Lamb Pita Salad
Jun. 25th, 2008 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
coraaThis was meant to be regular lamb pitas, but a) we didn't really have enough pitas left, and b) they were a tiny bit dry and therefore cracked when I tried to open them. So instead I served it in salad form, which worked quite well (and also let me use a higher ratio of vegetables to meat/bread).
Serves two.
* 2 medium or 3 small onions
* garlic, to taste (we used like 8 cloves because we're garlic fiends; 2-4 cloves might be better for people who aren't)
* 4 tbsp fresh parsley, cilantro, mint or sage, or a mixture (whatever you like the taste of and/or have on hand)
* 1 large lemon
* 1 slice stale or toasted bread
* 1 lb ground lamb
* salt
* pepper
* 2 tomatoes
* half a head of lettuce, or equivalent salad greens of your choice
* 1 cup plain yogurt
* 2 pitas
Mince half the onion (1 medium or 1 1/2 small) as finely as you can. I use a food processor, and if you have one, I recommend it -- but if not, just seriously go at the onion with a knife until it's tiny and smushy. Do the same with the garlic and mix together. Add half the fresh herbs (2 tbs) and the juice of half the lemon, and stir in some salt and pepper (just eyeball it). You should have a very fine, very wet mixture.
Crush the stale or toasted bread to breadcrumbs. Work the breadcrumbs in, a little at a time, until the onion mixture is a thick damp paste. (Stop before it becomes a dough.)
Dump the lamb into a medium-sized bowl, and add half the onion-garlic-lemon-herb-bread mixture. Using your hands, fold and knead the onion mixture into the lamb until it's well dispersed. Keep adding a little of the onion mixture until it's either well-combined or the lamb is beginning to have trouble sticking together. The meat should be damp but should hold together into a ball -- you want something that will keep its shape, not a meat sauce, so if it gets too soft/loose, stop adding onion.
Form the lamb into small patties. You should get 12-15 small patties out of the mixture, so they're definitely meant to be smaller than hamburgers; they're also not as flat. I make a ball somewhere between 2 and 3 inches in diameter, then put it down on the plate and flatten it a little with my hand to make a disc. Repeat until all the meat is used.
Heat a wide frying pan until a drop of water sizzles on its surface. (I use my 12-inch cast-iron, but anything will work.) You can oil the pan if you're paranoid about sticking, or if your lamb is really lean, but honestly the lamb should render off enough fat on its own that it can just cook in that. Add as many lamb patties as you can without any of them touching -- it's better to do more than one batch than to overcrowd the pan, since they won't brown and cook evenly if they're crowded. Cook over medium-high heat until browned, then flip and cook on the other side until cooked through. You can look up the doneness temperature for ground lamb, but I usually just cut a slit in a nice fat one and see if there are any pink spots. Remove the first batch to a plate and keep warm in a low oven while you make the second batch.
While the lamb is cooking (or shortly after, if it cooks fast), make the rest of the salad.
Slice the rest of the onion. I usually cut it into rounds, then split those in half to make long-but-not-too-long pieces. Put them in a broilersafe pan (a cookie sheet will work) and slide them under the broiler. Keep an eye on them and let them cook until the onions are soft and just starting to blacken in spots.
Slice the tomatoes and slice or tear up the lettuce. Slice up or tear up the pitas -- you want something small enough to sit on a salad like 'croutons.' (If you want them to be more crouton-like, you can toast them first and then break them up, but I like my pitas soft.)
Make the sauce: combine yogurt, the remaining 2 tbsp fresh herbs, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Technically you should add cucumber to this, so if you happen to have cucumber, cut it into small dice and add it. I didn't, though, and it came out fine.
To serve: make a bed of lettuce. Add sliced tomatoes, pita pieces, grilled onions, and lamb patties. Dress with the sauce and eat.
Optional Add-Ons: If I'd been making this as a planned meal (rather than an attempt to use up some stuff in the fridge/freezer), I would have made sure to have cucumber, both to add to the yogurt sauce and to add, in slices, to the salad. I probably also would have crumbled a little bit of feta on top, and possibly added some olives. But it was pretty darn good as-is.
The seasoned lamb mixture here helps keep the lamb moist and tender, and the flavor of lamb is strong enough to stand up to the onion and garlic. I think it'd also be great for lamburgers, served on a toasted roll with lettuce, tomato and yogurt sauce. Or lamb meatballs, over lemony tomato-orzo salad. Mmm.
Serves two.
