• #1
• Comment by parshu.narayanan

It looks awesome. What I find interesting is that the spices are very Indian - if we added red chillies, coriader and fresh ginger it would taste remarkably Indian - also most of those spices grow here in India (except the chilkosas and almonds) but I dont know if they do in Arabia. Maybe ancient trade routes plied by Arabian Sindbads made them part of traditional Arab cuisines

• #3
• Comment by STEVE

My arab friend and I actually made this last Thanksgiving for a pot luck. He actually cooked it in the crock pot. He explained his mother and grandmother would cook it in a dutch oven for days. It kept and travelled well. As it was on a buffet we served it with Pita bread. It was awesome. EVERYONE wanted the recipe

• #4
• Comment by keshiana

Do you have any recipes for vegetarians?

• #5
• Comment by Niall

I made this over Christmas and it was absolutely fantastic. The flavours all combined magnificently and it was much appreciated. Trouble was, I was exhausted by the end!Just a few things though to clarify - I had to make up the garlic yoghurt bit. I simply added 7 crushed cloves to the two cups of natural yoghurt at the start and left it in the fridge for 3 hours to infuse. It was fantastic. Similarly with the lemon juice and garlic, except I only used 3 cloves. I was trying to balance the 10 cloves of garlic between the lemon juice and yoghurt, but I think the yoghurt was slightly too garlicy and I'd reduce it to 5 cloves maybe if I had the stamina to make this again.Also, I'd emphasise that the lamb should be boiled for one hour OR until soft. Because I was working around the Christmas television, I had allowed only one hour for my lamb shanks. The lamb in the end was lovely and flavoursome but still quite tough and might have benefited from a little longer in the pan.Finally, I'd make sure you get your timings right. I thought it would be ok to cook the lamb, then work on the mince and rice at the same time. Unfortunately the lamb was then slightly cold. I'd keep it cooking until the last possible moment so you can use the stock for the rice. Or even keep it cooking to the end and use regular water and a stock cube.But despite what I said above, the meal was still absolutely delicious and I'd heartily recommend it if you have the endurance to see it through. Preparing the spice mixes, yoghurt and lemon beforehand certainly helped. Also, the cardamom wasn't in the recipe but was in the list of ingredients (and I had gone to every shop in Dublin looking for it!) so I added it to the lamb.Hopefully anyone who's reading and thinking of this recipe would have the bravery to give it a go. And hopefully you can avoid my teething problems! Thanks for the recipe!

• #7
• Comment by cadelinha

Congratulations! Lamb ossobucco is fantastic. I tried to cook it at Casa Velha, Tavira, Portugal. We have, in the South, tradicional dishes of arab origin but.... a little less elaborated.

• #9
• Comment by Walter Aprile

If I may pick one really minor nit, it would be "ossobuco", not "ossobucco".  I know that the spelling with two Cs has managed to install itself into the English language as an alternate spelling, I have seen people use it frequently in the US.
At the same time, I know that you like to be philological at times, so perhaps you may want to correct this...

• #11
• Comment by Mrs. A.A

OMG! I tried this recipe last night for dinner and it is absolutely delicious! The combination is amazing and the garlic with lemon sauce on the crunchy bread made it wonderful. We loved it, however this dish raised the bar for me.. so I need to either cook it again or perfect another mouth-watering dish :)

• #13
• Comment by michael williams

This is sounds like a great recipe!

Can you give an advice about which wine to have with this couscous?

Michael Williams

• #15
• Comment by Lisa Marie  

This is the dah bomb. Thank you FX!!!!!

I was astounded at how easy it was for me to make, in a tiny kitchen.
If you have all your ingredients prepared ahead of time (mis en place)
this recipe is a breeze to make.

Some tips:

Cardamon is listed as an ingredient, but you don't know which meat to add it too.
I added it to both, and it was very pleasant.

Used fresh spices. Do not skimp on this part. I am very lucky to live in Vancouver, BC which has an excellent Indian Market, boasting of delicious fresh spices.
It really made the difference with regard to flavour.

I used lamb sirloin steaks and it turned out well. I used some reserved fat from the frying off to toast the pine nuts and almonds. It really enhanced the flavour. The lamb was so tender it was falling off the bones. Once it cooled, I ripped it apart with two forks. Reserve the stock for the rice as I tried it both ways (plain H20 and lamb stock). The lamb stock is superior flavour. To me, cooking rice in water was like adding water to tea (forgive the analogy).

If timing is a problem, I kept my lamb warm in the oven moistened with a bit of lamb broth and covered with tin foil. It did not dry out.

I cheated and used tzakizi dip for the yoghurt part.

• #17
• Comment by chris

Umm...how much ground beef to use? You never said in the ingredient list...

• #18
• Comment by Lisa Marie

if you have time, simmer the stock in a slow cooker overnight. amazing flavor comes out from the slow, long simmering. I used 1.5 lbs of ground beef for this.

• #20
• Comment by Lisa Marie

FX's answer→ Lisa Marie, most cookbooks recommend not oversimmering stock if my memory serves me right. Do you have a clear liquid at the end or do all sort of substances that live in the bones louche the stock?

Lisa's Answer-if you put it in a slow cooker, it steams the meat, rather than simmer's it. You need to strain and skim the stock repeatedly, or it will get cloudy. I have this device that separates the liquid from the fat/bones, and the slow sitting spigot allows the strained liquid to be poured away from the fat/bones. I am more of a flavour person, so the rice was slightly dark, but very flavorful.

• #21
• Comment by Randy L Brooks

This recipe looks great but I do not see and measurement for the spices, etc.  I am a novice cooker (male) and used to be a chemist.  I need to know 1/2 1/4 ,etc measurments

• #22
• Comment by malik

The Book - The Arab Table, Good buy and we all die of cardiac arrest a year later. Thanks.