Lamb Ribs

I'd never really seen lamb ribs for sale until I moved to Europe, and discovered the Turkish grocery store in our small city. I imagine one could get them in Canada from a butcher, but it would likely need to be a special request item, as I've never noticed them on display. Happily, I can get them here any day that I happen by the Turkish grocery - which is also where I get my other lamb cuts - usually cutlets and ground, but they also have whole neck, neck slices, front shoulder, and hind leg. The quality of their lamb is superb, and our intake has gone up significantly since we came here.

Lamb ribs, though, I had no idea what to do with, but I knew that I wanted to try them. The first time I made these, I spread wild garlic leaves (ramsons, or Bärlauch (Bear garlic) in German) and over the ribs, seasoned the meat with salt and pepper, and wrapped them in foil before cooking them in a slow oven for three hours. They were amazing. So, of course I decided to do it again. Wild garlic isn't in season, though, so I went with rosemary. We roasted an extra rack, too, just so that we'd have leftovers to make into sandwiches. I'm so glad we did.

This is easy - quick prep, and little to do but sit around and drink wine while the oven does all the work. It's barely a recipe, and more of a procedure.

You might want to ask the butcher to cut the lamb ribs into two chunks each, for ease of serving later.

Oven-braised Lamb Ribs

serves 2 - 4

1 - 2 slabs lamb ribs, skin on
Fresh herbs - wild garlic, ramps, rosemary, thyme (your choice)
2-4 dried bay leaves
Salt and pepper
1/2 tablespoon olive oil

Preheat the oven to 165°C/300°F with a rack set in the middle. On a large baking sheet (with sides, in case of leaks) lay out enough aluminum foil to enclose the lamb ribs and seal all the edges into a large packet. If you are doing two slabs of ribs, it might be easier to package them separately, depending on your equipment.

Place half of the fresh herbs and a couple of the bay leaves on the foil.

Pat the lamb dry if necessary, and brush lightly with olive oil. You don't need much, because the lamb is a bit fatty and will release quite a bit of fat itself as it cooks. Season each side with salt and pepper (I use ground white pepper) and lay them on top of the herbs laid upon the foil. Add the rest of the herbs to the top of the lamb, and seal the packets - crimping the foil edges as neatly as you can to seal the packet tightly.

Transfer the lamb packets on their baking sheet into the oven, and let cook undisturbed for three hours. You will start to smell the lamb after the first hour, which is your cue to add a tray of veggies to the oven, if that's your plan. Mashed potatoes also go very nicely with lamb ribs.

When the three hours are up, pour yourself a nice glass of wine. Then, take the tray from the oven, and carefully slit the foil open (carefully! The steam that will be released is extremely hot and will burn you if you don't take steps to protect yourself. Use an oven glove, or position your hand away from where the steam will come out).



Push aside the spent herbs, and lift the meat out of the pooled juices. The meat is so rich, you'll want to give it a moment to drain a bit of the fat away before serving, so pile it onto a warmed plate to rest for a couple of minutes while you sip your wine and possibly organize the rest of the meal. Careful, though, the meat will be practically fall off the bones. Divide the lamb chunks between plates, and you're ready to go.

Cottage Pie

Cottage pie, in case you're not familiar with it, is a casserole of meat stew with a rich gravy, topped with mashed potatoes and baked. Whereas shepherd's pie is made from lamb, cottage pie is made with beef. In this case, it's made with a mixture of beef and pork, the all-purpose German ready-mixed ground meat, but you can use all beef or pork (or even ground turkey or chicken).

I had some Lilac potatoes from the market to use up, which is why the potato topping is purple, but you can use any good mashing potato. Yukon Golds are one of my favourites for this dish.



Cottage Pie

Serves 6

Stew with gravy

500 grams ground beef and/or pork
1 medium yellow onion, diced medium
2 stalks celery, diced medium
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 large carrot, diced medium
1 teaspoon coarse salt
2-3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/2 teaspoon dark soy sauce (optional)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
pinch dried thyme leaves
1-2 teaspoons beef stock base
1 1/2 cups water, divided
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 cup frozen peas (or corn)


Mashed Potato Topping

1 kg potatoes, boiled and peeled
2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup whole milk
1/4 teaspoon coarse salt
pinch ground white pepper
pinch ground nutmeg (optional)

