![Easy Yogurt Marinade Recipe for Eid ul Adha Lamb]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Aug 31, 2017 | Eid, Gulf Style, Halal-Certified Products, Lamb, Middle Eastern
Eid ul Adha is around the corner again! Where did the time go? Wasn’t it just Ramadan, then Eid ul Fitr? Wow, time has flown and out the window goes my patience for difficult, fussy recipes for entertaining during holidays like Eid. I don’t want to spend countless hours shopping, prepping or being in the kitchen. It’s still summer, after all and I want something easy-peasy but also healthy and of course delicious and crowd-pleasing.
That’s why I love this recipe I’m about to share- it’s an old recipe I started making while in college, taught by a friend who was a good cook but didn’t like to spend a lot of time at all in the kitchen. She surprised me by putting everything in the blender then pouring it over chicken: yogurt, turmeric, salt, pepper, garlic cloves, ginger, and cilantro.
Who would have thought something that simple could be whipped together so fast? I thought good food had to be slaved over to have any flavor, but that is so not true.
Over time, I’ve tweaked the recipe to incorporate or substitute parsley for the cilantro and ground ginger since I don’t always keep the fresh kind on hand. I’ve made it with chicken and lamb and done it on the grill and in the oven- all of which are excellent in flavor.
To make it you only need a few very simple ingredients, probably things you keep around your kitchen pantry and potted herb garden, if you have one: your choice of meat (udhiya lamb, goat, beef or chicken– though you could even try this with seafood like red snapper), turmeric, ginger (fresh or ground), garlic, cilantro or parsley, the usual salt and pepper, and the main squeeze: Mountain High’s Plain Yoghurt, which is halal-certified so it doesn’t contain any funny stuff like gelatin.
Here’s a short video of what I use to prep the yogurt marinade and how I do it.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Part 3:
And this is the gorgeous, delicious result:
And don’t forget to use Mountain High Yoghurt for this recipe, many other recipes and even as a snack. Check out their website for locations where you can shop for it and follow their Facebook page for recipes, promotions and more.
Enjoy the recipe and please share!
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![Lamb Kofta Kabob Pita Sandwiches]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Jul 15, 2015 | Lamb, Middle Eastern, Recipes
Ramadan has absolutely flown by- it’s been busy, peaceful, productive, serene, full of blessings and absolutely perfect this year. I just hope we’ve maximized our potential for rewards taking every opportunity to seek them throughout the month. Insha’Allah, I hope and pray the same for all of you. One of the biggest blessings we’ve had is a house full of guests for the first three weeks of Ramadan- talk about blessings showing up at your door! It’s been wonderful, truly and honor to have people- some who fast and some who don’t or cannot. Regardless, a guest is an honor and a gift from Allah (God), so it was truly wonderful to be able to cook for them and enjoy the Iftar (and sometimes Suhoor, too) together.
One of the best dishes I made this Ramadan were these super moist and flavorful Lamb Kofta Burgers. Originally I wanted to put them on skewers and grill them, but we’ve had so much rain that it just wasn’t possible. Indoor grilling was a choice, but I opted out and felt like my guests would enjoy them as burgers, Pita Party style, with all the fixings you would see in a Mediterranean style set up, only these were burgers and not actual kebobs on a skewer.
I start out with some great ingredients, everything is nice and fresh, of course, and the spices are added one by one rather than using a Ras-al-Hanout or Charmoula, but you could do that, too.
Fresh items include: fresh thyme and fresh mint used both as garnishes as well as seasonings in the meat (you can use dried if that’s what you have), spinach and lettuce (for the toppings), whole milk yogurt (substitute with mayo, if you like). 
fresh tomatoes,
whole milk sheep’s feta cheese,
red onions and lemons for garnish as well as in the meat.
The spices used are easy and accessible in most grocery stores: red pepper flakes, ground cumin, ground black pepper, smoked paprika, sea salt, ground cinnamon, fresh mint from my garden (finely chopped)…
and fresh thyme from the garden, too (leaves only).
When mixed all together, the meat looks great and has such a wonderful smell! It’s mixed all together with the juice of 1/2 lemon.
The meat is formed into burgers and set on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cooked at 425 for about 30 minutes. That’s it.
I cut Persian cucumbers to go on the side with the hummus, feta, tomatoes, spinach and yogurt– all of which are great toppings separately or in combination- however you like it.
Someone couldn’t wait for the picture to be taken and took a bit (below), but this is how we enjoyed them. In pitas, stuffed with fresh veg and topped with yogurt. The second and third ones went with hummus…
Enjoy the recipe- it’s now one of my absolute favorites and we’ll be making them again for Eid parties and gatherings, insha’Allah.
