Bosnian Lamb Meatballs with Caraway Yogurt

 

 
Think of the above photo as a serving suggestion, sort of a "Do as I say not as I did."  If you serve them appropriately your results will be much better then mine. I made these meatballs for dinner the other night and while they were cooking Sebastian came into the kitchen to ask the inevitable, "What's for dinner?"  When I told him we were having Bosnian lamb meatballs with a caraway yogurt sauce he was happy.  I had never served them before but at almost 10 years old he is starting to be a little foodie, excited by many of the things he has the opportunity to eat.

After the initial questioning he came back in several times and happily sniffed the air.  The scent of the lamb roasting with fresh rosemary, thyme and mace was delicious on its own even before I added the caraway and yogurt sauce.  If only I had taken a moment to plate it attractively, before bringing it to the table, allowing it to look as good as it smelled.  Instead I plunked it on the table straight from the oven surrounded by the extra yogurt sauce.  Julian took one look and refused to have any, choosing to have a vegetarian dinner.  I could tell Sebastian's initial reaction was not to have any either, but the smell and his anticipation was too much for him.  He carefully selected the balls with the least amount of yogurt showing and ate them somewhat tentatively.  Next time I will be more careful with presentation, they were good enough to make again.

When preparing this dish in your own kitchen, instead of serving this...

I suggest you bring this to the table

Bosnian Lamb Meatballs with Caraway Yogurt Sauce

Adapted from Half a Can of Tomato Paste and Other Culinary Dilemmas

Meatballs:

1 lb ground lamb (you can sub beef)

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

2 Tbsp minced dried onions

3 eggs

1/2 tsp kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/4 tsp minced fresh rosemary or pinch of dried

1/4 tsp minced fresh thyme or pinch of dried

1/4 tsp ground mace

Yogurt sauce:

1 Tbsp caraway seeds

1 cup plain yogurt

1/4 cup milk, buttermilk or sour cream

2 Tbsp minced fresh mint or parsley (optional because I did not have any)

Preheat the oven to 375°

Mix together the lamb meatball ingredients.  Butter and flour a square baking pan, 9 x 9 x 2 inch and place the balls in the pan in one layer.  I found the mixture was very wet and hard to form into neat balls, I just used a small measured ice cream scoop and let them be a bit more free form.  Bake uncovered for 30 minutes or until the balls are cooked though.

Grind the caraway seeds in a spice grinder or pulverize in a mortar and pestle before combining with the other sauce ingredients.  Let stand at room temperature while the meat balls finish cooking.

Remove the meatballs from the oven and lower the oven temperature to 325°.  Allow the meatballs to rest for 10 minutes while the oven temperature goes down.  After 10 minutes pour the sauce over the meatballs and stir to coat them in sauce and mix in the pan drippings.  Return the pan to the oven and cook uncovered for 15 to 20 minutes to allow the sauce to warm and reduce.  To serve remove the cooked meatballs from the baking dish and place on a bed of kale or other green.

Armenian Lamb Sausage Pasta

This is my favorite pasta sauce, more nuanced and flavorful then any I have had at a restaurant.  The lamb flavor is rich and mellow while the cumin adds depth and earthiness without reading as cumin.  If you added cumin directly to pasta sauce it would be more aggressive, less muted.  Because the sausage ingredients are cooked twice, once in the sausage and again in the sauce, they mellow and become more complex.

The sausage and pasta are like the countless articles encouraging us to streamline meal prep by roasting a chicken and making a different entree with the leftovers.  However making the sausage, which has no casing to wrestle with, is easier and faster then roasting a chicken.  So please do not dismiss this pasta dish as too much work; the initial step of making the sausage is not a waste of time on a night you need to make dinner, it is dinner.

The sausages are another favorite meal here, even though they are impossible to photograph attractively.  They are easy to make, take ingredients I always have on hand and taste more complex then their short ingredient list would suggest.  It also doesn't hurt that they make everyone in my family happy.  I often make dishes that I know my children won't eat, I just make sure that there is at least one other dish that they like, that I feel comfortable with them making a meal of. However I sometimes want a cheering section when serving dinner, I want to feel like the kitchen hero. These hand rolled sausages always make me a hero, with children and adults.

This dish is also responsible for an epiphany that has opened many meals to me that my children previously refused to eat, and yes whined about. I realized that I could make dishes like meatballs and meatloaf if I made 2 small changes. Now when I make these dishes I make them sausage shaped. Then I just call them sausages. The usual response from my sausage worshipping children is, "These are good mama, but your lamb sausages are better. The lamb sausage is my favorite."

