Middle-Eastern Harissa Lamb Salad with roast cauliflower, warm baby carrots, fennel, broad beans, herbs, coriander yoghurt and harissa. A crazy two weeks of cooking has just occurred in the Brick household. This Rhubarb Caramel Pistachio cake, these Greek Chicken Souvlaki and Cypriot Grain Salad, both sesame and cinnamon raisin bagels, blueberry and lemon scones,...
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Middle-Eastern Harissa Lamb Salad with roast cauliflower, warm baby carrots, fennel, broad beans, herbs, coriander yoghurt and harissa. Jump to Recipe
A crazy two weeks of cooking has just occurred in the Brick household.
This Rhubarb Caramel Pistachio cake, these Greek Chicken Souvlaki and Cypriot Grain Salad, both sesame and cinnamon raisin bagels, blueberry and lemon scones, pork meatball banh mi, pear and chocolate crumble, harissa chicken with bulghar wheat and hummus, a rhubarb, raspberry and almond tart, cinnamon-date-walnut brioche scrolls… the list goes on. And on.
Mum is getting increasingly concerned about our waistlines.
The other relevant news to this post (which I am hugely excited about), is that we are leaving for a two-week family holiday to Turkey tomorrow! Besides the 24-hours spent crammed into economy plane seating each way (why is NZ so far away from everything?!), I cannot wait to explore Istanbul (fun fact, Istanbul is the 5th largest city in the world – I had no idea!), hot-air balloon over Cappadocia, spend a day sailing off the Turquoise coast, see the thermal pools of Pamukkale, wander the ruins of the ancient city of Troy, visit Gallipoli in the 100th year anniversary of World War I, and eat. Make that lots of eating. Turkish food today is rooted in the culture of the Ottoman empire, which was founded in 1299 and only collapsed in the aftermath of World War I, and placed a large importance on food in daily life. Because of factors like Turkey’s geographic location, the migration of its people from far East Asia, and the vast spread of the Ottoman Empire and its control of the spice trade, Turkish cuisine is a fusion of many, including Asian, Middle-Eastern, Mediterranean, North African and Western European, while the food in each region also has particular defining characteristics and dishes. Culinary lore even identifies Turkish food as amongst the three greatest cuisines in the world – the others are French and Chinese.
You can be sure that in the next few weeks there will be many recipes on here inspired by these upcoming food experiences! I will also be adding a ‘Travel’ tab to the top menu, which will serve as a photo-diary of our time in Turkey with recommendations of what to see and where to eat – and as a record for me to look back on in future. If anyone has any tips on travelling with a DSLR camera, please let me know – it is the first time I have travelled with it and want to look after it well!
I had to experiment with a bit of Turkish-slash-Middle-Eastern food before I left (of course!), and so made this Middle Eastern Harissa Lamb Salad, adapted from the amazing Engine Room cookbook. Tender, slow cooked lamb shanks are paired with crispy-edged roasted cauliflower florets and warm baby carrots, slivers of fennel, broad beans, the sharp flavours of coriander and mint, a cool coriander yoghurt base, a pomegranate molasses dressing, salty pieces of feta, and drizzles of spicy, fragrant harissa. It sounds like a lot, but trust me – it works. I could eat it all day. For many, many days.
It does take a wee bit of work, but it is worth it, I promise. Make the harissa paste ahead (or buy a reeeaally good quality one from a specialty food store or market), cook the lamb shanks earlier in the day, prep the dressing and coriander yogurt – and then all you need to do is put it all together before you eat. If you want to seriously wow people – this is your meal.
The harissa that I used is an adaptation of a recipe of Al Brown’s, which is a relatively mild and very fragrant paste. There are certainly many other recipes out there with a lot more chili, but I like this one as the heat doesn’t overwhelm the other flavours. The recipe below makes a lot more than you need for this salad, but it makes a perfect marinade for chicken or lamb, can be served as a dip, on toast, in sandwiches, with hummus, in yogurt, with pasta, as a salad dressing – you name it!
I also served it with freshly baked turkish pide – a leavened flat-bread (similar to the Italian focaccia) that works perfectly to mop up all of the flavours in the salad. The recipe will be going up next week with my favourite creamy hummus recipe (and hopefully a few photos of Turkey!).
Anyway, do give this recipe a go. For a dinner party, for friends, for your family, or just yourself – the melding of tender lamb, soft spices, mellow yogurt, the pop of pomegranate, fresh herbs, warm roasted vegetables and crusty Turkish bread is very (very) hard to beat. Dad even thought this might just be the best meal I have ever made (and there have been a lot!).