I’ve recently learned about the American Lamb Board and all they’re doing to try and get people to eat more lamb, which is a GREAT thing in my opinion! They work with dhabiha halal purveyors of lamb cuts all over the country, which is absolutely wonderful because they really do have some of the finest lamb available and arecertified halal. You can ask for suppliers here on their website and learn more about the benefits of eating lamb in their super resourceful section. It’s great for teaching kids, too, since many of the products used are FREE visual tools! And, of course they even have a great recipe section.
Stay posted for our next giveaway which will feature cuts of ground lamb from Barkaat Foods, one of the vendors verified by and associated with American Lamb Board.
*The meat provided for this post was courtesy of Barkaat Foods in conjunction with the American Lamb Board. All opinions are my own.
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![Pan Roasted Lamb and Potatoes]()
by Yvonne Maffei | May 27, 2015 | Iftar, Lamb, Ramadan, Recipes, Spring
Each Spring I wait with anticipation to make my favorite lamb dishes. I’m not sure why I don’t crave it as much in the Winter season, but I think it has to do with the perfect pairing lamb makes with fresh herbs, garlic, potatoes and carrots. What’s nice is that combination can go on to make roasts, stews and more. In this recipe for Pan Roasted Lamb with Potatoes and Carrots, you can actually use the base recipe as a foundation to do other things with it- for example, you can add more water to make it a stew; less water to make it more of a dry roast; you can leave the meat uncut and roast it whole or cut it even smaller than what I’ve done here if you need to extend it to fee more people. It’s all really up to you, but I hope this serves as inspiration to make the freshest of spring lamb dishes this season.
I like lamb that comes in netting because it holds a whole roast together during the cooking process and you can even stick cloves of garlic into it as it cooks, just like I did in this recipe.
Or, you can cut it into chunks, big or small, depending on how you like to eat it. Lamb cooked with the fat on it like here (which can be cut off after cooking), actually makes the meat juicier, it seems to shrink less during cooking and there ends up being more broth/liquids at the bottom of the pan.
I like to buy the whole shoulder, boneless and then cut it up into pieces the size I need for my recipe. It’s more economical than buying a smaller portions and you can always freeze the raw meat you don’t use.
What’s also great about this recipe is that it’s a one-pan meal that can also be added to a slow cooker, but you would have to bring the meat to a high temperature first before doing that, just to be safe.
After cooking, it’s so easy to scoop out and plate. In this case, there was a lot of liquid left in the pan so we enjoyed it like a stew. You could thicken the liquids with some flour to make it more of a gravy or simply continue to roast the pan in the oven, uncovered, to cook them all out altogether.
See how versatile this can me? It should be a base recipe, a foundational dish you keep in your back pocket for chilly Spring days, entertaining and/or cooking a large quantity of food for the week ahead.
What are your favorite lamb or Spring meat dishes? Please share in the comments below.
For more information on cooking lamb and sourcing halal options throughout the United States, check out the wonderfully resourceful American Lamb Board’s website. It’s got great tips on how to cook lamb, FREE dvds (Lamb Carcass, Cuts and Fabrication) and infographics like this one on preparation of different cuts, and a page on where to source halal vendors. They’re materials are great in schools, restaurants, and for the cooking aficionado to keep at home for reference.
For a list of halal vendors recommended by the American Lamb Board see below:
http://superiorfarms.com/
http://www.mountainstatesrosen.com/
http://www.wolverinepacking.com/
http://straussbrands.com/
http://www.barakatfoods.com/
http://www.enameatpacking.com/
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![Oven Roasted Boneless Leg of Lamb]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Apr 25, 2014 | Dinner, Eid, Greek, Lamb, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern
A few years ago when I catered my sister in law’s wedding rehearsal dinner, I discovered this type of lamb cut to be an essential part of entertaining on a grand scale. This leg of lamb doesn’t look too big, but at around 4 to 4.5 pounds, this cut can be grilled, roasted, slow cooked, or braised- then cut thinly to serve a very nice size crowd.
I get started with the few simple ingredients needed to achieve a very juicy, very delicious meal: one boneless leg of lamb (ask your butcher ahead of time for this cut, or order from a reliable halal source); one box of Saffron’ Road’s Classic Culinary Lamb Broth (it’s halal-certified), a couple sprigs each of fresh mint and fresh rosemary, some olive oil for drizzling, sea salt and about 20 cloves of fresh garlic.
Yes, I said 20 cloves of garlic.
Don’t worry, though. It’s not over-powering at all once it’s cooked thoroughly and melts into the meat and liquids in the pan.
