Moroccan Lamb Lasagna

 I'm posting a recipe today.  I'm posting two versions of it.  The first is my tweaked rendition of the original recipe that I got from my English Sister-In-Law.  In the first version, all measurements are U.S. and there are changes I made to the recipe.  I will try to explain my changes and why I made them.  The second recipe is the original UK recipe with metric measurements.  It is exactly as I received it.  I have included it so that my UK readers can get a feel for amounts and if they wish to use my recipe changes can change the metrics accordingly.

This is important...this wonderful dish is all about flavor, specifically Moroccan/Middle Eastern flavors...Cumin, Cinnamon, Corriander. It smells and tastes incredible.  It is not "hot" spicy.   Before you turn your nose up at it, I have never served this to anyone who has not raved about it, including those who refuse to eat creatively or try new ethnic dishes or have flat palates, namely my husband and father.

Moroccan Lamb Lasagna

*The recipe calls for ground (minced for those in the UK) lamb.  Lamb is not as popular here in the US as it is abroad.  Here, it's considered an "ethnic" food.  We're the beef country...remember all those cowboy movies?  I can find ground lamb here in Florida...but...only at Publix, only having been previously frozen and at the cost of $8.99 per pound.  That's both shameful and outrageous.  I've made the dish with ground round.  It could also be made with ground turkey for you fataphobics.  These are acceptable substitutes because really, in this dish, the spices carry the load for flavor.  My personal workaround to the being too cheap to buy frozen ground lamb is to throw two lamb cubes into the pan.  I buy mine in the UK as I've never seen them here, but they are also available via Amazon.  You cannot tell that it isn't ground lamb.  If you are a vegetarian, simply ignore the meat, increase the veg using what appeals to you.

 

Filling:

1.5 lbs ground lamb or ground beef*

1  zucchini (courgette)

1 yellow squash

3/4 cup beef stock OR 2 lamb cubes and 1/2 cup water

1 cup dried apricots chopped

fresh baby spinach leaves

1 onion diced

2 Tablespoons Corriander

2 Tablespoons Cinnamon

2 Tablespoons Cumin

4 Tablespoons Tomato Paste

Salt and Pepper to taste

Bechamel Sauce:

4 Tablespoons Butter

4 Tablespoons Flour

3.5 Cups whole milk

salt

pepper

nutmeg to taste

Other Ingredients:

Oven Ready No Boil Lasagna Noodles

Breadcrumbs

 Process:

In a large sautee' pan heat a small amount of oil and cook onion and squash until translucent...about 10 minutes.  Add ground meat and spices.  Cook until lightly browned.  Add the cubes and water or stock, the tomato paste and the chopped apricots.  Simmer for about 15 minutes.

At this point, I dump the filling in a bowl.  Why?  Because it's time to make the bechamel and why dirty another pan?  I do not put my cookware in the dishwasher but the bowls, well of course.  Call me lazy!  On to the bechamel we go.

Melt the butter.  Add flour and stir until a smooth paste is formed.  Slowly add milk.  Cook over medium heat until thickened and bubbly.  Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste (I use 1 Tablespoon).

Assemble the lasagna.  Lightly spray pan with cooking oil.  Start with a thin layer of bechamel.  Top with noodles. 

Add a layer of filling.

Top with bechamel and then noodles again. 

Keep going until you either run out of ingredients or you run out of baking dish.  My lasagna dish is deep so I get 4 layers.  Finish wiith a layer of bechamel.  Top with  breadcrumbs drizzled with a bit of olive oil.

Bake in a 350F oven for 30 minutes or until bubbly and browned.  Let sit 10 minutes before cutting and serving.

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Morrocan Lamb Lasagne (English Version)

Ingredients

500g minced lamb
1 medium onion, finely chopped
75g butternut squash, diced
1 tsp each ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon
300 ml (1/2 pint) hot lamb stock
75g dried apricots, roughly chopped
2 tbsps tomato puree
200g baby spinach
40g butter
40g plain flour
450 ml (3/4 pint) milk
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
6 lasagne sheets
2 slices brown bread, crumbed
2 tbsps olive oil
 

500 g minced lamb1 medium onion, finely chopped75 g butternut squash, diced1 tspeach ground cumin, coriander and cinnamon300 ml (1/2 pint) hot lamb stock75 g dried apricots, roughly chopped2 tbsps tomato puree200 g baby spinach40 g butter40 g plain flour450 ml (3/4 pint) milk6 lasagne sheets2 slices brown bread, crumbed2 tbsps olive oil

Instructions

Pre-heat the oven to, Gas Mark 4, 180°C, 350°F.
Heat the oil and fry the onion and squash until softened – about 10 minutes.
Add the spices and lamb and brown for 6 minutes.
Add the stock, apricots and tomato puree.
Simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Take off the heat and stir in the spinach.
Make a white sauce, by the roux method.
When thickened, stir in the nutmeg to flavour the sauce.
Put a third of the sauce over the base of a lasagne dish.
Top with 3 lasagne sheets.
Spread the meat mixture on top.
Layer with a third more sauce.
Top with the remaining 3 lasagne sheets, sauce and sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the top.
Cook for 30 minutes or until the sauce is bubbling and the breadcrumbs are crisp.
 

