A Taste of Morocco

The flavors of Morocco have always been some of my favorite. There are several wonderful Moroccan restaurants in the DC area, which almost do justice to the flavors of Morocco. Some of Spain's finer foods are influenced by the spices traveling north from Morocco. But inspired by my Indian feasts, I decided to take my favorite flavors from Morocco and kick it up an "Indian" notch. And so, with all the time in the world and a glass of wine, I pulled together Moroccan Lamb with Shiraz Honey Glaze, Beet Green Paneer, and Aromatic Rice. The clear winner was the lamb. I also clearly short-changed the rice process.

I was supposed to have a friend over for this meal, but plans were changed and I had absolutely no desire to go out and join in the frat boy havens of Adams Morgan. And so I decided to make this just for one. And so, I started with the Moroccan Lamb with Shiraz Honey Glaze. Whole Foods sells "rack of lamb" with just two ribs, which is perfect for one person. It ends up being about 1/4 pound including the bones and fat which is an appropriate portion size. I was worried I was going to have to buy one of the full racks and deal with leftovers. I trimmed some of the fat off, but not too much so the lamb would stay juicy through the whole cooking process.

This part of the meal comes in at 389 calories, 9g fat (3.2 saturated), 102mg cholesterol, 97mg sodium, 1g dietary fiber, 32.5g sugars, 4% vitamin A, 2% viatmin C, 5% calcium, and 24% iron. Use a little less glaze and you can cut calories. The lamb itself runs only about 200 calories if you are trying to be more calorie conscious. I ended up only using about half the glaze, which would put this closer to 300 calories.

First preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Now, you need to rub the lamb all over with Ras El Hanout. Ras El What? This is a typical Moroccan spice blend that is easily made ahead of time. Or if you have a specialty store, they may sell this pre-blended. I made my own. Mix:

1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger (ground not fresh)
1 tsp tumeric
3/4 tsp cinnamin
3/4 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp coriander(ground not whole)
1/2 tsp cayenne (to taste)
1/2 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cloves

Rub your lamb all over with this and cover as much surface area as possible. I actually took some olive oil and oiled my hands lightly, then rubbed the oil into my lamb so the spices would stick better. Then I covered the ribs in spices. Every inch. You should still have a decent amount of spices leftover. This is fine, I ended up using them later for a side dish. Then, open a window and turn on the fan above your stove. This is gonna smoke. Heat a cast iron pan to medium high or high. Let the pan get really hot. Then sear each side. The spices are going to burn. They act as a blackening seasoning. Don't let any one side stay on too long. Yes, there is a lot of smoke. But no worries.

Then, I placed my lamb on a cookie rack placed on top of a baking sheet with edges to catch all the juices and threw it in the oven and let it roast for about 16 minutes. Then I took it out and let it rest for 15 minutes before doing anything to it. Reserve the juices that came out during baking. Of course, with the smaller rack duo, there aren't many juices. I threw a tiny bit of shiraz on the pan while it was still hot to deglaze any juices that had dried down there and dumped it into a small saucepan. Stir half a cup of shiraz wine (do yourself a favor and use a wine that you would actually drink -- besides, the leftover pairs perfectly with the meal) and 1 tbsp raw honey over low heat and reduce by half. It should create a thick dark syrup.

When you serve this, slice between each rib, it should be medium rare for optimal deliciousness. Then drizzle the sauce over the meat. The spice rub on the lamb will be both spicy hot and spicy savory and slightly spicy sweet. The glaze provdes a wonderful simple contrast to the spices encrusted in the lamb.

Now, I had some leftover paneer and fresh beet greens, so I just took a tiny bit of olive oil and heated the leftover Ras El Hanout in a pan, then threw in some cubed paneer to absorb the flavors. And boy does paneer do that. They took on the wonderful yellow of the tumeric and all of the flavors. The great thing about paneer is that it also gets nice and crusty when sauteed.


Then I threw in the beet greens as a contrast to the salty spiciness of the paneer. Easy. Delicious. Perfect side dish.

My less than perfect side dish was my Aromatic Rice. I had some leftover brown rice in the fridge, and so I figured I would just use that. I took a couple tbsp of water, and threw in a couple cloves, cardamom seeds, cinnamin stick, and saffron threads and heated it slightly.


Then I reheated the rice which generally dries out with refridgeration with the water from this mix. Haha, don't cheat. Make this rice from scratch and make it with basmati or something delicious. The rice was fine. And it was a nice break from the intensity of the other dishes. And it was great with bits of the glaze stuck to it. But I cheated. And I knew it. :).