Armenian Hand Rolled Sausage
Adapted from The Frugal Gourmet on Our Immigrant Ancestors

Most of the adaptations I have made to this recipe is to make it more pantry friendly.  For example the original recipe calls for evaporated milk, which I did use the first time I mad them (it is amazing what random ingredients are often lurking in my pantry).   There is no discernible difference in flavor when using regular milk and limiting the number of tomato products.  I also upped the cumin, a favorite spice in my house.

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground lamb
1/2 cup pureed crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce (note: tomato sauce does not mean pasta sauce)
1 cup bread crumbs (I always make my own, often from the ends of bread lying around. Just whirl them in the food processor)
1/4 cup milk
2 tsp ground cumin
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro or parsley (optional, if I don't have it on hand I just omit this ingredient)
1 Tbsp minced dried onion (do not omit)
1 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper to taste (at least 1/2 tsp or more to taste)

Mix all the ingredients together.  I find it is best to mix with your hands, squeezing and mixing until really well combined.  Roll meat into balls that are slightly smaller then a tennis ball.  Form into sausage shapes that are about 4 inches by 1 inch long.  It is helpful to wet hands with water while shaping.

Sausages can be grilled or roasted.  If roasting place formed sausages in a shallow baking pan (I use a pyrex lasagna pan) and preheat the oven to 400°  Bake for 20 minutes and transfer to a clean platter to serve.  To grill preheat the grill to high and grill over direct heat until browned and cooked to your taste.

Armenian Lamb Sausage Pasta
Inspired by the leftovers in my fridge with the technique updated by Bon Appetit's  pasta pomodoro

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 medium onion finely chopped
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
1/8 tsp hot red pepper flakes (optional)
1 qt crushed tomatoes or 1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
tomato sauce leftover from making the sausage
1/2 tsp kosher salt or to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 lb whole wheat pasta (or in my case the quantity of pasta that will be eaten by people who want sauce on theirs)
2 Tbsp butter at room temperature (optional)
1/4 cup grated pecorino romano, grana padano or parmesan (I have only tested it with pecorino romano)

Heat olive oil in a 12" or larger skillet over medium low.  Add the onion and cook, stirring often until soft.  Mine took about 5 minutes but Bon Appetit says 12 minutes, so my heat must have been higher.  Add the chopped garlic and cook for about 2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant but not toasted or burnt, stirring the whole time.

Add the red pepper flakes and after 1 minute add the 2 types of tomatoes and the sausage.  Squish the sausage with a potato masher into small pieces and add the kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.  Cook the sauce, stirring occasionally over medium heat.  It will be properly thickened after about 20 minutes total cooking time, but some of that can happen while the pasta is cooking.

While sauce is thickening bring a large pot of water to the boil and generously salt it before adding the pasta.  Reserve 1 cup of the pasta cooking water and pasta 2 minutes before it will be done to your taste. Add 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the sauce and bring it to the boil over hight heat.  Add the drained pasta and cook while stirring the pasta and sauce until the pasta is al dente.  Add more reserved pasta water if the sauce is not thin enough.

Remove from the heat and add the butter, stirring until it is all melted.  Add the cheese and stir until the cheese melts and serve.  If anyone wishes for more cheese pass it grudgingly while mumbling about the dish being prefect and now they are going to add more cheese.

Sour Cream Spelt Waffles

For the past few weeks every time I sit down to write a new post I can't think where to start, what words to use, what to say.  I realized part of the problem is my life and mood right now do not match a lovely dinner centered around Deborah Krasner's recipe for Roasted Cardamom, Oregano, and Garlic Chicken Thighs.  That chicken recipe won the right to be published here, however for at least a little longer it will have to wait.  This blog is more than the food I feed to my family, it is also about the stories we make every day around the food we eat.  So I am going to post that recipe when the time is right.  When it fits back into the story of my life.

My life is preparing for change in the coming months and for dinner I have been looking for comfort at the table and ease in the kitchen.  I have to admit I also wanted no whining from the short gourmands.  When I say I wanted ease in the kitchen, I really mean I had no interest in making dinner.  But somehow saying, there is nothing for dinner tonight time for bed, never seems to go well.  So the other night I made waffles for dinner.

I know many of you are now questioning my sanity.  You are picturing many bowls, separating the eggs, beating the egg whites and shaking your head as you wonder why I would prepare waffles when I didn't want to cook.  However the beauty of these waffles, besides from how they taste, is they are an easy cheaters way out of the kitchen.  If you mix the wet ingredients in your glass mixing cup they only use one bowl.  I still love my Sour Milk Butternut Squash Waffles but they are much more work and frankly taste better when made by my friend Tavi.

