Moroccan Roast Lamb, Cacik, and Pitas - Nigella Rules!

My foodie friends usually scoff at me when I express my fondness for Nigella Lawson's cookbooks. They consider her a lightweight lacking serious culinary credentials, her looks and charm being her primary attributes.

Her relatively simple recipes and her skill at communicating the emotional connections to food really captivate me. Her book, How To Eat, had a profound effect on my cooking approach and I still cook regularly my own versions of recipes from her books.

Today, we had Moroccan Roast Lamb, Cucumber/Yogurt/Mint salad (Cacik), and pita bread.

Here is the raw, boneless leg of lamb with the marinade of ras-el-hanout, lemon, garlic, cilantro, and olive oil



Here is the finished platter:



The pita bread was made with leftover pizza dough from last night's dinner. Here is a little youtube video I uploaded showing one of the breads being baked. The lighting is bad, but you can clearly see it puffing up at the end.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbS9RC8_Ebg

Bill/SFNM

Bill/SFNM goes video! I love it! More please!

I could not agree more about Nigella, especially when it comes to her t-inspired recipes. She has a knack for identifying simple, pleasing preparations.

I'm planning on roasting a leg of lamb next weekend for my mother's birthday party. I haven't yet decided on the marinade/rub or if I'm going boneless or not.* Thanks for giving me an interesting idea.

Best,
Michael

*(I do plan on doing it on a waterpan-less WSM, per G Wiv's recommendation).

Bill,

There is a relaxing, meditative simplicity to watching you bake a pie in 90 seconds.

I think you just lowered my blood pressure. Just in time for the the pizza you are now forcing me to eat.

Bill/SFNM wrote:Here is a little youtube video I uploaded showing one of the breads being baked.

Bill,

The Next Level comes to LTHForum courtesy of Bill/SFNM. Very cool, very cool indeed.

Lamb looks delicious and count me among the great admirers of Nigella.

Enjoy,
Gary

Bill, I must say I really love the video of the pizza bake. I bet a lot of people get confused by a pizza baking in under 90 seconds.

(For the others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqlsELtZ-A )

gastro gnome wrote:Bill,

There is a relaxing, meditative simplicity to watching you bake a pie in 90 seconds.

I think you just lowered my blood pressure.

g-gnome:

Funny you should mention this. Actually baking these pies has become very relaxing and meditative. I baked a few hundred pies this summer and gradually progressed from nervous apprehension ("don't mess this one up") to a state of calm confidence ("now this one is going to be the best yet"). I recently had a physical and my blood pressure has gone from normal to low. Coincidence?

Bill/SFNM

gleam wrote:I bet a lot of people get confused by a pizza baking in under 90 seconds.

(For the others: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lEqlsELtZ-A )

gleam,

Thanks. Actually, that pie was cooked after we were all done eating and the oven had cooled down some. Normally they take about 60 seconds and have the more pronounced char marks that are characteristic of the Neapolitan style.

Bill/SFNM

G Wiv wrote:
The Next Level comes to LTHForum

Ball's in your court. Gary. How about a 5-hour video of ribs smoking in your WSM?

Bill/SFNM

Bill,

How much time does it take to get your wood fired oven up to speed?

I once made some Pita bread where I forgot to measure in salt. The rise and bake time was really speeded up by this omission. I learned salt not only added flavor, it also influenced the yeast's rising speed.

Thank you for an interesting meal as well as a peak into your world of baking.

Regards,

Bill, you rock with that video! You might consider editing your subject line with [vid lnk] or some such.

I must admit to spending a surprising amount of time at You Tube of late, as is near everyone I know. It will be fun to see how we LTHers use it in the future. Just don't let it go to Fool Network level -- with an obsession for consumption without creation.

-ramon

Cathy2 wrote:Bill,

How much time does it take to get your wood fired oven up to speed?

Cathy2,

It takes about 5 hours to get up to temp if the oven has completely cooled down, much less if there is residual heat from the previous session. It takes this long because I designed it to have a very large thermal mass. Once the mass has heated up, it does take quite a long time to cool. I know other wood oven bakers with more conventional designs that only heat up their ovens for about two hours. I've seen claims of 45 minutes, but I don't see how that is possible for high-temp pizza baking.

There is an altitude factor at work. There is less oxygen in the air up here, so wood burns cooler.


Bill/SFNM

Bringing this thread back around to the original topic, I hear Nigella will be on the Food Network in October cooking from her Feasts book. Great to see her back on TV, but I hope they don't try to Rachael Ray her.

Bill/SFNM