Cooking this week -- Tuesday Armenian Lamb Meatballs

I do not have a story of a wizened Armenian grandmother who made countless meatballs while adults drank pot after pot of tea and talked about the old country and cousins played in the yard. I am not Armenian. But I will make a small claim of regional accuracy and not just because of my recent Armenian food jag.

Some of my recent Armenian foods include a wonderful lavosh cracker bread recipe I found and made. A week later I picked up some Armenian fig preserves "Ararat" (named after the mountain Noah's ark landed on). The enormous figs are packed in a wonderfully sticky syrup that I can only describe as "fig honey." Tonight's dinner was Armenian meatballs. Now a brief attempt to justify my recipe's authenticity.

When I was a student in Austria about 20 years ago, my Turkish friend Cem [pronounced like "gem"] made a sort of roasted hamburger on a skewer that he called shish kabob. Shish Kabob to me meant big chunks of beef interspersed with onions, tomatoes, peppers and such. According to him, "shish" is Turkish for skewer and "kabob" means "pieces of meat." But I digress . . .

What Cem prepared was similar to the way most Americans make meatloaf, only on a skewer. Remember, we were students. He used finely ground beef mixed with bread crumbs and large amounts of cumin, oregano, paprika (I just got back from Budapest), and just about any other spice accent he could get his hands on.

It was the strong cumin smell and taste that I remember most. Later, when I traveled to Turkey myself, I noticed the popularity of cumin in this region. The age old animosity between Turks and Armenians wasn't something Cem shared and I don't think it is terribly relevant to food. I've tried to preserve the heavy cumin and ignore the Turkish/Armenian mixed origin in my recipe.

As beef prices have risen, I've looked to alternatives to expensive beef cuts. I've found ground lamb a good value and savored the change of taste. When looking for recipes with ground lamb more than a few have incorporated cumin and some of them had "Armenian" as part of the moniker. Some were quite basic so I've tweaked, hybridized and mixed them with Cem's shish kabob. I was pleased with the result:

Armenian Lamb Meatballs

Serves 4 - 6

1 1/2 lbs of ground lamb
1 small onion finely diced
2 cloves garlic minced
2 slices of dry bread (or toast)
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg
1/2 C. milk
2 Tbsp of cumin
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp of oregano
1/4 tsp of ground allspice
1/4 tsp of ground coriander
pinch of cayenne
salt and pepper to taste

1. Put lamb in large mixing bowl and add salt and pepper.
2. Cut bread into 1/4 inch squares and put in a separate bowl, add milk.
3. Add spices to the lamb, add egg.
4. Add milk-soaked bread into the lamb mixture and work until all ingredients are well incorporated.
5. After all ingredients are well mixed, form into 1 to 1 and 1/4 inch balls. Approximately 30 balls depending on the size.
6. Heat oil in a large frying pan, adding meatballs when hot. Stir occasionally.
7. Alternately, preheat oven to 425 F. Cook approximately 30 minutes.

The "Cem" method

1. Make mixture as above, but instead of meatballs, form into a solid cylander (approx. 1 and 1/2 inch in diameter) and skewer.
2. Cook in broiler over aluminum foil. These cook very rapidly and because it is ground meat it renders a substantial amount of oil.

Good luck, and let me know how yours comes out.

Cooking this week -- Saturday Ethiopian Night

I've been in a cooking class these past two weeks. More on that later. I've been writing some, but not posting so things are getting stale around here. To keep things fresh I've decided to post some of the recent (home) cooking forays with comments and links.

Saturday -- Ethiopian night

Ethiopian style spiced butter (Niter Kebbeh). This is nice to have around as a flavorful fat base for East African dishes. Melt butter, remove foamy milk solids. Add chopped onion, and garlic. When translucent add cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, fenugreek and strain through cheese cloth. It keeps well so if you intend to cook a few Ethiopian dishes, I recommend making a couple pounds of butter and storing in the fridge. Getting the milk solids out is tedious work so make an amount that makes it worthwhile. For recipe details click here.

Saturday -- Doro Wat (Ethiopian Chicken stew) This recipe calls for the spiced butter above. I've had numerous versions of this in Ethiopian restaurants, but Elizabeth and I call it the "mother daughter combo" because it is served on injera with a chicken leg and a hard boiled egg along with side dishes (a vegetable stew alecha, yogurt, and yellow lentil stew).

Marinate chicken in lemon or lime juice. Add onions, garlic and spices including berere to the Niter Kebbeh. Don't go crazy with Niter Kebbeh, it is flavor, but it is also fat and your sauce will be very greasy if you overdo it. After a few minutes add chicken thighs and or drumsticks and just enough water to cover chicken. Reduce on medium heat for 30 minutes. For a detailed recipe click here.

Whenever cooking Ethiopian, injera is crucial. I got brown barley pancakes from my first effort making it myself. Not the thin spongy doughy injera I've come to love. I have a little teff flour and tried a recipe so vague I had to make a lot of guesses. There are places nearby that sell it, but Elizabeth was warping a loom so it was a bad time to interrupt.

My cooking class is helping my chopping and all-around cooking speed, but this just isn't a quick meal. It was fun and gave the house an exotic restaurant smell. To do the dish Doro Wat justice, don't skimp on the berbere. If you have little ones, you may want to have some other options for their dinner unless they have a high heat and spice tolerance.