Moroccan Lamb Devastation

My friend Sarah had asked me to teach her how to cook lamb after I mentioned the Moroccan Lamb with Shiraz Honey Glaze I made a couple months ago. She finally took me up on my offer of lamb education, but somehow, it turned into a small dinner party where we ate the equivalent of an entire lamb's ribs. But you cannot go wrong with Moroccan Lamb with Honey Shiraz Glaze atop a bed of Moroccan Couscous when you entertain.


The meat counter at Whole Paycheck nearly gave me a heart attack when I looked in display and ... gasp ... no rack of lamb. On a whim, I asked at the counter if they had racks of lamb by some miracle in the back, and they did. Ask and ye shall receive. Given that I was feeding two boys on top of Sarah, I decided to get two racks, which was just barely enough.

I did most of the slicing and dicing earlier to make the whole process a little easier. Sometimes my dinners become this crazy explosion in the kitchen and my life is twenty times more sane when I do all my prep first, and then cook later. I also enjoy the fruits of my labor more because I don't feel like I've been in the kitchen all day. Anyway, Sarah came over early to help cook, all giddy and nervous about her first lamb excursion. We oohed and aahed over the raw lamb, each taking control of one rack. We trimmed off a little bit of the fat so as to assuage the little voice in our heads. Then, we lovingly rubbed Ras El Hanout (doubled the recipe for two racks), a magical Moroccan spice blend all over the lamb while a cast iron skillet heated to medium high heat. This was much better than using high heat like I did the first time because it reduced smoking, still provided a nice sear, but made everything much more manageable.


Then placed these babies on baking sheet (with edges!) lined with tin foil and a rack and let them roast to perfection for 30 minutes at 400. No meat thermometer for us, we just trusted that 30 minutes was right and then took them out and let the juices rest while we made the shiraz honey glaze.


For some reason, the shiraz honey glaze didn't work as well this time. Its just a cup of shiraz with 1/3 cup of raw honey and the drippings from the pan. The glaze, well, didn't get glazy. I think we got impatient and should have let it reduce more. Looking back at my pictures from my first try, I must have had more patience because the glaze was thicker. But, it tasted good, so that's all that really matters.

Then, we sliced into the lamb. Like the dorks that all of us food lovers are, everything gathered around to take pictures. It was perfectly medium rare in most parts, some were a little closer to medium, but that was fine since Ali "El Oso" preferred those. I cannot begin to tell you how tender and succulent the lamb was. The sliced rib meat soaked up the glaze beautifully. Sarah found a perfect mellow Malbec that stood up to the lamb wonderfully and we all gorged.


The Moroccan Couscous blows all other couscous out of the water. It was amazingly easy to make. Place a large, heavy bottomed pot over medium heat. Stir in the about 1 tbsp of leftover Ras El Hanout and gently toast until fragrant, about 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in 1 tbsp olive oil and 1 red onion (cut in half and very thinly sliced) and cook until softened. Stir in 1 diced orange bell pepper and 2 diced zucchinis. Cook a couple minutes until half done. Add 1/2 cup golden raisins, 1 tsp sea salt, and 1 can of garbanzos (the recipe also called for orange zest, but I didn't want there to be an overly citrusy taste). Immediately pour in 1 1/2 cups low sodium chicken broth (I always prefer the broth out of the boxes since the cans leave a wierd tinny taste sometimes) and 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice (valencias were on sale at Whole Paycheck and were perfect). Turn the heat all the way up and bring to a boil. Then stir in 1 1/2 cups french couscous (not the bigger israeli kind), remove from the heat, cover and let stand until you are ready to eat it. Now the recipe called for 3 tbsp fresh chopped mint which I think would have been awesome, but there was none to be found at the store. Sooooo, I sprinkled 1 tsp dried mint and toasted about 1/2 cup of sliced almonds and folded them in right before serving.

Warning! Warning! Warning! This recipe easily serves 8 very hungry people. Sarah thought the recipe risked overflowing my pot. It didn't, but I'm still eating the leftovers!

Because I am a compulsive entertainer, I also made a Moroccan inspired salad with an Orange Mint Vinaigrette to match the couscous and other flavors in the meal ... just in case there wasn't enough food. I totally made this up, but its probably one of the tastiest summer salads ever. I used a mixture of organic red and green leaf lettuce, Moroccan pistachios from Whole Paycheck (check the bulk food aisle -- there is a whole line of foreign country flavored nut mixes that are awesome) which had a little kick to them, roasted red beets, mandarin orange segments, sliced red onions, and golden raisins. Then I took some freshly squeezed orange juice, chilled brewed mint tea (this was a strong brew), red wine vinegar, olive oil, salt and pepper and made a wonderful vinaigrette. It was the perfect starter.

Anyway, we polished off the night with some chocolate covered apricots and graham crackers that Sarah brought and Moroccan Mint Tea. The tea was simple, its half looseleaf green tea and half mint tea sweetened with agave nector. I used a wonderfully fragant green tea that I bought at a tea shop in Kuala Lumpur and it was the perfect ending to the feast. Sarah left clutching the magical Ras El Hanout recipe in hand and dreaming of an excuse to make this meal in the near future.

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. :).