Sunday, August 31, 2008

Moroccan Lamb & Chickpea Broth

Barbara served up this delicious soup at a recent celebration of Tim's 'significant birthday' (one of those with an 'oh' in it...), while Tim's latest Jazz recording was playing in the background.
















Tim and his friend John can be found early on any fine Tuesday morning, playing Saxophone and Double Bass outside Sydney's Central Station at the Elizabeth St entrance, before they both go off to work for the day. They were 'discovered' one recent morning by the manager of a recording studio and invited to cut the CD we were listening to, which I have to say sounds HOT! The CD will be available in the near future - I'll keep you posted when they release it. Knowing I live in a world where people still play great music in the streets for the love of it makes me - and a lot of other lucky Sydney-siders - feel filled with joy. Thanks Tim - and Happy Birthday!
















This photo was taken by photographer Marc Burlace, for a Penguin Books street-theatre promo that was going on outside Central at the same time as Tim and John were playing, with three people dressed like 1930's characters handing out old Penguins to celebrate Penguin Books' birthday.


The recipe for Barbara's Morroccan Lamb and Chickpea Broth is a two-step, requiring some preparation the night before the day that you want to serve it.

The-Night-Before: Prepare the Lamb Broth
500g lamb neck
4 tablespoons olive oil
100g onion
100g carrot
100g leek
2 tablespoons cumin seed
4 sprigs of thyme

Brown the lamb neck in oil, adding the onion and cumin seed, frying until fragrant. Add the remaining vegetables and the thyme and cover with water, simmering two-and-a-half hours until tender. Cool and strain the broth, reserving the lamb-meat and the broth. Dice the meat into bite-sized pieces. Refrigerate the broth over night and skim off any fat the next morning.

Also, cook 2 cups chickpeas in boiling water until tender. Strain and cool, refrigerating until ready to make the soup the next day.

The Next Day: Cooking the Soup
250g onion
250g carrot
250g leek
1 tablespoon chopped garlic
1/1/2 tablespoons turmeric
2 tablespoons cumin
1/1/2 tablespoons coriander
1/2 tablespoon cayenne
2 litres of lamb stock
2 cups cooked chickpeas
juice of half a lemon
1/2 wedge of preserved lemon, rinsed of salt and slivered
salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in a large soup pot and sweat the onions and garlic. Add the diced vegetables and stir-fry for 10 minutes. Add the spices and cook three minutes until fragrant, stirring to prevent burning. Add the lamb stock and simmer for 1 hour. Add diced lamb meat, slivered preserved lemon rind and chickpeas. When ready to serve, add lemon juice and season with salt and pepper to taste.


Yum-oh!

3 comments:

Lori Lynn said...

Sounds very flavorful! I especially like the final touch with lemon juice.

Anonymous said...

That looks delicious and well worth the 2 step effort. Good for this cold spring weather we seem to be having too!

Charles said...

Oh, that looks so good! I was wondering what to do with the bit of goat I've got in the fridge, think I'll make a tagine today...

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