This is a second attempt at Samsa in which I used rough puff pastry, which we liked better than version 1. Otherwise, we made it exactly the same way. Dough 1 lb. Rough Puff Pastry Filling 11 oz. (310 grams) 30% fat lamb or beef 2.5 Tbs. fish sauce 2 Tbs. chicken stock (or ¼ Read More …
We recently took a trip to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A common dish on breakfast buffets and appetizer menus was a flaky savory pastry filled with lamb, beef, or pumpkin called samsa or somsa. Here is my first version of making it at home. I adapted a recipe from Food52.com in which the author went Read More …
We ate this Turkish dish for lunch in Khiva, Uzbekistan. It is a layered dish with the base being an eggplant puree similar to baba ghanoush, then a layer of lamb cooked with cumin, then yogurt, then butter, and last the garnishes of sumac and parsley. The only time-consuming part is charring and cooking the Read More …
This is an adaptation of another recipe from Georgina Haydne’s cookbook Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots. It was an opportunity to use my mint patch one more time before the cold weather does it in for the season. This takes about an hour and will make 6 servings ½ bunch of fresh mint 3 Read More …
Pastitsio is a classic which is like a Greek version of lasagna. I spotted a simplified one-pot version of it in Georgina Hayden’s cookbook Greekish: Everyday recipes with Greek roots. In Greece it is made with a long tubular pasta which is also called pastitsio, which is like the Italian pasta bucatini, but with a Read More …
The name of dish from Damascus is “kebab from India” because it originated years ago from an Indian family which settled in Syria. It is actually flattened lamb koftas in a tomato sauce. This version is adapted from Imad’s Syrian Kitchen. It will make 4 servings, but the photo shows a 11 x 7 inch Read More …
This popular way of eating hummus with lamb is from Damascus, and is adapted from Imad’s Syrian Kitchen. It makes 4 meze servings or 2-3 main course servings, both with khubz or pita breads. It takes about half an hour to make the topping for the hummus. The recipe calls for Baharat, a Syrian spice Read More …
Carol frequently orders lamb shanks when they are available at a restaurant, so when I saw some at Kroger’s I bought them and made this dish, based on a recipe in Molly Stevens’ book All About Braising. The 2 lamb shanks were about 3 lbs. total, and I cut the meat off the bones after Read More …
Since we went to Turkey last year, I have kept my eyes open for interesting Turkish recipes and spotted one in The Guardian which seemed promising, and was in fact very good. It consists of a spicy lamb stew on top of a creamy and garlicky base of roasted eggplant and yogurt. This will make Read More …
A popular Turkish kebab is made from ground lamb. This version is based on a recipe in Turkish Delights. I found that it did not stick together well on our Turkish skewers, so I grilled it with out them. It had a tendency to stick to the grill. Possibly I should have chopped it more Read More …