It really does make a difference to use fresh herbs in this roast- for some reason, it’s just not the same to use dried. The pungency just isn’t there and it seems like the lamb simply absorbs the freshness in the most aromatic way.
Salt the meat first then stuff the garlic under the netting, if your roast comes with that netting.
If not, you can actually make slits in the meat or in the fat on top and stick the cloves inside.
Do the same with the fresh rosemary and mint.
Drizzle with olive oil and a bit of freshly ground black pepper.
Now get out the Saffron Road Lamb Broth. You’re only going to use about one cup of it at first and then more during the cooking process. Yes, you could use water, but that doesn’t give the dish the deep and lovely flavor you’ll want to dip the cut pieces of lamb into upon serving. Trust me.
Just pour about one cup to the bottom of the roasting pan. It’s okay if you get some on the meat right now, but try not to otherwise you’ll hear a lot of splattering going on in the oven.
It should look a little like this at the bottom of the pan- the meat is not swimming in it, but it’s going to give the meat the moisture it needs to not dry out when roasting, especially since this recipe doesn’t call for covering it.
Preheat the oven to 425° F. You’ll roast it that way for about 20 minutes, then add another cup of lamb broth and reduce to the heat to 350°F and continue cooking for about three hours. Use a meat thermometer and put it deep into the meat’s middle to make sure it reads at least 165°. Pull it out and let it rest for ten minutes, covering the meat if you can, to retain it’s juices. If you cut it too early, it will let all of those juices out of the meat and you’ll end up with a dry roast after all.
Now you’ll have some juice at the bottom. You could make a gravy with it by placing the pan over a burner and adding some flour (remove the garlic and herb pieces first), then whisk vigorously until you reach a thick consistency. Personally, I just like to use this sauce as a jus, or dipping sauce.
At this point it almost looks like a pot roast.
If after cooking you find it too be a little too pink in the middle for your liking, place it back in the oven for another 15 minutes or so; alternatively you can slice it up and place in a microwave, covered with the juices at the bottom. This helps to finish off the middle without drying it out.
Don’t miss a single drop of the juice at the bottom- that’s where all the flavor has been dripping for hours and hours.
Slice it thinly and dip the pieces back into the sauce.
At my sister’s wedding rehearsal dinner, we served this up as an appetizer alongside a glamorously finished plat of hummus. Needless to say, because it was sliced so thinly and served with ease that way, the huge plates we served were absolutely gone at the end of the dinner. Of course for a family dinner, you will most likely want to serve it a little differently. I can’t imagine anything that goes better with this than a side of mashed potatoes, a baked potato or even oven-baked fries. But, I’ve been known to slice and eat this with nothing else at all…
Resources:
Saffron Road’s Classic Culinary Lamb Broth (antibiotic-free, vegetarian fed, pasture-raised. Find it in a store near you.
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![Slow Cooker Haleem]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Jul 31, 2012 | Dinner, Iftar, Lamb, Pakistani, Ramadan, Recipes, Red Meat Dishes, Slow Cook, South Asian
I’ve been told for years that haleem, the puréed meat and grains dish with South Asian flavors, is a favorite Iftar dish for so many Muslims observing the Ramadan fast. Though not a common way of eating meat American-style, (cooked down for hours and combined with grains all puréed together) if you pre-judge it and dismiss it, you may never really experience the potentially satisfying eating experience it offers. It’s also quite nourishing.
My version of mildy-spiced haleem (more…)
![Lamb Stew with Pumpkin, Plantain, Sweet Potato and Chickpeas]()
by Yvonne Maffei | Nov 13, 2011 | Dinner, Fall, Lamb, Latin, North African, Recipes, Red Meat Dishes, Slow Cook, Stews & Curries
When we look through recipes online or in magazines, what really prompts us to go out of our way to make a list and head out to the store with the intention of buying all the ingredients specifically for that recipe we enjoyed looking at so much? 
I look at food for a living, literally, and am incredibly delighted by the vibrant colors and gorgeous photography that exists in the blogosphere and in the publishing world. I can’t, however, make everything that awakens my stomach or inspires me to fly off the couch and dig into my cabinets for every spice listed in a recipe so that I, too, can make a gorgeous Thai noodle dish.
There is one Libyan dish, however, that prompted me to set out to use up our Qurbani meat to make this dish called Tbeikhet ‘Eid which features pumpkin, chickpeas and raisins. I liked the idea of using seasonal produce like pumpkin so much that I decided to give it a try, though digressing a bit by using other ingredients that I had at home that were in much need of being used: (more…)
