Lamb Sliders with Date Sauce

Hey there.  Been a while!

The weeks leading up to the unofficial start of summer were hot 'round these parts.  I couldn't shake a desire for salad almost every day, meaning you folks didn't get as many posts.  Sorry 'bout that.

This one, though.  This one was worth the wait.  I'm very excited to share it with you.

Doc loves lamb.  Me, I could take it but I prefer to leave it.  Something about lamb is too greasy and strong for my tastes.  Burgers in general aren't my favorite, so when I made a second batch a few days later I made mine with falafel while using up the remaining lamb mix on his.  Either way, the sweet, barbecue-esque date sauce is the clincher, especially when paired with a few shakes of feta and some crisp, cool cucumber slices.  Alongside a glass of mint tea it was perfection.

What is it about tiny food, anyway?  Bite-sized is always better.

Lamb Sliders 

with Date Sauce

Total Time:  45-60 minutes to make the sauce (including cooling time), 20 to make the sliders, 5 to assemble.  Figure on 1.5 hours.

Weirdest Spice:  baharat.  Yes, it's substitutable.

Credit:  Spotted this one in Bon Appetit's May 2014 issue on page 20, in the RSVP section (where readers write in to ask for copycat recipes).  The original is found at Abigail Street in Cincinnati.  I've never been, but judging by their middle eastern menu and fabulous drinks list, I'm thinking there's no way I'll miss out on trying the Real Deal in person if the chance ever arises.

The Date Sauce
NOTE:  The recipe for this sauce as-is makes 3 times more than you're going to need for the sliders themselves.  So the first time you make this, please consider cutting the recipe in half or a third unless you think you're going to have a use for three cups of date sauce.  We've been using it on sandwiches at lunch time, but even so I'm going to end up freezing at least 2 cups' worth.  Just a word of warning for you.

Sauce Ingredients (full recipe makes apx. 3 cups of sauce):

• small splash olive oil
• 1/2 minced red onion 
• Tip:  mince the whole onion to save time, the other half will be used in the burger
• 1 cup tomato ketchup
• 1 cup pitted and chopped medjool dates
• Note:  this is equivalent to approximately 15-18 whole dates
• 1/2 cup pale lager, plus more for thinning the sauce (max one 12 oz. bottle)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Sauce Directions:

1. Heat a saucepan on medium heat.  When pan is hot, add a splash of olive oil.  When oil is shimmering, add the onions and a dash of salt.  Saute 5-8 minutes, until beginning to brown.
2. Add ketchup, chopped dates, and 1/2 cup of beer.  Mix.  Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, 20-25 minutes.  As needed, add small splashes of beer to prevent the sauce from thickening too much.  Aim to maintain a consistency like ketchup or just slightly thicker.
3. Remove from heat.
4. Add vinegar, stir, and set aside 10 minutes to cool.  
5. Place the sauce in a blender and puree until smooth.
6. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
7. Allow to cool in the fridge while assembling and cooking sliders.

The Sliders

Slider Ingredients (makes apx. 12 miniature burgers / serves 3-4 adults)

• 1/2 minced red onion
• 2 minced garlic cloves or 1.5 tsp garlic paste
• 1 lb. ground lamb
• 1/2 lb. ground beef
• Note:  try 2 cups of prepared, unseasoned/uncooked falafel mix in place of the meats for a vegetarian version
• 1/4 cup fresh parsley, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon baharat or other spice blend of your choice
• Note: see detailed instructions, below, for discussion and a how-to for making your own baharat
• salt and pepper to taste
• 12 slider buns or 6 pita bread rounds
• fresh spinach, feta cheese, thin cucumber slices, and other toppings of your choice for burger assembly
• other suggestions include asiago cheese, caramelized onions, and tomatoes

Slider Directions:

1. Mix the onion, meats, garlic, parsley, and spices together in a bowl until a cohesive ball is formed.
2. While a skillet is heating on medium-high, scoop out scant 1/4 cup portions of the lamb mixture to form small patties.  
3. Place patties on the hot skillet and turn the heat down to medium.
4. Cook 3-5 minutes per side, or until desired doneness / temperature is achieved
5. Can be served on toasted slider buns or warmed pita with a generous dollop of date sauce and your preferred toppings. 

