Braised Shoulder Lamb Chops with Figs and North African Spices (NBR)

• 1/3 cup stemmed dried figs
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 4 shoulder lamb chops, about 3/4 inch thick, trimmed of excess fat
• Salt and ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped fine
• 2 small garlic cloves, minced or pressed through a garlic press
• 1 teaspoon ground corainder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon groun cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 cup diced tomatoes, with their juice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley leaves

Mise en place.

Browning the lamb.

Cook onion until softened.

Add garlic and spices and cook until fragrant.  Then add reserved soaking liquid from the figs.

They needed to be soaked in warm water for 30 minutes.  Indeed I didn't see any actual instructions to add the figs into the pan at any point.

So I added them in with the tomatoes, honey, and the lamb chops for a final simmer.

I practiced cutting carrots on the bias in order to make glazed carrots for the first time and couscous takes no effort at all.
The dish was quite sweet but the spices were definitely interesting.  I dug the addition of the figs.  Eating the still dried leftovers are less interesting.

Harira [Ramadan Soup] (BRW)

• 1 tablespoon butter or olive oil
• 1 pound boneless lamb shoulder or boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bunch of fresh parsley, large stems removed, chopped
• 1 bunch of cilantro, large stems removed, chopped
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground tumeric
• Salt and black pepper
• 1/2 cup dried chickpeas, soaked overnight, or 1 cup canned or precooked chickpeas, drained
• 1/2 cup dried lentils, picked over
• 2 larges tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped or about 2 cups drained canned
• 1/4 cup vermicelli or other thin noodles broken into small pieces
• 2 lemons

Mise en place.  The bowl of herbs had me crying uncle after processing the parsley and halfway through the cilantro.  The two herbs grow very differently since parsley has several branches per stem and cilantro only has one small clump of leaves.

Browning the lamb.

Cook onions until they soften a bit.

Add herbs and spices.  That big bowl of herbs wilted down in moments.

Add chickpeas and 6 cups of water.  Cook until they begin to soften.

Add lentils and simmer for 30 minutes.  Do the same to the tomatoes.

Add noodles 10 minutes before serving.  (Since the stew is so hearty in the first place I didn't worry about the whole noodles getting mushy in leftovers thing since they absorb excess liquid thing since there wasn't much excess liquid to begin with.)  Add the juice of one lemon.  The dish was supposed to be served with lemon wedges, but the soup was waaay tart enough with the one lemon.

Pretty good, interesting, hearty stew though the herbs were a pain.  Also, I fear that I've been adding too many lean dishes to my biweekly menu plans for the the season.  It only drives me to eat lots of Chinese takeout and TV dinners.