Cook & Be Merry » Lamb

Lamb & Shrimp Kabobs with Red Harissa

Lynne — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 05:20:03 +0000

I love lamb in all its guises. So when I ran across this Lamb & Shrimp Kabobs with Red Harissa recipe in an old copy of Bon Appetit magazine from July 2011, initially I was aghast. Lamb and shrimp? What were they thinking? I was horrified, incredulous, OMG it was so weird. Then I looked at the photo and read the recipe. Well, maybe. What the heck, it’s lamb, I have to give it a try. I’ve never made kabobs from ground meat before, so that was a new fun thing. And I have never made, nor tasted Harissa, so when I made the sauce I was totally bowled over. Actually, the Sriracha was not in the recipe, that was my idea. But it put the sauce over the top. What do you think of the lamb and shrimp combo?

I used a 1-tablespoon ice cream scoop to help measure the lamb mixture. It’s pretty sticky, so wetting your hands before forming it works quite well. Originally the skewers were 9 inches long and I cut them into 3-inch lengths.

I cooked the kabobs on my grill pan. I wrapped the ends of the skewers with aluminum foil so they wouldn’t become covered with oil spatters. Ok, I’m OCD and don’t like to have sticky fingers. Ewww.

I did not make all of the lamb mixture into kabobs. I made 10 kabobs and formed the rest into 6 patties, which I grilled, wrapped in plastic wrap and froze along with little containers of the Harissa sauce. I was thinking of using them in a salad or on a slider with the Harissa. I’ll let you know what I come up with. I’m thinking these will be great to barbeque in the summer for a tasty appetizer. The smoke from the grill will add a wonderful flavor note. Hurry up summer!

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Lamb & Shrimp Kabobs with Red Harissa

Adapted from Bon Appetit July 2011

Makes 36 kabobs

1 pound ground lamb
4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 cup coarsely grated red onion
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon cumin
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound large shrimp (about 20), peeled, deveined, coarsely chopped
Olive oil for brushing

36 3-inch flat wooden skewers

1. In a medium bowl, combine garlic, onion, cilantro, cumin, black pepper and salt.

2. Place lamb in a large bowl, add onion mixture and with your hands, blend together well. Add shrimp and mix to combine.

3. Cover a plate with plastic wrap. Wet palms of hands with water and shake off excess.

4. Measure 2 tablespoons lamb mixture and shape between your palms to form a 2-2 ½ ”-long oval. Slide skewer halfway into lamb mixture, pressing to adhere. Repeat with remaining lamb and skewers.

5. Cut 2×2-inch pieces of aluminum foil and cover ends of wood skewers.

6. Brush lamb with oil and cook on BBQ grill, under broiler on rack, or on lightly oiled grill pan until nicely charred and just cooked through, about 3 minutes per each of 4 sides. Serve immediately with Red Harissa (recipe below).

Red Harissa

3 large red bell peppers
2 ½ tablespoons white wine or white balsamic vinegar
4 garlic cloves, pressed
2 red jalapenos, stemmed, seeded, chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 ½ teaspoon kosher salt, plus more for seasoning
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper, plus more for seasoning
2 teaspoons to 1 tablespoon Sriracha sauce, to taste
¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Roast peppers in broiler or directly over gas flame, turning occasionally, until charred all over. Transfer to large bowl, cover and let stand 15 minutes.

2. Stem, peel and seed peppers. Coarsely chop.

3. Place all ingredients, but olive oil, in large food processor. Puree until very smooth.

4. With machine running, gradually add oil. Season to taste with additional salt and pepper, if desired. Adjust amount of Sriracha, to taste.

Hearty Burgundy Lamb Soup with Rosemary

Lynne — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 01:04:40 +0000

A couple of days ago there was torrential rain in Los Angeles from morning til night that scoured the dirt off my car and bruised the flowers on the plants in my yard. When it finally cleared up the next day, I went out for a tour to check the damage. It wasn’t too bad, just a little debris from the palm trees and a few small branches from the dollar eucalyptus. But this was made up for by the new growth on my two rosemary bushes. I have two rosemarys, one in the front and one in the back yard. They looked so beautiful, I just had to take their photos.

This is the rosemary in the front yard. It is obvious that the gardener has convinced this one that it is a shrubbery, for decorative purposes only. Which is probably a good thing anyway, because its flavor is bland and uninteresting. Notice it has not one blossom to mar its box-like shape.

And this is my free range rosemary, a wild and wooly thing occupying the back corner of my garden. It is seventeen years old and has never been trimmed, except for what I take to cook with. It is covered with blossoms, with bees busily buzzing amongst the branches. If you run a branch through your fingers, they come away smelling so rich with resin-y promise. Which is what happened on my tour. I stood there smelling my palm, inhaling that pine-y aroma, and I just had to cook something using rosemary immediately.

Hearty Burgundy Lamb Soup is one of my favorite recipes that is flavored with rosemary. Please use Gallo Hearty Burgundy the first time you make this recipe, so you can get the full effect of its deep winey flavor. I know Gallo used to be for the cheap seats, but this is the wine I use for all my red wine sauces and in soups. I don’t drink it because it has sort of one big note, with no complexity. But that one note is the perfect flavor for dishes where complexity is created by all the other ingredients. I have tried other burgundy and red wines in this recipe and I ended up with a pale imitation. Trust me, use the Gallo.

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Hearty Burgundy Lamb Soup with Rosemary

My market was out of ground lamb, so I bought a pound of Lamb Leg Boneless Sirloin Chops. I removed most of the fat and minced them in my food processor.

Serves 6

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion 3/8-inch dice
6 large garlic cloves, minced
1 pound ground lamb
2 cups Gallo Hearty Burgundy
2 14.5 oz cans Italian stewed tomatoes (I use S&W brand)
2 14.5 oz cans low sodium beef broth, or 1 beef +1 chicken
1/3 cup tomato puree or ¾ cup tomato sauce
½ tablespoon thyme, minced
2 tablespoons basil, minced
1 ½ tablespoons fresh rosemary, minced
2 teaspoons Kosher salt
Ground black pepper to taste

1/3 cup cooked riso pasta (I used De Cecco 78 Asini di Pepe) or more to taste
¼ cup Gallo Hearty Burgundy to finish (optional)

1. In a large Dutch oven, cook the onion in the olive oil until soft and starting to brown. Add the garlic, stir and cook for 1 more minute.

2. Add the lamb, breaking it up into small pieces, and cook until no longer pink. Add the Burgundy and stir in.

3. Place a strainer across the pot and dump one can of stewed tomatoes into it, allowing the tomato juice to drip into pot. Cut the tomatoes into bite sized pieces and add to lamb mixture in pot. Discard the little celery and other bits in the strainer. Add the second can of tomatoes and repeat straining and cutting. Shake as much tomato juice from the strainer into the pot as possible.

4. Add the 2 cans of broth and tomato puree. Stir in the thyme, basil and rosemary. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook uncovered for 30-40 minutes, until the rosemary is soft. Skim the brown froth from the surface periodically.

5. Add Kosher salt to taste, up to 2 teaspoons and pepper. Add cooked pasta to pot and stir in.

6. If you like a boozy soup, add ¼ cup Burgundy to pot right before serving. Or add 1 teaspoon Burgundy to each bowl. Serve.