The unexpected rewards of culinary boredom: Moroccan Lamb Chops with Chickpeas

A Moroccan spice rub with cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cayenne pepper and other spices is used to flavor both pan grilled lamb chops and a side of chickpeas with golden raisins. Recipes below.

Boredom is underrated. To me, it’s often a critical part of the creative process. When I’m cooking for Blue Kitchen posts, I’m always actively looking for new ingredients, techniques and ideas—or at least new to me. But when I’m just cooking to get something on the table for a weeknight dinner, I can fall into a rut, cooking reliable favorites over and over.

Such was the case when I grabbed a couple of lamb shoulder chops at the supermarket recently. These flavorful, cheap cuts of lamb see lots of action at our house. I was planning the next night’s dinner and went through the current kitchen inventory in my head. We had potatoes and lettuce at home, so the lamb was all I needed. I would pan grill the chops after tenderizing them with kosher salt, the way I almost always do. And I would serve them with garlicky mashed potatoes and a salad. The way I almost always do. But then boredom kicked in. Continue reading “The unexpected rewards of culinary boredom: Moroccan Lamb Chops with Chickpeas”

Moroccan Spice Rub brings big flavor to spring leg of lamb—or chicken, or beef, or pork…

A rub of fragrant spices and herbs—including cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon and saffron—creates a crust of exotic Moroccan flavor on a roast leg of American lamb. The versatile Moroccan spice rub can be used with other meats and cooking methods too. Recipe below.

moroccan_leg-of_lamb

[su_dropcap style=”flat”]L[/su_dropcap]et’s do a little word association. If I say “leg of lamb,” you say… “What, lamb again?” Okay, fair enough—I have been cooking a lot of lamb here lately. But the answer I was looking for was “garlic and rosemary.” When we came into possession of the handsome, hefty [over seven pounds] leg of lamb above, my first thought was the nearly universal default cooking approach: Jam lots of garlic slivers into it, cover it with rosemary and roast it. There’s a good reason that’s a popular go-to recipe—it’s absolutely delicious.

But then I thought it was time to try something different. And for no reason I can explain, a Moroccan spice rub occurred to me.

Traditional Moroccan cuisine is one of the most diverse in the world. Morocco sits on the northern edge of the African continent, a mere eight miles across the Straits of Gibraltar from Europe at its closest point. So its cooking is flavored by Berber, Spanish, Corsican, Portuguese, Moorish, Middle Eastern, Mediterranean and African cuisines. Continue reading “Moroccan Spice Rub brings big flavor to spring leg of lamb—or chicken, or beef, or pork…”