Lamb Soup With Curried Cucumber Salad Recipes

CUMIN-RUBBED LAMB CHOPS WITH CUCUMBER SALAD

Steps:

• Place cucumber slices in a colander, and sprinkle with salt, just a little more than if you were planning to eat them right away. After 15 to 30 minutes, start a charcoal or wood fire or preheat a gas grill (or the broiler); rack should be about 4 inches from heat source.
• When fire is hot, press cucumbers to extract as much liquid as possible. Toss them with mint and juice of one lemon. Rub lamb chops with salt, pepper and cumin, and grill about 3 minutes a side for rare, turning once.
• Serve each lamb chop on a bed of cucumber salad. Quarter remaining lemon, and serve it to squeeze over lamb.

WARM SHREDDED LAMB SALAD WITH MINT AND POMEGRANATE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• On the stovetop, brown the lamp, fat-side down, in a large roasting pan. Remove when nicely browned across its middle (you won't get much more than this) and set aside while you fry the shallots, garlic and carrot briefly. Just tip them into the pan - you won't need to add any more fat - and cook them, sprinkled with the salt, gently for a couple of minutes. Pour the water over and then replace the lamb, this time fat side up. Let the liquid in the pan come to a boil, then tent with foil and put in the preheated oven.
• Now just leave it there while you sleep. I find that if I put the lamb in before I go to bed, it's perfect by lunchtime the next day. But the point is, at this temperature, nothing's going to go wrong with the lamb if you cook it for a little less or a little more.
• If you want to cook the lamb the day you're going to eat it, heat the oven to 325 degrees F and give it 5 hours or so. The point is to find a way of cooking that suits you: you know what sort of pottering relaxes you and what makes you feel constrained; how much time you've got, and how you want to use it. Don't let the food, the kitchen or the imagined expectations of other people bully you.
• With the homily over, about 1 hour before you want to eat, remove the lamb from the pan to a large plate or carving board - not that it needs carving; the deal here is that it's unfashionably overcooked, falling to tender shreds a the touch of a fork. This is the best way to deal with shoulder of lamb: it's cheaper than leg, and the flavor it deeper, better, truer, but even good carvers, which I most definitely am not, can get unstuck trying to slice it.
• To finish the lamb salad, simply pull it into pieces with a couple of forks on a large plate. Sprinkle with more sea salt and some freshly chopped mint, then cut the pomegranate in 1/2 and dot with the seeds from 1 of the halves. This is easily done; there's a simple trick, which means you never have to think of winkling out the jeweled pips with a safety pin ever again. Simply hold the pomegranate 1/2 above the plate, take a wooden spoon and start bashing the curved skin side with it. Nothing will happen for a few seconds, but have faith. In a short while the glassy red, juicy beads will start raining down.
• Take the other 1/2 and squeeze the preposterously pink juices over the warm shredded meat. Take to the table and serve.
• What I do with the leftovers is warm a pita bread in the microwave, and then spread it with a greedy dollop of hummus, then take the chill off the refrigerated lamb in the microwave and stuff the already gooey pita with it. Add freshly chopped mint, black pepper and whatever else you like; raw, finely chopped red onion goes dangerously well.

LAMB WITH CUCUMBER-MINT SALAD

Steps:

• Preheat broiler.
• Combine Chili Powder, Salt, and Pepper. Rub on the Lamb Chops.
• Place Lamb Chops in the Broiler and cook until desired doneness (145 degrees = medium). This should take about 6-8 minutes.
• Combine Cucumbers, Onion, Avocado, mint, vinegar, and oil. Season with Salt and Pepper.
• Serve Salad and Lamb Chop together.

LAMB SALAD WITH CUCUMBER AND MINT

Steps:

• Combine the vinegar, water, sugar, 3/4 teaspoon salt and chilies in a small saucepan over low heat. Heat until sugar and salt dissolve. Remove from heat and let stand for 1 hour.
• Use a peeler to scrape the carrot into 2-inch thin strips. Cut the strips lengthwise to make a fine julienne. Place the carrots in a bowl with the cucumber, jicama, sprouts, lemon grass, cilantro and half of the mint. Toss and set aside.
• Heat a medium-size nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add lamb, cook until medium-rare, 30 seconds per side. Cut across grain into thin slices. Season with salt.
• Pour the dressing over the salad and use your hand to squeeze the dressing into the salad. Mix in the nam pla. Divide among 2 or 4 plates, creating a tall mound. Top with the remaining mint. Drape the lamb over the salad and serve.

CURRIED LAMB IN CUCUMBER CORNUCOPIAS

Steps:

• Cut cucumber widthwise into 3 1/2-inch-long sections. Using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline, slice sections lengthwise as thin as possible, yielding flat rectangular slices. Discard any with seeds.
• Lightly spray a large nonstick skillet with vegetable-oil cooking spray and place over medium-low heat. Add onions and sautee until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add lamb, currants, curry powder, cinnamon, salt, and pepper; raise heat to medium high and cook until meat is browned and cooked through, about 10 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in chopped mint and yogurt.
• Form one of the cucumber slices into a cone shape. Fill with 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of the meat mixture and garnish with a mint leaf. Repeat procedure, using all the cucumber slices and lamb mixture, and serve immediately.

LAMB KEEMA CURRY

Steps:

• Place peas in a microwave-safe container and cover loosely. Microwave until just heated through and bright green, 2 to 3 minutes. Drain and immediately cover with cold water to stop the cooking process, preserve the color, and reinflate any dimples or puckers. Set aside.
• Heat olive oil in a nonstick frying pan or Dutch oven over medium-low heat. Stir lamb, onion, and garlic into the oil. Break up the ground lamb into morsels, stirring into the onion, garlic, and oil. Cover and begin gradually browning the lamb. Cook slowly until lamb is browned and a pool of rendered fat and liquid collects in the bottom of the pan, 10 to 20 minutes. Drain all fat, oil, and liquids.
• Combine parsley, curry powder, cumin, garam masala, black pepper, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, turmeric and pepper flakes in a bowl, then stir into the lamb mixture. Cook over low heat until spices bloom, 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in potatoes, tomatoes, and jalapenos. Cover and continue cooking and stirring until the potatoes are tender, 20 to 30 minutes.
• Set the lid ajar and let any liquids in the bottom of the pan steam off. Drain the peas and stir them into the keema. The keema will reheat them. Garnish individual servings with cilantro leaves.

CURRIED LAMB AND BARLEY GRAIN

Steps:

• In a skillet, saute lamb, onion, barley and celery in oil until lamb is browned and barley is golden. Add broth and curry powder; bring to a boil. Pour into a 2-qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until barley is tender. , In a small bowl, combine the salsa ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve with lamb.