When it comes to a suggestion to eat out, especially to our little local-walk-to-it Tex-Mex Cafe, I am a push over. I’ll over through a meal I’ve fixed (not throw out just put on hold) and I’m ready to go. It’s not fancy but there’s one dish Gorn is assured to enjoy (Chicken Enchilada Verde) and I go wild for their Chicken Spinach Chili Relleno – grilled not fried. So we really enjoy the meal but it’s the walking there and back that somehow is the real beauty of the thing. One night we got caught in a thunderstorm and stood under the porch of the junior high. Some nights we’ve stopped to watch baseball practice at the middle school. We most always walk by a church community garden to see how things are growing. The bonus is we get four meals out of the deal as we always go home with half our dinner that becomes lunch the next day.  Perhaps the real bonus is actually the calories burned walking there and back.

The night I was going to serve these Lamb Breads and Lentil Salad, we went out to dinner. I baked two of the breads with no topping to serve with our glass of wine before dinner. We loved the flatbreads just plain.
Several nights later, I finally served everything as suggested in the book. The lamb was good, nothing spectacular just good. If I do it again: I’ll serve it as an appetizer and so make the breads much smaller. Instead of shallots, I might use Slow Cooker Caramelized Onions.
UPDATE: I stand corrected. I can’t really account for it but when I mixed up a fresh batch of this dough and served these leftovers, we thought the meal was excellent. Was it the fresher dough? I’m not sure but I lean more to: I made the breads smaller and I added several large shavings of cheese to the lamb. I wish I’d thought to add the mint when they came out of the oven.

Lamb & Tomato Breads ~ lachmunjau, lachma bi ujun
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Recipe Adapted from: FLatBreads & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas by Jeffery Alford & Naomi Duguid

Dough

1 cup water
1/2 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon yeast
1 cup bread flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 1/2 cups sprouted wheat whole wheat flour
3 tablespoons flax seed meal
7 basil leaves, chopped
Filling
1 teaspoon olive oil, for sauteing
1/2 cup shallot, use caramelized onions
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 pound lamb, ground (another fine example of not being able to read or maybe I can blame it on my cataracts)
10 plum tomatoes, chopped
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon, use more
1/8 teaspoon allspice, use more
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper

Directions:

1. DOUGH

2. Whisk together bread flour, yeast and salt.
Mix together honey, water and oil.
Mix the above together and then begin adding in the sprouted whole wheat until the dough is to thick to stir with the wooden spoon.

3. Turn the dough onto the counter, and knead in the remaining flour until a smooth elastic dough forms. Took less than 10 minutes and used about a cup and a quarter of the sprouted wheat flour.

4. Cover and let rise until double in size.
Took about 90 minutes.

5. Divide the into at least 12 balls.
Allow to rest 10 minutes.
Preheat oven to 450°

6. Flatten the dough balls with your hand and then roll them to about 4 inch rounds.
Place on baking sheet or semolina dusted bread peel if baking on a stone.

7. Top each disk with lamb or another topping, plain is good too.
Don’t go to the edge with topping.

8. Slide into oven onto pre-heated baking stone.
Bake at the 450° between 7 and 8 minutes.

9. LAMB FILLING

10. Saute shallots or use caramelized onions.
Saute the lamb.
Add tomatoes and cook until most of liquid has evaporated.

11. Add cinnamon, allspice, salt and pepper.
Set aside. I made this the day before and refrigerateed it.

Notes:

Mint with the lamb would be good.
Grilled chicken instead of lamb would be good.

Lentil & Sweet Pepper Salad
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Recipe By: FLatBreads & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas by Jeffery Alford & Naomi Duguid

1 cup Le Puy Lentils
3 cups water or broth
3 cloves garlic, cut in 1/2
1 red bell (capsicum) pepper, large dice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds, dry roast then finely ground
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper, ground with coriander & salt
1/4 cup cilantro
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 carrot, julienne cut

1. Cook lentils. Took about 45 minutes.

2. Whisk together the spices, oil and lemon juice.
When ready to serve mix lentils, carrot and red pepper with dressing.
Serve at room temp.

Notes:

I really enjoyed this even more by topping it with roasted beet salad.

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One of the great mysteries of life: sometimes things just fall apart, no known reason.  My little Canon just went blank, not exactly blank, it now shows sort of a test pattern of lines with a little leaf on it.  So … all these were taken with my phone ;(