To feel more like I was giving my children a balanced dinner I prepared macerated strawberries to serve with them.  Which is a fancy way to say I took strawberries, sliced them and sprinkled them with sugar; after a few minutes the strawberries release some of their juice and become a perfect waffle topping.  This simple preparation and the end result is most impressive if you tasted the berries I used before macerating.  Usually I stay away from strawberries this time of year.  However I have been shopping at Costco to buy fruit for the preschool food program I am establishing.   I feel like a bad mother buying blueberries, melon, mangoes and kiwi for other peoples children and then going home and telling my children just to eat another storage apple.  So this last week I bought strawberries the size of my head and fed them to my children.  The one I tried tasted like cardboard, although a special variety of cardboard that has less flavor then usual.

These waffles are based on Art Smith's sour cream waffles from Back to the Table: The Reunion of Food and Family.  I found the recipe on 101 cookbooks and have been tweaking the recipe for several years now.  I played with the type of flour, sometimes I sub some of the butter and sour cream for butternut squash puree and I simplified the technique.  When prepared with the butternut squash puree they are even better when frozen and then reheated in the toaster.  The squash puree makes them moister and softer so the final heating crisps them up.  They are a little soft when fresh from the waffle iron made with squash but when served with macerated strawberries nobody at the table will complain.

The first time I used spelt in these waffles it was also in response to dinner time guilt.  I was feeling like if I was going to make waffles for dinner I should try to make them as healthy as possible.  However to my happy surprise everyone prefers them with the addition of spelt flour.  Spelt adds a sweet nutty flavor and a pleasant texture to the waffles.  However if you do not want to buy one more flour, these waffles will still be wonderful made with half white and half whole wheat flour.

Spelt Sour Cream Waffles (or use Greek Yogurt)


1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp baking powder (this is  not a typo, it really is one Tablespoon of baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter melted

Begin heating your waffle iron as you prepare the waffle batter.  Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl.  Measure the milk in a large glass mixing cup and add the sour cream or Greek yogurt, eggs and extracts to the milk.  Whisk the wet ingredients with a fork or by holding the handle of the whisk between your palms and rubbing your hands back and forth to spin the whisk.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Whisk briefly to start to incorporate the wet into the dry ingredients before adding the melted butter.  Mix the batter until it is all incorporated and smooth.  Do not mix any longer once it is smooth, over mixing can toughen the waffles.

Spray the waffle iron grids with cooking spray and ladle batter into the center of the iron.  A trick I finally figured out not to have waffle batter overflow out of the iron while baking is not to worry about making perfect waffles which are filled all the way to the edges.  If you slightly underfill the waffle grids it won't drip out.   I know this isn't rocket science, and yet for me it really was ground breaking.  If you aren't as gluttonous it may not be an issue.

Cook until the waffles are golden brown to your liking and serve hot, with macerated strawberries, maple syrup or the topping of your choice.




Spelt Butternut Squash Sour Cream Waffles (or use Greek Yogurt)
I doubled the quantities for this recipe because they work so well as frozen toaster waffles for a quick breakfast (or dinner)


1 cup whole wheat pastry flour or white whole wheat flour
1 cup spelt flour
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp sugar
2 Tbsp baking powder (this is  not a typo, it really is two Tablespoon of baking powder)
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3/4 cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
1/2 cup butternut squash or pumpkin puree
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp chocolate extract (optional)
12 Tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter melted

Begin heating your waffle iron as you prepare the waffle batter.  Combine the flours, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large mixing bowl.  Measure the milk in a large glass mixing cup and add the sour cream or Greek yogurt, butternut squash puree, eggs and extracts to the milk.  Whisk the wet ingredients with a fork or by holding the handle of the whisk between your palms and rubbing your hands back and forth to spin the whisk.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour the wet ingredients into the well. Whisk briefly to start to incorporate the wet into the dry ingredients before adding the melted butter.  Mix the batter until it is all incorporated and smooth.  Do not mix any longer once it is smooth, over mixing can toughen the waffles.

Spray the waffle iron grids with cooking spray and ladle batter into the center of the iron.  A trick I finally figured out not to have waffle batter overflow out of the iron while baking is not to worry about making perfect waffles which are filled all the way to the edges.  If you slightly underfill the waffle grids it won't drip out.   I know this isn't rocket science, and yet for me it really was ground breaking.  If you aren't as gluttonous it may not be an issue.

Cook until the waffles are golden brown to your liking and serve hot, with macerated strawberries, maple syrup or the topping of your choice.

