yogurt

April Bloomfield’s Lamb Meatballs

by Anne Maxfield on October 18, 2012

Although after the last blog, you might think the Accidental Locavore had enough meatballs to last for a while (and you would be right, clever reader), however I made these shortly after seeing April Bloomfield speak at the James Beard House. She said she obsessed over them in writing her cookbook, so I do feel a little guilty not sticking to the recipe she felt she perfected, but I was trying to speed up the process. This feeds 2 generously.

Lamb Meatballs

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Lamb Meatballs
Serves 2
Prep time 15 minutes
Cook time 1 hour, 15 minutes
Total time 1 hour, 30 minutes
Meal type Main Dish
The Accidental Locavore makes April Bloomfield's lamb meatballs with yogurt and mint. Lamb meatball main course recipe.

Ingredients

Meatballs

  • 1lb ground lamb (see verdict below)
  • 1 tablespoon Maldon sea salt
  • 1 cup breadcrumbs (I used panko)
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil

Sauce

  • 1 medium Spanish onion, finely chopped
  • 3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
  • pinch salt
  • 1 teaspoon ground corriander
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1 spicy chile, pierced with a sharp knife (I used a red jalapeno)
  • 1 can whole tomatoes, 14 ounces, drained, and squished with your hands
  • 4 cups water
  • 1/2 cup whole milk Greek yogurt
  • 2 large eggs

Garnish

  • mint leaves and cilantro for garnish
  • good olive oil for sprinkling on top

Directions

Step 1
Mix the lamb, breadcrumbs and salt. Form into smooth, golf-ball sized balls. Heat the olive oil in a Dutch oven or a large sauce pan with a lid, over high heat. When the oil begins to smoke, add the meatballs and cook until they have a dark brown crust on all sides. If they start to burn, turn the heat down, you don’t want to cook them too quickly. When they’re done, transfer them to a plate. This should take about 12-15 minutes. Drain half the fat from the pot.
Step 2
Lower the heat to medium-high, add the onion, garlic and salt, and cook, stirring until the onion is soft and lightly browned and the garlic is golden brown, about 5 minutes. Add the coriander, cumin, chile, and cook for a minute, stirring constantly.
Step 3
Turn the heat to low, add the tomatoes, and simmer gently until the tomatoes start to stick to the bottom of the pan, about 10 minutes. Add the water and raise the heat to bring to a boil, then turn it down to a steady simmer and cook for 5 minutes more. Transfer half the sauce to a blender, and blend until it’s smooth and airy (it will be lighter than the sauce still in the pan). Stir it back into the pot. Add the meatballs and their juices and stir to coat with the sauce. Cover the pot and let it gently simmer for 30 minutes.
Step 4
To finish: turn the heat to low, add the yogurt in blobs around the pot. Crack the eggs into the sauce. Sprinkle with the mint, cilantro and olive oil. Cover, turn the heat to medium and cook until the eggs are just set about 8-10 minutes. Serve, making sure everyone gets an egg and some yoghurt, and enjoy!
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My verdict: these were really tasty, if a little dense. April has you grind the lamb with the breadcrumbs and that might make them a little more tender. However, I had ground a bunch of lamb myself earlier (for merguez), so I’m not convinced that’s the issue. During the Meatball Madness, the lamb meatballs I had there were also a little tough, so it could just be that lamb doesn’t have the fat content that beef or pork does. Next time I might add a little beaten egg to the mix to see if that would help. The sauce was good, and might have been great, if I had done what the recipe said, and used whole coriander and cumin, toasted them and ground them, but remember I was trying to save some time. Homemade yogurt helped (and do not try to substitute reduced fat yogurt, you’ll have a mess on your hands!) and Frank liked the addition of the (slightly overcooked) egg. I’ll definitely make these again in a couple of months when I’m ready to re-embrace meatballs.

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Making Your Own Ricotta

by Anne Maxfield on September 6, 2012

Accidental Locavore RicottaThe Accidental Locavore has been meaning to make ricotta for a long time now and the ricotta ice cream was just the excuse to give it a shot. It’s always fascinating what “spoiling” milk does, from yogurt to ricotta and other cheeses. This is super-easy to do and tastes great.

Homemade Ricotta

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The Accidental Locavore shares a recipe for homemade ricotta. An easy recipe to make your own ricotta.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 gallon whole milk
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 3 tablespoons lemon juice (if using for ricotta ice cream, zest a lemon and set aside)

Directions

Step 1
Line a colander with a double layer of cheesecloth and put in the sink. In a 6 quart pot (you need space for the boiling milk to expand) slowly bring the milk, cream and salt to a rolling boil, stirring occasionally to keep it from scorching. Reduce the heat to low and add the lemon juice. Stirring constantly, simmer until the mixture curdles, about 2 minutes.