Put the potatoes on to boil or steam first, however you like to do that. I generally simmer my potatoes in an inch of water (starting from cold), for about 25-30 minutes over medium-low heat in a pot with a tight-fitting lid. Then I peel them, add them back into the warm (drained) pot, crush them with a spoon, add the other ingredients, and mash them until smooth with a steel masher. If you make mashed potatoes differently, go ahead and make the however you like them best. It's helpful to make them a bit loose (ie, adding a couple of tablespoons more milk), because if they are too stiff they will be difficult to spread over the gravy.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat, and add the ground meat. Stir and fry, breaking it up with wooden spoon or cooking spatula as you go, and giving it a few minutes undisturbed between stirring to brown properly. If you don't allow the meat a chance to fry, rather than simply turning greyish as its moisture boils away, it won't develop a good deep flavour, so make sure you see a bit of golden brown on the meat before you add the other ingredients.

While the meat fries, you can busy yourself dicing the vegetables. Once the meat is properly browned, add the onions, celery, carrot, and garlic. Stir well, add the salt, and stir again. Add the bayleaves, and cook and stir for a few minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the tomato paste and stir through again. Add the Worcestershire sauce, dark soy sauce,
black pepper, and thyme, and stir through. Add the beef stock paste with about half a cup of water, and stir through. Let simmer for a few minutes.

Combine the flour with the final cup of (room-temp) water, and shake it together to create a smooth slurry. Add the slurry to the skillet, and stir it through, watching as it magically thickens the gravy. Add the peas and wait until the temperature returns to a gentle simmer, and then turn the heat to low and let it continue to simmer until the potatoes are ready.

In the meantime, preheat your oven to 200°C / 400°F, and have a 28x18cm (7x11") baking dish standing by (you don't need to grease the dish). It's also helpful to have a tray or pizza pan to put under the baking dish, because this recipe has a tendency for a bit of gravy to bubble up and escape the dish.

When the potatoes are ready (by which, I mean mashed and ready to go) it's assembly time: Spoon (or pour) the meat gravy into the bottom of the baking dish, and smooth it out evenly. Use a tablespoon to dollop small mounds of mashed potato evenly over the gravy, and then use a fork to spread the mounds together into a single surface. I like to leave the ridges from the fork tines showing, because it makes for crispy bits of topping once it's baked.

Place the casserole into the oven, and bake for 25 - 30 minutes, or until the ridges of potato are golden, and everything is satisfactorily bubbling. Depending on how thick your gravy is, you can serve with either a lifter-type spatula or a large serving spoon (or both, as you like).



This is quite a filling dish, so it quite easily serves six people, especially if you have a salad on the side. If the people you are serving are particularly ravenous, it would serve four.

It also reheats well! Be sure to poke some holes in the mashed potato topping for even heating, whether you're using a microwave or conventional oven.

Braised Jumbo Turkey Thigh

There are a lot of turkey thigh recipes out there, but most of them don’t envisage a single thigh that weighs over a kilogram. This is specifically for those big, huge, gigantic turkey thighs, and yields crispy skin, succulent meat, rich gravy. It takes a long time because it is rather dense meat with a big bone in the centre, and therefore benefits from a low-and-slow braising technique, finished with a higher-heat, skin-crisping. The slow braise allows the meat to cook very gently, but thoroughly, melting potential toughness into delicious, unctuous texture. The meat slices well, but also shreds very easily, making this recipe an excellent choice for pulled turkey applications - from sandwiches to salads to tacos, to meal prep bowls and more.

Braised Jumbo Turkey Thigh

Serves 4
Total Prep & Cooking time: 4 hours (mostly unattended)

1 jumbo turkey thigh (1 to 1.3 kg, bone in, skin on)
1/2 tablespoon canola oil or chicken fat
1 teaspoon kosher or coarse sea salt
2-3 celery stalks
2 bay leaves
1 medium onion, sliced lengthwise
1 clove garlic
300 - 400 mL turkey stock or broth
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3/4 cup cold water (or cold stock)

You will need a Dutch oven or similar pot with a tightly fitting lid for this dish. It should be big enough to allow you to add the turkey stock without covering the thigh. It should come up 1/3 to 1/2 way up the thigh.
The thigh must be fully thawed to start. Rinse the thigh and pat dry with paper towels. Discard the paper towels and place the thigh on a clean plate. Season the turkey with the salt on both sides. If you want to get fancy, you can add a tiny bit of ground sage or thyme or white pepper – or all of the above.

Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F.