To freeze: separate waffles into individual waffles and place on a cookie sheet in the freezer until frozen. Once frozen place in a zip lock bag in the freezer.  Toast waffles from frozen to serve.

Olive Oil Poached Cod & Roasted Tomatoes

I am in NYC this week where we are visiting family, hosted a belated Passover Seder and just enjoying the city and all it has to offer. I grew up here and I remember not fully understanding what is was like not to live in Manhattan. People would respond in awe when I told them where I lived, some with jealousy and some with simple wonder that I had not been murdered at a tender age. I was over 30 years old, siting in traffic in Burlington when I realized I was much safer growing up in New York City. The most dangerous thing we all do, often more then once a day, is ride in a car. Until I moved away from New York I rarely traveled in a car.

Now that I have moved away I get some of the awe, confusion and feeling of being overwhelmed by all there is to do, all the people and everything going on at once. As a teenager the closest I came to understanding came when I first visited Boston. I looked at the short buildings and wondered, "They call this a city? How can they call this city?"

I am grateful that my children can grow up riding the NYC subway, walking the streets, exploring the museums and interesting neighborhoods. They can do all these things as regular visitors who feel like they have some ownership and attachment to the city. However as I stood with them on the subway platform with their fingers stuffed tightly in their ears I was reminded that they are Vermonters in their hearts (even if it will take "true" Vermonters another 6 generations to stop referring to them as anything but flatlanders). In response I proved I still had some of my New Yorker's street cred by riding the subway without holding on, although I have to admit, as the game of chicken goes I lost, I kept my hand inches from a support pole the whole time, curved around it without actually touching it.

For most of the years that we have visited NYC as non residents we have allowed my father to treat us to take out food very night. However the week long festival of take out food began to make both Lewis and I feel wretched. The more our diet at home evolved to contain more vegetables and less but higher quality meat the worse it became. So on our last visit I cooked most of our meals in my father's understocked galley kitchen on his anemic stove. It was so much better in so many ways, we felt healthier, we maintained more of our usual schedule and the boys ended up going to bed closer to normal time. So here I am in April cooking again, still on an anemic stove in an understocked kitchen. Every time I come I add to the mental list of items that I need to bring when we visit to make cooking here easier.

Wednesday Lewis was away at dinner time and I had to prepare dinner for my father and two over tired boys. I am always amazed when my boys are exhausted and begin bugging each other, poking, pushing, grabbing toys etc. Normally they are best friends, people frequently comment on it. Not however when they are hungry, tired, or bored. So with both of them exhausted I decided to prepare olive oil poached cod with roasted tomatoes. Nothing like a fiddly sensitive recipe when there are tired boys pummeling each other.

The results where really wonderful though. The fish was luxurious with a moist and tender texture. The sauce is also very flavorful with the sweetness of the balsamic and the richness from the olive oil and a concentrated tomato flavor. If you don't want to hover over the poaching fish, the sauce would still be excellent with a pan seared and gently cooked fillet. Alternatively you can use the olive oil poaching method for salmon, swordfish or another firm fish.

The recipe calls for fresh thyme sprigs but I subbed the fennel fronds I had on hand. I think the thyme would have been better as the fennel fronds added almost nothing. A fresh bay leaf, rosemary, sage or oregano would all be excellent as well. Julian loved this dish, Sebastian however chose not to eat any, Julian happily declared, "Great, then I can eat yours."

Olive Oil Poached Cod with Roasted Tomatoes

Adapted from Charlie Trotter Cooks at Home

Tomatoes

1 1/4 lbs golfball or large tomatoes (I used the smaller ones as they are grown better)

3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (use a high quality one here)

2 Tbsp aged balsamic vinegar (I used one aged for 21 years)

2 sprigs thyme or 1 fresh bay leaf, or 2 sprigs fresh rosemary or fresh oregano or 2 Tbsp fennel fronds

kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

2 cups extra virgin olive oil (you do not need to use your highest quality oil here)

3/4 to 1 lb fresh cod fillets without skin

Preheat the oven to 375° and blanche and Peel the tomatoes. Cut each tomato into 4 wedges for golf ball sized ones or 8 for larger tomatoes. Place into a small roasting pan with the peeled garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, herbs, salt and pepper and bake until tender and soft. I cooked mine for 25 minutes. You are supposed to remove the tomatoes from the pan with a slotted spoon and then strain the cooking liquid. If I was at home I would have done that, however it was fine just spooned up as is.