I apologise for the weird, color saturated, poorly-lit picture above.  Would you believe I only got one photo of these when I did the first batch?  We had them on proper slider buns (hard to find, I spotted them by chance at Wegman's), but Doc just about stared a hole in them while I was setting up the shot so needless to say they didn't sit for long.  That was the Friday before Memorial Day.  The next morning we left early to go spend the weekend with my in-laws, who were regaled with stories of the sliders.  It wasn't until I made a second batch this week that I got some solid pictures, but by then we were out of slider buns and ended up using pita.  Which turned out even better, in my opinion.

Anyway, while these can seem time-consuming, the only part that's out of the ordinary is making your own date ketchup.  It's not hard, just takes a while for it to cook down.  You can do it ahead, the recipe says, by as much as 5 days.  So if you're whipping these up for a party or what have you, that'd probably be the way to go.

Let's get started!

The first step is to make the date sauce.  As I mention above, the recipe as-is makes more than 3 cups of sauce.  For 4 people's worth of sliders.  Either the cooks at Bon Appetit drown their burgers, or they just figured we'd all love the sauce so much that we'd want to use it on everything.  If you're not convinced you want to go that route, please do consider cutting the sauce recipe in half or in thirds.

You're going to need a 12 oz. bottle of plain light lager (any will do, though I'd avoid anything fruity).  I used Blue Moon's summer ale and found it perfect, as would be pretty much any other summer ale or pale ale.  Ketchup, pitted & chopped dates, minced red onion, and cider vinegar also make an appearance.

Be sure to clear out any pits completely or you're gonna be sad later when you flip the blender on.

First is to heat up a saucepan on medium heat.  When it's hot, add a splash of olive oil, followed by the minced onion.

Add a dash of salt (helps it cook faster) and stir it occasionally for 5-8 minutes, until it starts to brown up.

To that add your ketchup, 1/2 cup of the beer, and the dates.

Stir it all together and turn the heat down to low.

Let it simmer for about 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally.  You may also find that you want to add an additional splash of beer now and then to keep the consistency close-ish to that of ketchup.  In the end I didn't use the whole bottle, but it was definitely closer to empty than not.  Also, be sure not to answer the door at this point: if visitors see you with onion tears and an open bottle of beer in the middle of day they're bound to have questions.

(While the sauce cooked I took the meats out of the fridge to let them come up to room temp.  It's a little trick to help them cook more evenly.)

When the sauce is cooked and the dates are softened, add the cider vinegar and stir it in.

Take the pan off the heat and let it cool for about 10 minutes or so.  Then put it in the blender and puree until smooth.

When that's done, cover the sauce put it in the fridge until you're ready to use it.

To make the sliders (and really, there's no reason you can't do full-sized burgers if that's more your style, just FYI, though you'll have to adjust the cooking time), first assemble your ingredients:

Two things of note here.  As I mentioned in the quickie directions above, I think falafel mix is every bit as good as the meat (if not better because healthier).

The other thing is the spice.  The recipe calls for one tablespoon of baharat, which is a middle eastern all-purpose spice blend that differs from house to house.  If you don't have any on hand, you can either:
(1)   make a cup of it and store what you don't use for this recipe in an airtight container*;
(2)  eyeball it by using a generous pinch (1/16th of a teaspoon) each of ground coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, plus a generous dash (1/8th teaspoon) each of ground black pepper, cumin, nutmeg, and paprika; or,
(3)  use a similar spice mix of your choice, such as ras el hanout, tikka masala, tandoori masala, harissa blend, berber spice, cajun spice, or whatever spice blend you prefer with lamb.  Just watch out for added salt.

* I went with the first option, but I doubt too many folks have a spice grinder or the patience.  Go with what works best for you.  As I always say, we don't judge here.  The point of cooking isn't to show off how hard you work, it's to enjoy something you've created.

Okay, so get your meats, garlic, chopped parsley, onion, and spice together in a bowl:

Mix thoroughly until everything is incorporated.  I find using my hands works best.

Measure out 1/4 cup of the lamb mixture and form it into a patty.  I myself only measure the first one and then eyeball the rest, but it's up to you.  The original recipe claims you'll end up with 12 patties in the end.  I had 16, so clearly eyeballing wasn't completely accurate.

Heat up your skillet to medium-high.

When the skillet's hot, put the burgers on (don't crowd 'em) and cook for 3-5 minutes per side or until done to your preference.  Don't forget about safe food temps, please.