* 2 medium or 3 small onions
* garlic, to taste (we used like 8 cloves because we're garlic fiends; 2-4 cloves might be better for people who aren't)
* 4 tbsp fresh parsley, cilantro, mint or sage, or a mixture (whatever you like the taste of and/or have on hand)
* 1 large lemon
* 1 slice stale or toasted bread
* 1 lb ground lamb
* salt
* pepper
* 2 tomatoes
* half a head of lettuce, or equivalent salad greens of your choice
* 1 cup plain yogurt
* 2 pitas
Mince half the onion (1 medium or 1 1/2 small) as finely as you can. I use a food processor, and if you have one, I recommend it -- but if not, just seriously go at the onion with a knife until it's tiny and smushy. Do the same with the garlic and mix together. Add half the fresh herbs (2 tbs) and the juice of half the lemon, and stir in some salt and pepper (just eyeball it). You should have a very fine, very wet mixture.
Crush the stale or toasted bread to breadcrumbs. Work the breadcrumbs in, a little at a time, until the onion mixture is a thick damp paste. (Stop before it becomes a dough.)
Dump the lamb into a medium-sized bowl, and add half the onion-garlic-lemon-herb-bread mixture. Using your hands, fold and knead the onion mixture into the lamb until it's well dispersed. Keep adding a little of the onion mixture until it's either well-combined or the lamb is beginning to have trouble sticking together. The meat should be damp but should hold together into a ball -- you want something that will keep its shape, not a meat sauce, so if it gets too soft/loose, stop adding onion.
Form the lamb into small patties. You should get 12-15 small patties out of the mixture, so they're definitely meant to be smaller than hamburgers; they're also not as flat. I make a ball somewhere between 2 and 3 inches in diameter, then put it down on the plate and flatten it a little with my hand to make a disc. Repeat until all the meat is used.
Heat a wide frying pan until a drop of water sizzles on its surface. (I use my 12-inch cast-iron, but anything will work.) You can oil the pan if you're paranoid about sticking, or if your lamb is really lean, but honestly the lamb should render off enough fat on its own that it can just cook in that. Add as many lamb patties as you can without any of them touching -- it's better to do more than one batch than to overcrowd the pan, since they won't brown and cook evenly if they're crowded. Cook over medium-high heat until browned, then flip and cook on the other side until cooked through. You can look up the doneness temperature for ground lamb, but I usually just cut a slit in a nice fat one and see if there are any pink spots. Remove the first batch to a plate and keep warm in a low oven while you make the second batch.
While the lamb is cooking (or shortly after, if it cooks fast), make the rest of the salad.
Slice the rest of the onion. I usually cut it into rounds, then split those in half to make long-but-not-too-long pieces. Put them in a broilersafe pan (a cookie sheet will work) and slide them under the broiler. Keep an eye on them and let them cook until the onions are soft and just starting to blacken in spots.
Slice the tomatoes and slice or tear up the lettuce. Slice up or tear up the pitas -- you want something small enough to sit on a salad like 'croutons.' (If you want them to be more crouton-like, you can toast them first and then break them up, but I like my pitas soft.)
Make the sauce: combine yogurt, the remaining 2 tbsp fresh herbs, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Technically you should add cucumber to this, so if you happen to have cucumber, cut it into small dice and add it. I didn't, though, and it came out fine.
To serve: make a bed of lettuce. Add sliced tomatoes, pita pieces, grilled onions, and lamb patties. Dress with the sauce and eat.
Optional Add-Ons: If I'd been making this as a planned meal (rather than an attempt to use up some stuff in the fridge/freezer), I would have made sure to have cucumber, both to add to the yogurt sauce and to add, in slices, to the salad. I probably also would have crumbled a little bit of feta on top, and possibly added some olives. But it was pretty darn good as-is.
The seasoned lamb mixture here helps keep the lamb moist and tender, and the flavor of lamb is strong enough to stand up to the onion and garlic. I think it'd also be great for lamburgers, served on a toasted roll with lettuce, tomato and yogurt sauce. Or lamb meatballs, over lemony tomato-orzo salad. Mmm.
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no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 08:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-25 09:04 pm (UTC)Tonight, we're having roast beef with horseradish cream, and potatoes in some fashion. Very basic, but yummy.
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Date: 2008-06-25 09:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-26 02:56 pm (UTC)Your lamb recipe sounds super good! Lamb is for some reason one of the meats I'm afraid to try cooking. I need to get over that.