On the stove top, heat the empty Dutch oven, and add the canola oil or chicken fat. Swirl to coat the bottom of the pan with the fat, and give the fat a moment get hot. Add the turkey thigh skin-side-down, and sear until golden brown, turning the thigh with tongs every few minutes to ensure the whole surface of the skin gets nicely golden. Next, remove the pan from the heat and transfer the turkey to a clean plate.

Place the celery stalks in a single layer in the bottom of the Dutch oven (I cut mine into halves to make them fit nicely). Lay the turkey thigh, skin-side-up, on top of the celery. Add the bay leaves, garlic, and onion slices around the sides of the turkey. The pan will still be hot, so be careful to avoid clouds of steam as you pour the turkey stock around the thigh, only coming 1/3 to 1/2 way up the thigh. Place the Dutch oven back on the heat, and bring the liquid up to a simmer. Turn the burner off, cover the Dutch oven, and place it in the preheated oven. Let the thigh cook for 2.5 hours, and then remove the lid and turn the heat up to 180°C/350°F and cook for 30 minutes more. Use this time to clean up every dish, tool, or surface that touched the raw turkey, and then have a nice relaxing beverage. You’ll still have plenty of time to prepare some vegetables or other side dishes, if you like.

Remove the Dutch oven from the oven, and place it on a stove top burner. Carefully lift the thigh from the braising liquid and place it on a clean plate for carving shortly. Cover loosely with foil if you think necessary, but don’t cover it too tightly or it will steam away the crispy skin. The meat will be much easier to slice once it has rested for twenty minutes or so.

Gravy: Remove the bay leaves and the limp celery stalks from the braising liquid. You can leave the onions, if they haven’t fully melted, and in fact you can use a fork or a potato masher right in the pot to quickly turn them into a tasty puree to further flavour and thicken the gravy. Turn the heat on under the pot and bring the liquid up to a simmer.

Make a slurry of the cold water (or stock) and flour, and shake/whisk vigorously until smooth. Add the slurry to the simmering braising liquid, stirring (or whisking) constantly, as it comes back to a boil. Reduce the heat and continue to let it simmer, lid off, stirring periodically, for twenty minutes to half an hour – just enough time to roast a tray of vegetables to go alongside your turkey. The gravy will thicken fairly quickly once the liquid comes back up to a boil, and will thicken further as it simmers. The simmering time is necessary to thoroughly cook the flour, which otherwise has a bit of a raw aftertaste. Taking the time to cook it through will make your gravy at least twice as good.

The finished gravy should be a light colour – more tan than brown, but if you want it darker, you can add a couple of drops of dark soy sauce (don’t go overboard: in this case, more is not better). It won’t make the gravy taste like soy sauce, but it adds a little extra flavour and deepens the gravy slightly.

As the gravy finishes its simmer, go ahead and carve the turkey thigh in the same direction as the bone. The meat should be very tender, almost falling apart (it makes excellent pulled turkey, of course). When you’ve carved all you can manage easily, turn the thigh over and grasp the bone. It should come mostly away from the meat on its own, but it may leave a bit of cartilage or sinew behind, but that can be easily cleared away with your impeccably clean fingers. Set aside the bone to make stock for the next time around. The remaining piece of meat can be turned skin-side up once more, and sliced further if necessary.

This thigh was 1.2 kg and, despite the big bone running down the centre, gave us three generously sized dinners-for-two, plus a big lunch for one: Roasted and sliced with gravy and vegetables on the first night, then Stuffing-Topped Turkey Skillet Dinner (which further yielded the (big) lunch), and finally, the last bit of meat was chopped up and made into a quick creamy pasta with turkey and sautéed zucchini.

Fiesta Tomato Soup

This is my take on tomato-rice soup, packing it with more vegetables, Mexican seasonings, and a couple of chile peppers for extra oomph, not to mention the added bonus of sinus-clearing properties. The name "Fiesta" comes from the finely diced colourful vegetables looking a bit like confetti. It's not actually a Mexican recipe, although it would probably work very well with a garnish of diced avocado and a squeeze of lime juice.

This is a moderately light soup, without any significant source of protein, but perfect for a light meal. If you wanted a slightly heartier version, I recommend adding a cup of cooked pinto beans. You could round out the meal with a toasted sandwich, but if you're wanting a lighter affair it's perfect with just a couple of crackers or hunk of bread (or tortilla) on the side.

You could add still more vegetables if you like - finely diced zucchini would be a good choice - and if you simply can't picture a vegetable soup without carrots, they'd be good here, too.