You can toast or warm your buns/pita if you'd like.  That's your call.  I toasted the buns quickly on a separate skillet, about 30 seconds per side.  The pita I placed in a 200(F) degree oven for about 10 minutes while the burgers cooked.

To assemble the burgers, place a generous dollop of the date sauce on each bun, along with the patty and any toppings you've selected.

I liked mine with spinach, feta, cucumber slices, and tomato.  The recipe in Bon Appetit recommends caramelized onions (which I skipped since both the sauce and the lamb mix contain onion).  The online menu from Abigail Street says they use goat cheese and mint pesto.  Doc preferred asiago cheese to feta.  Whatev, it's all pretty grand.

Japancakes, As You Wish

Pop quiz:  How is a pizza like a pancake?*

I'll give you a hint, they both also have something in common with a salad and with the recipe below.

Give up?

I'd claim that each of these are incredibly simple in their purest form, and yet are limited only by the cook's imagination.  Ricotta pancakes?  Sure, why not!  Mayonnaise pizza?  Surprising, perhaps, but not actually all that bad.  I've had weirder.

Okonomiyaki, what I call Japancake, is a similar kind of food.  The Japanese name tells you everything you need to know.  The okonomi (お好み) part means "as you like it," and yaki (焼き) - the same yaki in teriyaki, and yakisoba, by the by - tells you it's grilled.  I've also heard okonomiyaki called Japanese pizza or Japanese fritters.

Japancake is a grilled-to-order fast food that is deceptively comprised of more veggies than carbs.   They're often found in festival stalls, at least in my experience, and every here and there one can find them in restaurants, particularly in places like Osaka and Hiroshima.  My first experience of okonomiyaki was with some friends at a specialty restaurant where we simply picked what we wanted off the menu (not unlike picking pizza toppings) and then everything was brought to us raw, in a bowl, with the batter alongside.  Cooking your own dinner is kind of a thing there,  you see.  So I watched in fascination as my friends showed me how to mix it all up and slap it on the griddle, then cover it with mayonnaise (it's a very popular condiment), a kind of barbecue sauce, seaweed, and fish flakes.

If I had you up until the mayo and fish flakes, hang in there.  That's the joy of Japancakes: the whole point is they are made as you like them.  Hate mayo and fish?  Unsure about seaweed on junk food?  Leave them out!  It's your dinner, after all.

The base of a Japancake is usually the same.  It's a very runny basic batter over shredded cabbage.  Now, before you feel disappointed because you hate cabbage, let me ask you: what dishes are you thinking of that make you hate it?  If it's something with a strong smell or flavor like stuffed cabbage, kraut, or coleslaw that you're picturing, your problem might not be cabbage itself but rather the way it's made.  The cabbage in Japancakes is crisper and leafier, closer to a lettuce flavor, than in most dishes we're familiar with in the west.

But hey, here's the kicker.  Remember the okonomi part?  This dish is all about doing things your own way.  If cabbage isn't your thing, swap it out for some other shredded veggie.  I usually make mine a mix of half cabbage and half other fillings, as you'll see below.  Suit yourself!  Really!

A quick version of the recipe is at the bottom of the post, as usual.

Japancakes (Okonomiyaki)

Total Real Time:  20-30 minutes, tops, including vegetable shredding and pre-cooking meats.

Weirdest ingredient:  bonito flakes.


Like breakfast pancakes, these come together really fast once you have the ingredients gathered up.

Step one is to make your batter and let it sit to rest for a minute or two while you get your other bits together.  Now, in Japanese markets - or occasionally other Asian grocery stores here in the States - you can buy specialty okonomiyaki flour.  It's regular flour with things like grated yam, MSG, and sometimes fish flavorings in it.  Mine had expired (I make Japancakes maybe twice a year), so I tossed it and used whole wheat flour instead.  I can't honestly say I felt robbed of any particular experience.  If you buy okonomiyaki flour there will be instructions on the back for how much flour, egg, and liquid to use.  Since I went with whole wheat flour I'll give you my measurements.  If you use white flour, just scale back the liquid a bit since whole wheat flour is thirstier than white.

For three pancakes (which ended up being my dinner and two lunches) I used one-half cup of whole wheat flour with a generous pinch of salt, two eggs, and one-half cup of water.  If you have dashi (a kind fish stock) or vegetable stock on hand and want to use that, go ahead.  Just omit the salt.  Whisk all that up and put it aside.