To poach the fish heat the 2 cups olive oil to 120° in a small saucepan over a very low flame (it will reach this temperature very quickly I found). Season the fish on both sides with salt and freshly ground black pepper and slip into the warm oil. The oil needs to cover the fish completely. Cook the fish for 9 minutes on the first side. Monitor the temperature of the oil while cooking the fish, it should remain between 110° and 115° Mine slipped out of that range when I was checking on squabbling boys, but most of the time it was in the correct range. I found once it got to 115° it maintained its temperature very well with the heat turned off for about 5 minutes. Cook for 9 minutes on the second side or until done.

To serve place the roasted tomatoes on a plate and top with the poached fish. Drizzle some of the sauce over the top. The original recipe calls for serving it with blanched and butter sauteed broccoli rabe, I used broccolini instead.

Leek Fried Rice with a Fried Egg

The hardest step of cooking is just deciding what to make. In case you have not figured it out already I spend a lot of time thinking about food, reading other blogs, trolling through my cookbooks and otherwise obsessing. However I often find myself in the kitchen trying to decide what's for dinner and experiencing chef's block. However I am now familiar with enough recipes and techniques that most of the time I can look at what we have and eventually come up with a meal. Not always a meal that a 4 and 7 year old want to eat, but you can't have everything.

Chef's block is a problem Lewis often has, an issue that can rear it's ugly head every week. I work on Saturdays and he has to make dinner. Lewis is competent in the kitchen carrying out all the technical aspects with ease. By his own admission, he lacks the understanding of how flavors combine that allow for improvisation, but he is adept at the skills of cooking. However he is often lost over what to make.

For most of this winter he has been making spaghetti carbonara or Chinese Hamburger with Peas for dinner every Saturday night. My children are perfectly happy, I however am bored. So Lewis promised not to make either until further notice, and I received a phone call at the end of my work day asking if I would pick up dinner. Mean nasty wife that I am, I said no. Then I subtly pointed out a recipe for fried rice that I was salivating over on Smitten Kitchen. As happy as I was when he decided to make it, I was even happier when I tasted it.

The recipe originally comes from Mark Bittman, who very clearly states in the article that it must be made with leftover rice as freshly cooked is too moist. We did not have enough leftover rice so Lewis made a batch of brown rice. I guess that means the version he served me was inferior, to tell the truth I am a little fearful to try it the real way. I really don't need for this recipe to be even better. In addition we only had one ancient leek in the vegetable drawer rather then the 2 cups the recipe calls for. It was still delicious, with caramelized leeks, the savory richness of the soy sauce and the richness of the fried egg topping all of it. One of those dishes that is better then the sums of its parts. Make this the next time you need dinner and just cannot think of what recipe to prepare.

Leek Fried Rice with a Fried Egg

Adapted from The Smitten Kitchen who adapted it from Mark Bittman who based it on a Jean-Georges Vongerichten recipe

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tbsp minced fresh garlic (jarred pre chopped garlic will not work here)

2 Tbsp minced fresh ginger

salt

2 cups thinly sliced leeks, white and pale green parts only (we only had one, if I was making it I would have substituted onions for the leeks we did not have, not that I am not grateful)

4 cups rice, preferably day old (we used Brown Basmati rice but any leftover rice would be wonderful)

4 large eggs (or more, I really wished I had 2 on top of my rice)

2 tsp sesame oil

4 tsp soy sauce (we used mushroom soy sauce which gave a really great deep flavor, regular is fine)

Heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the chopped garlic and ginger to the pan and saute until crisp and brown stirring occasionally. Remove the browned garlic and ginger in the pan with a slotted spoon to cool on paper towels and salt lightly, make sure to keep the garlic ginger flavored oil in the pan (Lewis actually wiped the pan out as the was unclear on Smitten Kitchen, however the video on Mark Bittman's recipe has you retain the flavorful oil). Return the pan to medium low heat and add the leeks.

Cook the leeks for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally until tender and soft but not at all browned (actually Lewis admits he kind of burnt them, we agree it would be better tender and not burnt and with the two cups of leeks called for not a single, miserly, shriveled leek from the depths of the fridge). Season the leeks lightly with salt and raise the heat to medium and add the rice.

Cook the rice while stirring until it is all heated through and season to taste with salt, bearing in mind that you will be garnishing the dish with soy sauce at the end. Divide the rice onto 4 plates, if you want to get fancy like Lewis did pack the rice into a one cup ramekin before inverting on to each plate.

Heat the remaining 2 Tbsp of oil in a nonstick skillet over low heat and fry eggs with the lid on until the whites are set and the yolk is soft. I have an irrational fear of unset whites so we flip them over gently before serving. Top each serving of rice with an egg, drizzle 1/2 tsp sesame oil and 1 tsp soy sauce around the outside of the pile of rice, sprinkle the crispy garlic and ginger over the top and serve.