Ok, this is really an inspiration from a mash-up of 2 Paula Wolfert’s recipes from her Mediterranean Claypot Cooking book. I have been a massive Wolfert fan for years and years (I’m sure I tell you this all the time) and have collected a few of her intense tomes. The Slow-Mediterranean Cookbook is really stunning but generally out of my financial reach (as many reductions call for as much food as to feed a family of 5, only to be thrown out after reducing), but I find a lot of gems in Mediterranean Grains & Greens and I couldn’t survive without my copy of CousCous.
And I do this sometimes, I think my best artichoke/spinach/crab dip recipe are the 2 (and sometimes 3) consequetive recipes for such things in The Joy of Cooking, all of them, together. This one is like that — where I have a bit of this, a bit of that, the cooking is from one, the method from the other, and the two were handfasted and now reside on my plate. So, this below is the lovechild of Tile-Roasted Lamb Shepherd’s Style and Moroccan Mechoui…I chose to head it under the latter since it covers the cut of the meat and the stronger spices.
We also really really wanted to start our Summer goal of cooking over the firepit — we put up (freezing, canning, fermenting) so much last year we need to eat it down in order to get ready for this year’s harvests, which we’re using this method to get through. We have a tripod to hang a pot (or piece of meat over a pot), or a cauldron, or a big pot you can put right into the coals (we recommend cast iron, it gets hot but bakes/roasts pretty evenly), and a grill over it so there are many options to cook over a fire. Josh loves the added elemental flavor, the extra grittiness to the dish — it feels real, and connected, and frankly, freaking delicious. We are also trying to get through the last of our lamb from the Winter, and have the big bits and the weird bits left. Cooking over a fire makes all this possible in easy ways. We highly recommend it!
Moroccan Mechoui
Serves 6
- 1 bone-in Lamb Shoulder (about 5 lbs), trimmed of excess fat & scored
- 1 Garlic clove, minced
- 2 tsp Sea Salt
- 1 Stick of Tbsp Unsalted Butter, 4Tbsp at just room temp, and 4Tbsp cut into pats
- 1 1/2 Tbsp ground Coriander
- 2 tsp ground Cumin
- 1 tsp Smoke Paprika (sweet or hot, your desire)
- 1 tsp freshly ground Black Pepper
- 2 tsp Greek Oregano
- 2 cups (or more if desired) of Fregola, cook as directed (2 cups of water to 1 cup of Fregola), alternatively potatoes or bread or classic Couscous
- 2 Medium Vidalia Onions (or 3 Med Shallots, or 2 Med Leeks, even frozen), chopped coarsely
- And then clear out your frozen/canned veggies: we used a bag (1/2#) of frozen Scapes, and 3# of Whole frozen Tomatoes (they freeze great whole! or we slice them/roast them with garlic, olive oil, and herbs and then freeze them);
Last year we did this and also threw in that random bag of Zucchini (doesn’t freeze that great), canned Green Beans, frozen Pell Peppers, and chopped fresh Potatoes (unless using couscous, which I guess you could still throw in potatoes, especially if you have a crowd to feed)…we’ve also tossed in (generally with the tomatoes, they make a nice liquid to not burn everything) frozen and fresh Kale and the incessant bags of kale stems that I keep, all kinds of stuff you think will roast up nice in a tomato stew, essentially. It becomes like a decadent Ratatouille. Or medium button size Mushrooms, whole.
A few hours before cooking: Take all the spices and the 4Tbsp of room temp butter and combine (best with your hands or a fork) and rub into the scoring of the Lamb (it’s fine to put it into the pot you’re going to cook in and let rest for a couple of hours if you can.
Set up the tripod or grill and the fire, get it to where there are nice slow coals so you can bank them up or remove them when needed. When ready toss in remaining butter (in pats) and chosen vegetables, set the lid all the way on if you are putting in the pot or hang meat with a meathook from the tripod over the vegetables (then either on a grill above the fire or hanging from the tripod). At this point we put the Lamb in the pot with the veg and hung over the coals on the tripod, you could equally put the whole pot into the fire and keep coals low and slow (and can even put them on the lid in the right cast iron pot) and cooked over the fire for 2-3 hours (depending on how slow your coals are, we could’ve probably gone a little slower but it turned out extravagent, nonetheless). You only need an inner temp of 140degreesF on the meat which you will probably get pretty easy, if it cooks slow enough it will keep the meat soft. Keep an eye on the liquid, you need enough so as not to burn the veggies or the meat and then as much as you want it to be stewlike, we chose a thick sort of stew to stir into the fregola…turn the meat occassionally to test its tenderness.
Remove from heat. We didn’t cook the fregola as per directions but threw it into the pot with extra water to absorb but leave a little movement (I might recommend 3:1, liquid to fregola). Or serve with bread/wide egg noodles/couscous, etc. And serve with a vinaigrette or lemon green salad or fresh pickles to brighten the unctiousness.
This is going to be a very good Summer.
Rock Bottom Homestead 