Servings: 6

Lechon Asado/Cuban Style Roast Pork

It all started with a huge handful of Cilantro (Coriander to my UK friends). My herb garden is going berserk.  I am loathe to just trim, thin and throw away.  What to do with that fragrant, bright green Cilantro?  Aha, Lechon Asado aka Roast Pork Cuban Style.  So, off to Walmart for a fresh pork picnic shoulder, a bottle of bitter orange juice and a few fresh limes I went.

 

The marinade is very simple.

1.5 C oil (good quality olive or canola)

1.5 C bitter orange juice (If not available use 1/3 C regular orange juice, 1/3 cup lemon juice, 1/3 cup lime juice)

1 large onion (I use big Vidalia Sweet Onions) diced

salt

pepper

lots of Cumin

10 cloves finely diced fresh garlic

lots of fresh cilantro chiffonade

optional: 1 or 2 hot green chilies very finely diced

Combine the juices in a sauce pan.  Add all other ingredients.  Wisk.  Heat over medium flame until small bubbles form around edge.  Remove from heat.  Cool.

Prepare Picnic Shoulder.  Mine came in a stretchy net thingy which I removed and threw away.  I rinsed and dried the meat, lightly salt and peppered it.  Using a large meat fork or the tip of a sharp paring knife, make slits/small pockets all over pork.

 Once marinade has cooled, place meat in a large plastic bag.  Pour marinade over and seal.  Place in fridge.  I marinaded the shoulder for two days.  You can marinade it over night if you wish.  I prefer the longer marinade as I think it's worth the extra time to achieve extra tender meat.  Turn the bag over when you think of it.  You will be impressed by how much of the marinade the meat soaks up.

I choose to cook my pork/lechon in the crock pot because it just sits there all day doing its own thing and making the house smell delicious.  In fact, my daughter and her BF opened the front door and yelled, "What are you cooking?  We smelled it as soon as we opened the door and it's fantastic!" I just dump the picnic shoulder in the crock pot and pour the marinade over it and cook on low setting.   If you're not a crock pot person, you can cook this in the oven in a cast iron Dutch oven at 300 degrees for five or so hours, or on a low flame on the stove  or even on a grill over low coals/heat.

Here's the thing about cooking this meat.  If you want to be able to slice it, cook it to 170 degrees or so.  I prefer to shred my pork so I cook until about 195 degrees or until it easily shreds using 2 forks.

During the last 20 minutes I cooked the pork, I thinly sliced another onion and 1 lime.  I threw them on top of the pork and turned the crock pot to high, cooking just until the onions were crisp/tender.  I served the Lechon Asado with white rice and black beans. 

I have found that using a Spanish rice works best with this dish.  I use Valencia rice.  It is sometimes called paella rice.  It's a short grained rice that looks like Arborio rice used for Risotto.  The difference is that Valencia is excellent for soaking up liquid, such as the juice/marinade of this meat, but it retains its shape and individual rice grains without getting creamy like Arborio rice.  American long grain rice no matter how well you cook it does not hold up or taste like Valencia rice.  Trust me on this one.

This dinner was a real hit with everyone.  If you look closely at the photo you will see what I mean about how well the Valencia rice holds up and each grain retains its individuality.

Life Events and a One Footed Duck

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There isn't much going on here.  The two footed Snowbirds are pretty much gone.  I do not bemoan this fact.  We can now walk right into restaurants, not worry about cars in the right hand lane turning left in front of us and best of all, have great inventory once again at TJ Maxx and Home Goods and the outlet mall parking lot is free of chartered busses with northern plates.  And yes, of course I realize that a  lot of the economy here where I live depends on all of this.  This is my favorite time of the year, those precious weeks where the pool temperature, thanks to solar roof panels, hovers between 85 and 87 degrees, the sun shines, gentle breezes blow and the humidity is nonexistant.  My hair is not frizzy and fluffy.  Below, my annual homage to the now departed Snowbirds.

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Speaking of Snowbirds in venacular other than metaphorical...