As I mentioned above, you could go as simple as just cabbage, or you can get crazy.

I didn't actually use the yam.  That made it into the picture because in my exuberance I grabbed everything in my produce basket.  You could use a yam or potato, I suppose, though you'd want to cook it first.  The shrimp in the picture are precooked, deveined, and shelled.  Imagine that you're making a salad.  You don't want to put anything into a Japancake that you're not willing to eat raw, since it doesn't actually cook for all that long.

First I shredded the cabbage.  It was a small head to begin with, and I used maybe 1/5th or 1/6th of it.

If you don't want to use other veggies, then double up on the cabbage.  I also julienned up some summer squash:

And very, very finely shredded some carrot, red onion, and bell pepper:

All in all I probably had around 2-3 cups of filling.

Depending on what's in season, at other times I've also been known to add spinach, zucchini, sausage, avocado, corn, black beans, salmon, basil, sautéed mushrooms, salmon, beets, eggplant, artichoke, brussels sprouts, okra, kale, or scallions.  If it's a veggie, shred it super thin.  If it's a meat or tuber, cook it first.  Again, it's all up to you.

Speaking of cooking it first, I wanted some junk in my junkfood.  So I diced up a slice of bacon and fried that up:

I added that to the bowl with the veggies and shrimp, and then poured the batter on top.

Mix it all up, just enough to coat the veggies.  If you've got too much filling then whip up a little extra batter.  You're looking for enough to coat the veggies and make them stick together.

Then grab a big spoonful and plop it onto a skillet that's been heating on medium-high with a splash of oil.  Against my better judgement I used the oil left over from the bacon, but typically I'll use a tiny spritz of olive oil mixed with an even smaller spritz of sesame oil.  If you've got a really good nonstick pan you might not need oil at all.

What you're going for is a salad that's stuck together by the batter.  Press it down to be rather flat, since otherwise it'll be hard for the batter in the middle to get fully cooked.

About 5-10 minutes on a side should do it, until it's golden brown on both sides.

Now, the first time you try this I'd suggest leaving the toppings off altogether and just enjoying it for what it is.  But if you're willing to go whole-hog, what you'll want are Kewpie mayonnaise, okonomiyaki sauce, dried bonito flakes, seaweed, and red pickled ginger.  These can all usually be found in Japanese groceries and some Asian markets.  If you don't have them on hand, you could try regular mayo and possibly even jury-rig up some okonomiyaki sauce using 3 parts ketchup to 1 part worcestershire and 1 part soy sauce (e.g. 3 tsp ketchup, 1 tsp worcestershire,  1 tsp soy sauce).  Or heck, be creative.  One time I put sesame salad dressing on it.  This dish is your playground.  I give you permission to do as you please.

Everything but the mayo for me, please!  I love watching the bonito flakes "dance" in the steam from the Japancake.

*Trivia:  Although the Mad Hatter's riddle was originally written to have no answer at all, Carroll's answer to why a raven was like a writing desk was published in a later edition as follows:  "Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front!

Okonomiyaki Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup water plus a dash of salt, or stock without added salt  (NOTE: if using white flour, start with 1/4 cup of liquid and gradually add more until batter is runny but not watery)
• 2 eggs (can use any desired substitute)
• 2-3 cups shredded vegetables (recommended: at least 1 cup thinly shredded cabbage)
• 1/4 cup salad shrimp, deveined, cooked, and peeled
• 1 slice bacon, cubed and cooked
• other fillings as desired

Directions

1. Whisk together water, liquid, and eggs and set aside.
2. Separately cook any vegetables or meats that cannot be eaten raw and place together in a large mixing bowl with raw shredded vegetables.
3. Pour batter over fillings and stir to coat.
4. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet on medium-high.  Portion out 1/4 to 1/3 of the mixture into the skillet, forming a flat pancake.  Be careful not to pile the pancake too high or the middle will not cook properly.  Thinner is better.
5. Cook 5-10 minutes on a side, or until each side is golden brown and the pancake is cohesive.
6. If desired, top with okonomiyaki sauce, Kewpie mayonnaise, bonito flakes, seaweed, and/or red pickled ginger.  
7. Serve hot.  Pairs well with yakisoba.