Braised lamb shoulder with olives and Artichokes

Ingredients:

1. 2.5 kg Lamb shoulder bone in for about 6 - 8 people;
2. 250 gr tin of pitted black olives;
3. 4 Artichokes with stem cut off and cut into half;
4. 4 tbsp sea salt;
5. 2 tbsp black pepper;
6. 3 cloves garlic;
7. 2 tbsp finely chopped rosemary leaves;
8. 2 tbsp finely chopped thyme leaves;
9. 1 tbsp honey (ideally scented with either rosemary or thyme);
10. 2 tbsp EVOO;
11. Juice of one lemon;
12. 1 large coarsely cut onion;
13. 2 finely chopped parsnips (finely chopped as they are meant to completely break apart during the cooking and serve to thicken the sauce);
14. 4 - 5 sprigs of Rosemary and Thyme;
15. 1 bottle either red or white wine;

Preparation:

1. Make a paste of the salt, pepper, garlic, rosemary, thyme, honey and EVOO. Rub paste all over the lamp and let sit for at least 30 min but several hours would be better.
2. Brown the lamb and set aside.
3. Soften the onion and parsnips, add the artichokes flat side down.
4. Load the meat on top of the artichokes, add the rest of the ingredients, and 125 ml of the wine;
5. Braise in a 160 degrees oven for at least 3 hours adding 125 ml of the wine every 30 min or so (pour the wine over the meat) baste every 30 min when the whole bottle of wine is in.
6. If serving potatoes add them to the pan with the meat about 45 minutes before serving.
7. Let rest for 15 min;
8. Cut the heart out of the artichoke and serve with the meat;
9. Make sauce by reducing the cooking liquid and adding more wine/stock as needed.

Serve with Muhummra and Deep fried chick peas.

Muhummra

I had this with lamb at Moro's and simply loved it. The Moro recipe book says to use it with fish such as Monkfish which I have yet to try but I have high expectations. Essentially Muhummra is Mojo Roco with substance and as such can replace it in all recipes. Below is my version with is not quite the same as the Moro recipe but obviously similar.

Ingredients:

1. 6 large roasted red peppers (you can use canned ones if you are feeling lazy);
2. 400 gr toasted walnuts;
3. 4 garlic cloves made into paste with 1 tsp sea salt;
4. 150 gr bread crumbs;
5. 3 tbsp EVOO;
6. 1 tbsp roast ground cumin seeds;
7. 2 tsp chilli flakes;
8. 2 tbsp red wine or sherry vinegar;
9. 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses;

Pulse peppers and walnuts until smooth paste fold in rest of ingredients and hey presto!

Mojo Rojo

My mother and her sisters, well two of her five sisters, spend most of March in the geriatric capital of Europe Gran Canaria. Specifically in the holiday town of Maspalomas. I decided to go over and spend last weekend with them and drive the old ladies around the Island as I suspected three octogenarians would not be terribly mobile on their own.

My memories of Gran Canaria are all from annual visits to Playa del Ingles made with my parents when I was a kid. I think I stopped going with them when I was eleven on the basis that hanging with my parents for a month even if the weather was good was not that much fun. I remember the place being touristic but as a kid I really did not appreciate that the only reason there even where towns where we were staying was so that Northen European tourist would have somewhere to stay. The place is simply horrific and completely artificial with not a vestige of local culture visible anywhere. And the food is indescribable.

Normally I know I am in the wrong restaurant when the menu is in German or even worse in one of the Scandinavian languages. This usually means the restaurant has decided to focus on fleecing tourists and not on food. As a matter of fact I generally do not go into restaurants that display anything other than local language menus out front. If is says tourist menu then I actually switch sides on the street to avoid contagion. Imagine what I felt like on discovering that having the menu in Icelandic is the norm in Gran Canary.

I had one all right meal of baccalo or salt cod in a hotel restaurant in Playa del Ingles but the rest of the culinary experience was pretty depressing. I will never go back other than to play driver for my mum. The only good food experience came in a little town called Tejeda in the centre of the island.

This town looked different and more prosperous than any other I have seen on the island and the restaurant on the town square looked authentic. It looked authentic in a worn way that suggests its been there a long time and been used up by the locals. Upon sitting down on an outside table (the weather did not disappoint even if the island did) the owner came and told us in surprisingly good English about a seven course menu that they where serving that lunch time. It contained all sorts of goodies but what caught my attention was what he said was local speciality of lamb and potatoes.

Basically, what it is is various pieces of lamb quickly grilled at high heat with just salt as spice served with local potatoes covered in a sauce called mojo rojo - literally red gravy. The effect of grilling the lamb at high heat means it closes up quickly and becomes very nice and caramelized on the outside. What really makes this dish however is the mojo rojo and the wonderful canary potato. They are very proud of that potato and rightly so because it really is amongst the best potatoes I've ever had. The mojo rojo is the real find. According to the towns own website (they have a website!) it is made by maciating the following ingredients in a mortar:

• Garlic;
• A small amount of sea salt;
• Cumin seeds;
• 2 tomates;
• Hard bread (they call it pan duro I have not really worked out what that is);
• Olive oil;
• Vinegar;
• Sweet paprika;
• Water.

Simply magnificent, almost turned my opinion of Gran Canary.

On the website they also have a recipe for mojo verde or green gravy. In that case they replace the sweet paprika with parsley (cilantro) and then claim it is great sauce for fish, which I don't doubt.

Stewed Lamp Shoulder with Artichoke Hearts

My friend Aksel just called wanting the recipe for a lamb stew I made last year in Flayosc. At first I could not remember but as we discussed the dish it came back to me. It was a recipe that I made up after having something similar in the restaurant La Treille Muscate in Moustiers-Sainte-Marie in the Var.

It is basically a standard braising stew that uses some uniquely Provencal ingredients. As I remember the ingredient list it was:

1. Lamb shoulder, off the bone and cut up into large chunks, roughly 200 grams per person;
2. Artichoke hearts preferably purple, small and one per person. If you can only get large normal hearts then use as many as you can get into the stewing pot along with the meat;
3. Pitted Olives;
4. Olive tree branches the small new growth ones (come on steal them in a garden center), the point here is to get the leaves not the actual branches so there ought to be more sources of those;
5. Root vegetables such as carrots, parsnips and turnip;
6. Fava Beans;
7. Bouget garnie or if you can get your hands on fresh Provencal herbs like rosemary, French thyme, tarragon, basil, savory (type of mint), cracked fennel, lavender and marjoram use those;
8. Bottle of white vine;
9. Vinegar about a soup spoon and half, I use either red vine or balsamic;
10. Loads of olive oil;
11. Salt and pepper;
12. Garlic.

Marinate the lamb in olive oil, garlic and pepper for at least half hour but longer is better, then brown the meat over high heat in the skillet. Remove from the skillet add some butter and caramelize the vegetables. Add back the meat and poor over the vine and vinegar and boil off most of the alcohol. Add the rest of the ingredients except the beans and simmer in a preheated oven at 170 degrees for 3 hours. Roughly two hours in add the beans.

Serve with mashed potatoes or fresh new ones. I like to make a mash with truffle flavored olive oil but then I also love truffle…

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