We have been adopted by two wild ducks.  We always have ducks that arrive to spend the winter on our little lake.  Last year, in the Fall, we had what appeared to be a male and female pair.  Soon there were six adorable, fuzzy ducklings.  I loved watching them daily.  In the Spring the ducklings were gone.  During the Summer,  I'd catch an occasional glimpse of  two big ducks gliding along the water .  I'm not sure about the babies, if they got big enough to fly north last  Summer or if they were eaten or even if the two who now own us are two babies left behind.   The two ducks are almost always together, one a male (I looked them up, he has blue triangles on his wings and is larger.), the other a female.  The ducks began waddling up to the bird feeders.  One day maybe in mid-March, poof, just like that the zillion Finches and two pair of Cardinals we fed daily flew off and disapperared, abandoning both me and the feeders. The ducks began eating tthe spilled seed.  I noticed the larger duck had a funny waddle/walk.  I then noticed he is missing one foot., probably a gator or snapping turtle bite.  We have some huge turtles.  Maybe even one of those adorable but decidedly vicious otters.. 

So then I became a duck worrier.  I began trying to teach the dogs not to bark at them.  Believe me, it's a really steep learning curve.  I used the same method I used to keep the dogs out of the living room.  For that, I taped a small flag leftover from their shock collar training for the invisible fence to a can of Bush's Baked Beans.  I placed the can at the entryway to the living room and lined up the dogs with collars on and demanded their attention.  Then I'd jump over the can or walk past it into the living room and and start yelling and jumping like I'd been shocked "Ohhhhhhhhhhhh Noooooooooo Owwwwwwww Owwwwwwww Bad Juuuuuuu Juuuuuuuuu!!!!" and the poor dogs would back up all the way into the kitchen scared to death I'd explode or something.   John used to get so mad at me and say I was crazy.  But hey, it worked.  So now as soon as the ducks start to waddle up the bank and one of the four legged creatures starts a soft woof, I start dancing a bit and threatening "bad ju ju, bad ju ju" and the dogs pretty much shut up.  The ducks don't seem afraid of my bad ju ju chant at all.  Then again, they aren't wearing shock collars.  I may not be Caesar Milan, but I try.

Last week , we bought ten pounds of cracked corn at the feed store for the ducks.  We scatter it beneath the bird feeders.  They feed early morning and again around 5PM.  The first night the cracked corn was out was one of my insomnia nights.  About 2AM the motion detector lights (to keep away the piggles) went on and there was a huge fat beady red eyed oppossum under the feeders just munching away.  I'll try to gett his photo next time.

That's my life...

Pasta Al A Vodka

I know I said I'd write yesterday about our trip. I didn't do it yestterday. I'm not doing it today either. As a consolation, I'll give you another "Empty the Fridge Use It or Lose It" recipe. Here's what was in the fridge on our return home and absolutely had to be used or tossed:

• 3/4 of a carton grape tomatoes
• about 3/4 of a cup heavy cream
• 1 large can imported marzano tomato sauce minus 1/4 cup that was in a plastic container
• a bunch of fresh basil
• 3/4 cup diced onion

I also located in the freezer

• some small meatballs I had made using leftover meatloaf mix
• a container of Locatelli cheese I had bought at Sam's Club in a big chunk and grated in the food processor

I had on hand

• fresh garlic bulb
• pasta
• vodka

I decided to make this...Pasta with Vodka Cream Sauce and Meatballs

I didn't have a recipe so decided to just wing it...so, here's what I did...

2 Tablespoons olive oil and 2 Tablespoons butter heated in a large sautee' pan until it sizzles.  Add 4 cloves finely diced fresh garlic, 1/2 a large onion finely diced, Chiffonade 2 big handfuls basil and add the grape tomatoes.  Cook until those little pretty maters start popping their skins, just like popcorn.

I continued to sautee' until it looked right, then added 1 cup of vodka, 1 cup of heavy cream, the tomato sauce, 1 cup of locatelli (parmesan) cheese and let the whole thing simmer until it reduced and thickened enough to look like it would cling well to the pasta. 

While all this was going on, I cooked the meatballs.  Then, the pasta, reserving 1 cup of pasta water before draining.  I used maybe a quarter of a cup of the water to thin my sauce.  It got really thick.  Finally, I put drained pasta in a big bowl, added enough sauce to keep pasta from sticking together.  Plate and top with more sauce, meatballs and freshly grated cheese.

John and Stacie both declared it outstanding and one of my best sauces.  I agreed.  It never ceases to amaze me what can be created from orts and leftovers.

Home

Left Gulf Shores Alabama 8:30AM this morning. Arrived home 5:15PM. Top down on Mini all the way. Our tans are topped up. Gained 2 lbs. Too much crab au gratin and shrimp e'touf'fe, not to mention 3 different bread puddings, each exemplary. Daily reports tomorrow.