Middle-Eastern Harissa Lamb Salad with Roasted Cauliflower and Baby Carrots
Ingredients
Lamb Shanks
- 4 hind lamb shanks
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
- a couple of tablespoons of olive oil
- 1 onion , roughly chopped
- 1 stick of celery , roughly chopped into 1 cm pieces
- 1 carrot , peeled and chopped into 1 cm pieces
- a couple of sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves
- 1.5 - 2 litres of veal , beef, or lamb stock (homemade if you have it, but I just used store bought and it still worked beautifully!)
- 2 tablespoons harissa paste (see recipe below)
Coriander Yoghurt
- 1 cup natural yoghurt
- 1 cup coriander leaves
- 1/2 teaspoon cardamom seeds , crushed with a mortar and pestle
- salt to taste
- 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
Pomegranate Dressing
- 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 50 ml red wine vinegar (just under 1/4 cup, or 3.5 tablespoons)
- 20 ml pomegranate molasses (1 tablespoon)
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
To assemble and serve
- 30-40 baby carrots (I used 2 bunches)
- head of 1 medium-large cauliflower , cut into florets
- olive oil and ground salt and pepper
- 1 1/2 cups broad beans
- 2 small fennel bulbs , sliced very thinly
- 3/4 cup coriander leaves
- 3/4 cup mint leaves
- seeds of 1/2 a pomegranate
- 100 g feta , crumbled
- 1 teaspoon sumac
- pomegranate dressing (above)
- coriander yogurt (above)
- 1/2 cup harissa , thinned with a tablespoon of olive oil (recipe below)
Instructions
Lamb Shanks
- Preheat the oven to 180°. Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a casserole dish large enough to fit the four lamb shanks. Season the shanks with salt and pepper then lightly brown all over in the casserole pot (I did this 2 at a time as I couldn’t fit them all on the base of the pan at once). Remove and set aside.
- Add the onion, celery, carot, thyme and bya leaves ot the pan with another tablespoon or two of olive oil and cook until golden brown, stirring occasionally (about 10 minutes).
- Return the shanks to the pan, add the stock and harissa and stir together, making sure that all of the shanks are pretty much covered by the stock. The amount of stock you use here depends on how much you can fit - it is supposed to be 2L, but my casserole dish was not big enough so I just filled it right to the brim, about 1.6L. As long as all the lamb shanks are covered you should be pretty okay, and if you really feel like there wasn’t enough you could add more half way through cooking as some of it evaporates off.
- Cover with a lid and bring to the boil, then place in the preheated oven for 2-3 hours or until the meat is falling off the bone (this took about 2.5 hours for me). Allow to cool enough to handle, then remove the shanks and pull the meat apart, setting it aside in a separate bowl or container. Discard the bones and reserve the vegetables and stock for another use.
Coriander Yoghurt
- Place the yogurt, coriander and cardamom seeds in a blender or food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and lemon juice. Transfer to a container and refrigerate until needed.
Pomegranate Dressing
- Combine all the ingredients in a jar nad shake to emulsify. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and vinegar - it should be a balance of sweet, tart and salty
To assemble and serve
- Preheat the oven to 190°C. Spread out the carrots and cauliflower on an oven tray in a single layer, drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Roast until the carrots are tender and browned and the cauliflower is tender and going crispy at the edges, about 20-25 minutes. Set aside in a warm place.
- Turn the oven down to 120-150°. Reheat the lamb in a covered roasting tray in the oven until warm (5-10 minutes).
- In a large bowl, combine the lamb, carrots, cauliflower, broad beans, fennel and herbs and gently toss with the pomegranate dressing. Season with salt and pepper.
- Spread each plate with a spoonful of coriander yogurt as a base for the salad. Divide the salad over the plates, and then add the feta, pomegranate seeds, a sprinkle of sumac and a drizzle of harissa.
- Serve with warm turkish bread.
Harissa
Ingredients
- 2 red capsicums , roasted, skinned, seeded adn roughly chopped
- 3-4 fresh chillies , chopped (seeds optional)
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped or minced fresh garlic
- 3/4 cup chopped coriander leaves , stalks and roots
- 1/2 cup mint leaves
- 1/2 cup parsley leaves
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 1/2 tablespoons cumin seeds , toasted in a dry pan and ground
- 1 1/2 tablespoons coriander seeds , toasted in a dry pan and ground.
- 1 tsp smoked sweet paprika
- 50 ml (just under 1/4 cup) lemon juice
- 25 ml lime juice (just over 1 tablespoon)
- 1/2 cup olive oil
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Place all the ingredients in a food processor and blend to form a smooth paste. I actually found that to get the paste as smooth as possible, a small blender was really helpful to do half the harissa at a time - I have a kenwood attachment that worked well but you could use anything that you have around! Refrigerate in a jar.
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