Carefully pour the mixture into the colander and let it drain for an hour (I put my colander over the pot). Discard the liquid. Put the ricotta in a container and chill until ready to use.
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Recipe: Lamb Shanks Over Eggplant With Pine Nuts and Yogurt

by Anne Maxfield on April 8, 2011

Accidental Locavore Lamb, Eggplant and YogurtThis recipe for lamb shanks is from one of the Accidental Locavore’s favorite restaurants in New York, ilili. It’s contemporary Lebanese and totally delicious. My favorite dish is the lamb sausage, however this recipe for lamb shanks is pretty easy and a good substitute. I’ve adapted Philippe Massoud’s recipe, which serves 2. Don’t let the long list of ingredients scare you, you’ve got almost all of them, it’s an easy prep with a long, slow, unattended cooking time.

For the lamb shanks:

  • 1 large lamb shank (about 1 pound)
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon allspice
  • 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
  • 1 cup onions, diced (1 large)
  • 1/2 cup carrots, peeled and chopped
  • 1/4 cup celery, chopped
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 2 sprigs fresh thyme
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 2 cups beef stock (lamb, veal or chicken will work fine, red wine and water would probably work too)
  • 1 cup water

To finish the dish:

  • 1 small eggplant, sliced 1/4″ thick, and salted for 2 hours
  • 3 tablespoons olive oil (for frying the eggplant, you may need more)
  • 1 1/2 cups full fat Greek yogurt (no substitutes, any reduced fat yogurt will curdle)
  • 1 teaspoon garlic, finely minced
  • 1 small pita bread, cut into diamonds and toasted or fried in olive oil (optional)
  • 1/4 cup pine nuts
  • 2 tablespoons butter
  • 1/4 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (you can use a little cayenne or hot paprika, if you can’t find aleppo, but it’s better)
  • a few fresh mint leaves, cut into a chiffonade

Cooking the lamb shank:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Rub the lamb shank with some of the olive oil. Mix the allspice, cinnamon and nutmeg together in a small dish, and sprinkle over the lamb shank. Poke the lamb shank with a sharp knife in where the meat is thickest, and insert one clove of garlic in each slit. Add 2 tablespoons olive oil to an oven-proof skillet large enough to hold the lamb shank, all the vegetables, the stock and water. Add the lamb shank and cook over high heat until the lamb is nicely browned on all sides. Remove the lamb from the pan, and set aside.

Reduce the heat to medium, add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan. Add the onions, carrots and celery and sweat until the onions are translucent. Put the lamb shank back into the pan, add the cloves, thyme, bay leaves, stock and water. Cover the pan and cook for 3-3 1/2 hours until the shank is tender and falling off the bone. Check the lamb after about 2 hours to make sure there is enough liquid in the pan.

Remove the lamb from the oven. When it’s cool enough to handle, remove and shred the meat from the bone. Set aside.

Completing the dish:

In a large saute pan, fry the eggplant in olive oil over medium high heat until deep brown on both sides, set aside. In a small saute pan, melt the butter over medium heat, add the pine nuts and toast until they are golden brown. Be careful, pine nuts burn quickly. As soon as you see them start to darken, remove them from the heat and set aside. In a small saucepan over low heat, add the yogurt and minced garlic and warm, stirring constantly.

To serve:

For each serving, put 3-4 slices of eggplant in a shallow bowl. Divide the lamb and sprinkle it over the eggplant. In this order add: the pita chips, yogurt and the pine nuts with the butter. Finish with the mint and Aleppo pepper. Serve and enjoy.

I’ve made this a couple of times, and it’s delicious. Most recently I made it with some leftover leg of lamb that I had roasted. Instead of the braised shank, I shredded some of the leftover lamb, warmed it up while the eggplant was browning, and finished it with the yogurt, pine nuts etc. It was a great use for leftovers! If you decide to make it with the lamb shank, I would cook more than one; you can always freeze the leftover shank, and use it another time. When it (finally) becomes grilling season, this would work with grilled lamb leftovers and grilling the eggplant would be wonderful! What do you think?

 

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Make Your Own Bacon? Do It Yourself: Bacon, Mayonnaise, and More.

by Anne Maxfield on November 1, 2010

Accidental Locavore Bacon and Eggs

DIY bacon? Why not? Before there were supermarkets, and things came in packages, people made them themselves. Most of them weren’t terribly difficult to make, they just took time. Time to cure, pickle, ferment, age, and transform. For the next few months while New York is in the midst of winter, and the farmer’s markets become scarce, the Accidental Locavore is going to explore what I’m calling “Out of the Box”. I’ll show you how to make many things we just assume come in packages. You’ll learn how simple they are to prepare, and how much better they taste. Local products will be used whenever possible, and there will be how-to videos.

Some of the things we’re going to be tackling, in no particular order, are:

If you have experience with any of these, please let me know what worked, what didn’t, and what’s become part of your regular repertoire. What would you like to see out of the box?

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