Spiced Lamb Patties

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Monday morning was particularly hectic for us. My son and I had to be somewhere, and my husband was out in the garage changing a flat tire. I was searching my bag for my keys when I found the anniversary card I had picked up the day before. Ack. We'd been up for hours and neither of us had remembered that it was our wedding anniversary. I quickly wrote something momentous (I'm sure) in the card and handed it to my husband as I slipped into the car and drove off.

He made up for it with [link href="http://www.runningpresscooks.com/book.php?isbn=0762427477" link_updater_label="external" target="_blank"]this cookbook

(it's beautiful; go take a look). He had managed to find time during the day to buy me a gift, and it was just what I wanted (without knowing I wanted it). Called Starting with Ingredients, it is arranged into 100 chapters, each covering an ingredient or category of ingredients (i.e. greens, winter squashes). It's huge and happens to include chapters on the two puzzles I had in the fridge on Monday: lamb and blackberries. I hope to make cobbler with the blackberries. The lamb became dinner that night: these wonderful, rich spiced lamb patties.

I modified the recipe a bit to make these patties. They have to sit in the fridge for an hour before about 10 minutes of pan-frying, so plan accordingly. I used 1 pound of ground lamb, but first I mixed the other ingredients together in a big bowl: 1 egg, ¼ cup panko bread crumbs, 1½ teaspoons chopped mint, 1 minced garlic clove, about ¼ of a red onion, diced, ½ teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon each allspice, cinnamon and red pepper flakes. I added the ground lamb and combined with my hands, then formed the mixture into 4 flat, oblong patties. Set on a plate covered with plastic and put in the fridge for 1 hour. After an hour of chilling, I cooked them in a big skillet in canola oil until they were cooked through. Served with couscous mixed with olive oil, lemon, chickpeas and mint.

Below, another idea for ground lamb:

Zucchini Moussaka

Let's give this book a test. Do you have something on hand right now and you don't know what to make with it? What is it?Kim Walker

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