea salt and ground black pepper
1 TBL. flour mixed with 1 TBL. olive oil

Heat wok or large skillet over high heat. Add oil and sliced mushrooms, and spread in pan so they don’t crowd. Gently press mushrooms against pan to brown one side. Turn mushrooms to brown other side. Remove from heat and add butter pieces. Swirl to melt butter. Remove to gravy boat and set aside.

After removing roast from pan, add water, wine and port to pan and gently scrape up all the browned bits (except rosemary leaves, remove any stray leaves — they can be very bitter). If your roasting pan is stainless steel or other stove-top safe material, it helps to gently heat the pan on the stove to get every delicious browned bit.

Tags: Lamb

I’ve had a love affair with eggplant, or aubergines, for as long as I can remember. And when I think of eggplant I’m thinking first of the slender, long Japanese eggplant like the ones in this photo, since those are what I grew up with. In Hawaii, we found locally grown eggplant all year round — what a blessing that was!

In her book, A Taste of Persia, Najmieh K. Batmanglij, shares her love for eggplant tied to a memory of frying them with her mother to make a luscious aromatic stew, called Khoresh in Farsi. This slim volume introduces the reader to the most popular dishes of the rich Persian repetoire, including 13 recipes for various khoreshes. I can’t recommend it highly enough, although it can be challenging to find some of the more unusual ingredients called for in the recipes. But well worth the hunt.

This particular khoresh recipe drew me in because it utilizes eggplants that are fried whole, then added to the stew with the stem end intact. It makes for quite a dramatic presentation on your plate. After frying, he eggplant may be peeled or left unpeeled, depending on the diameter of the vegetable. The eggplant used in these photos were nearly pencil-thin and about 10” long — it is a variety I’ve most often seen used to make the Philippine vegetable stew known as Pinakbet. Since the eggplant were so small, the skin softens and becomes meltingly tender, even when fried, so the eggplant were left unpeeled.

Eggplant and lamb have a natural affinity for each other, and although Ms. Batmanglij allows that other meats may be substituted for lamb in her khoresh recipes I hope you try this one with lamb. You will love it!

Add salt, pepper, saffron water, and turmeric. Add tomato puree and unripe grapes or lime juice, and bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 15 minutes while you prepare eggplant and pre-heat the oven.

Peel eggplant and slice them lengthwise into quarters if they are large. Brush each side with egg whites to reduce oil needed for frying.

Heat remaining 2 TBL of butter or ghee in a skillet over medium heat. Fry eggplant until golden brown on each side, about 10 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

In the same skillet you fried the eggplant, heat 1 TBL of oil over medium heat and saute the tomato whole.

Transfer meat to oven-proof casserole, and arrange eggplant and tomato on top. Cover and bake for 30 minutes, then remove cover and bake 15 minutes longer.

Taste and adjust seasoning for balance of salt and sourness (add lime juice).

Serve with saffron steamed or plain basmati rice. We also added a yogurt salad.

Visit Ms. Batmanglij’s site for a preview of and more recipes from this book.

Tags: Lamb, Local produce

See also: Learning to make preserved lemons at home (all you need are lemons, coarse salt and oil. And time.)
Other recipes with preserved lemons: Chicken with Preserved Lemons & Olives, Roast Chicken with Preserved Lemon & Sage and Preserved Lemon & Almond Polenta Torta (cake).

Tags: Lamb, Slow-cooker

This meal was inspired by 2 different recipes in my favorite Italian cookbook. One had pork, chick peas and spinach; the other was a spicy braised lamb in a white wine sauce. We ended up with a braised lamb with chickpeas in a white wine sauce, with a side of Tuscan kale, served with grilled polenta. How's that for going with the flow, working in The Way?

BRAISED LAMB WITH CHICKPEAS
adapted from Trattoria, by Patricia Wells

Chickpeas:
1 cup (200g) dried chickpeas

Tags: Lamb

I will usually order lamb if it's on a menu, especially lemon & garlic infused rib chops like these. We don't have them at home very often, but this Easter they were a perfect fit for our intimate stay-home dinner. Lamb and lentils have a natural affinity for each other, but this particular recipe for Lentils Catalane is the best we've tried and everyone who has ever tried them has refused to leave without the recipe. Thing is, the ingredients list couldn't be more mundane — all simple pantry items: lentils, onions, garlic, olive oil, salt, pepper, tomato paste, oregano and thyme. The key to the wonderful flavor? There are two, actually.

One, use roughly equal weights of onions and lentils, then cook the onions until completely translucent. Believe it or not, this is the step where the dish will most often go astray — if the onions are still slightly opaque when the other ingredients are added, the moment is lost and the recipe will not taste quite as heavenly, no matter how much longer the dish is cooked.

Two, cook the tomato paste before adding the lentils. That's it! — now you have the keys and this wonderful recipe is open to you. It is a wonderful accompaniment to any grilled meat — but is at its coquettish best with lamb. Having said that, these lentils are so savory and flavorful on their own, they would make a wonderful tortilla wrap or pita filling, too. Last night we made the serendipitous discovery that they also married well with the Fenugreek Potatoes, so the 2 together would make a filling and luscious vegetarian sandwich or pizza.

Oh, there is one catch. Make the lentils at least 24 hours before you intend to use or serve them. Because they are cooked separately from the base, the lentils need the overnight in the fridge to really meld the flavors together.

Tags: Lamb