You don’t eat no meat?!?!? It’s okay, I make lamb!

Every time I watch My Big Fat Greek Wedding it totally cracks me up.  For those of you that haven’t seen it please give it a watch because the title of this post will then make total sense to you and the movie is just hilarious in general.  For those of you that have seen My Big Fat Greek Wedding what I can tell you is that apparently Greek and Middle Eastern people are very much alike, trust me they are, I lived it people! However this isn’t a movie review so back to the star of the post, lamb!

I love lamb, my hubby loves lamb, no one in my intermediate family loves lamb.  What gives?  I mean we’re Middle Eastern, how do you not love lamb?  When inquiring with my parents why they don’t love lamb they each have different reasons.  My mom says back in the old country (Syria) they left large tails on lambs and all the fat and other flavors got caught in the tail (umm aren’t those are all the best parts?).  My dad claims they didn’t eat much lamb in Egypt, apparently that wasn’t the protein of choice.  My sister says it’s too gamey, but remember she won’t eat truffles or goat cheese so I’m not buying her story either (sorry Jamie)!  All these explanations have left me perplexed and wondering how I fell so far from the tree, the lamb tree that is.

There really isn’t a lamb dish I’ve tried that I didn’t love.  I pull out my rack of lamb recipe when I want to make a special meal or to impress company.  I’ve seared lamb chops on a grill after marinating them in an olive oil, mint, parsley, and lemon concoction overnight.  I’ve cooked lamb in a tomato based stew in the wintertime when I’m looking for something warm and comforting.  There are so many ways to prepare this lovely meat.  I really never get tired of trying different recipes, but I must say my go-to is the lamb meatball.  I keep the additions simple so the flavor of the lamb really shines through, which to me is the most wonderful thing about it.  Also the recipe comes together relatively quickly so it’s a good weeknight meal that’s looks like you slaved in the kitchen all day, but you actually didn’t – bonus points!  Now without further ado onto the lamb balls.  

Ingredients:

1 pound of ground lamb (I buy mine from Sprouts.  Most grocery stores stock lamb, but if not ask your butcher if they can special order some)

1/4 cup of chopped Italian parsley

1-2 teaspoons of minced garlic (more or less depending on your preference)

1/2 cup of panko bread crumbs

3 green onions chopped

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (I know it sounds weird but it comes together really well…if you’re not adventurous you can leave this out.  I’ve made it without and it’s still delicious)

1 egg beaten

Salt and Pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 and generously grease a cookie or pan sheet with olive oil.  Place ground lamb in a bowl and add all ingredients.  Mix until everything is incorporated, but don’t over mix as you don’t want to toughen the meat.  Roll into balls of equal size and place on the pan.  Put pan in the oven and cook for 20-25 minutes.  Check at the 20 minute mark to see if the balls are browning.  Lamb doesn’t have to be cooked well done so watch your time to see if they need to come out a little earlier than 25 minutes.  The cooking time is really dependent on the size of the balls.  For this particular recipe I rolled out 15 and it took 23 minutes to bake.

Wine to pair?  Okay, okay I’m not going to say Pinot Noir even though I’m thinking it and it’s killing me not to (do with that information what you will).  A great pairing, in my opinion, is a Chateauneuf du Pape, which is a red wine from Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in southeastern France.   The hubs and I visited this part of France years ago and I remember having a lamb dish with this wine and it was just spot on!  Chateauneuf is widely available these days but if you’re having a hard time finding this bottle another good option would be a Grenache, which is a bit on the lighter side but could pair well with this dish due to its simplicity.  So try out the recipe and pop a bottle open to enjoy with these delicious little morsels.  Cheers Friends!