Fiesta Tomato Soup

Makes about 8 cups

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 medium yellow onion, finely diced
3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 stalks celery, finely diced
1 cup frozen corn kernels (or kernels cut from one fresh ear of corn)
1/2 bell pepper (red, orange, or yellow), diced
2 jalapeño peppers, seeded and finely diced
2 tablespoons dry vermouth
400 mL (1 1/2 cups) canned crushed tomatoes
500 mL (2 cups) vegetable stock or broth
500 mL (2 cups) water
1/2 teaspoon Tabasco sauce
100 grams (1/2 cup) parboiled rice, rinsed
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano (or marjoram)
1/2 teaspoon ground white pepper
parsley or cilantro (optional)

There's nothing surprising about the method here - standard soup-making business. In a large soup pot, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat, and add the bay leaves. Add the onion and celery, and cook, stirring periodically, for about five or ten minutes until they vegetables become translucent. Add the garlic and the corn, and stir through again. When it starts to stick to the bottom of the pan, add the vermouth and stir through again, scraping up any stuck bits. Right away you can add the crushed tomatoes, the cumin, oregano, and white pepper, and stir through.

Add the stock or broth and the water, and bring it up to a simmer. Stir in the bell pepper and jalapeño peppers. Taste the soup to see if you need to add any salt - I didn't add any, because my stock cube was quite salty, but add some if you think it needs it. The soup won't taste great yet, because it hasn't had time for the flavours to come together, so if it's a little thin at this point don't be disappointed.

Finally, add the well-rinsed rice. Parboiled is the best rice to use for this, because it doesn't turn to mush in longer cooking times. That characteristic makes parboiled rice a poor choice for congee, but an excellent choice for this soup, because the grains stay whole even after a spell in the freezer, if you make enough for leftovers. Stir the rice through, and turn the heat to low. Cook the soup for 15 minutes on the lowest setting, without lifting the lid, and then turn the heat off completely and leave it (still without lifting the lid) for another fifteen minutes. Don't worry, it's still going to be plenty hot. When the timer goes off, your soup is ready. Stir in a little parsley or cilantro, and start ladling it into bowls. The rice and the corn should be perfectly cooked but not mushy, and the soup will have thickened a bit.

If you're going to freeze the soup, cool it completely before putting in the fridge overnight, and then transfer to the freezer the next day.

Amethyst Perogies

Okay, this is kind of cheating, because it's not really a new recipe. I just wanted to share with you all the amazing thing that is these Amethyst perogies I made recently from purple potatoes from my local farmers' market.

The dough recipe that I used is essentially the same as for the Šaltinosiai, although made with warm water instead of cold, which coincidentally happens to be exactly the same as the pierogi dough recipe in my Polish cookbook. You could, of course, use whichever perogy dough you like (including this potato-dough recipe from my friend Sandi's family).

Once you have a good dough, you need to make the filling. Whole books have been written on the endless possibilities of fillings for perogies (not that you'd guess from Canada, where potato, onion, and cheese appear to reign supreme, with or without bacon).

These ones, of course, are potato. Specifically, they are a purple sort of potato varietal called "quartz" - probably from the veins of white that run through the potato in its raw state. Once cooked, however, the dark purple overwhelms the paler parts of the flesh for a consistent, deep violet colour. The ones for this recipe were steamed in their skins, which were peeled off after the potatoes had finished cooking and allowed to cool. You could use any purple potato, of course, but the colour will depend on both the type and any additional ingredients you use for the filling. To keep the filling as vivid as possible, I used red onions - sautéed in a little butter, and just a whisper of parmesan cheese. The ratios you will use is completely up to you, but think along the lines of fancy mashed potatoes or twice-baked potatoes.

Cook the fresh perogies in plenty of simmering water (salted, as you would for pasta) for about ten to twelve minutes, then use a slotted spoon or spider to transfer them to a hot skillet with melted butter (bacon and/or onions optional), and fry them until lightly coloured on each side. Serve plain or with sour cream. They look quite typical, before you cut them open!



Since this recipe actually made quite a few, I had a big dinner from them and then froze the rest. To freeze them, spread them out in a single layer on a cutting board, plate or baking sheet, if you can fit one in your freezer, and freeze for a few hours until hard. Then bag them up in thick freezer-bags, and store frozen until needed. To cook, add the frozen perogies directly into simmering water, and give them an extra few minutes of cooking time.