One way to make lamb cigars can be found here. Yesterday, we went all wild with fresh ingredients and I made a more tomato-y variety which I’m recording here for the benefits of the eaters present (and anyone else).
The assets:
Medium-coarsely ground lamb with a healthy but not ridiculous amount of fat to serve four.
2-3 fresh, ripe, large tomatoes right off the vine, finely diced.
And…One large-ish diced onion, about 2 tablespoons finely chopped fresh spearmint, a sprig of fresh rosemary, one bay leaf, a teaspoon ground cumin, half a teaspoon mild paprika powder, the tiniest trace of ground cinnamon, freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste, 2 medium cloves finely chopped garlic, good olive oil, dry white wine, a dash of fresh cream.
The sauce: chopped onions, slowly sauteed in (quite) a few tablespoons olive oil in a large skillet with the whole rosemary and the bay leaf. After some softening and yellowing (min. 10 minutes; the slower/longer the merrier), add all the chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper and bubble on, on medium heat, while you prepare the lamb.
The lamb: in a bowl, thoroughly mix ground lamb, mint, cumin, paprika, cinnamon and more pepper and salt. When the tomato sauce has bubbled for about ten minutes, 3-inch cigar-shaped meatballs are made and placed in the sauce one-by one. (more…)
