I love Jamie Oliver for so many reasons. I idolize his nonchalant cooking style and his recipes, which are bold and flavorful and designed for local, seasonal ingredients.  Beyond his amazing skills in the kitchen, he is also a social entrepreneur and food activist. He trains young adults from under-resourced areas to become the next generation of chefs at his restaurant Fifteen.  He also has been a leading advocate for change in the British school food program. (read his manifesto to learn more).

I’ll get of my political high horse and return to the task at hand – Jamie Oliver’s A-M-A-Z-I-N-G recipes. My boyfriend Brian and I received Cook with Jamie as a gift from our friends Annie and Seth, who decided we needed to own this book based upon their own experience with the recipe for Mad Moroccan Lamb. At the time we were living in a spacious apartment of 200sq. feet (yes, including the bathroom), and we just couldn’t do this dish on our hotplate. And so it was still packed away in our moving boxes until a few weeks ago, when I decided I would prepare it for Brian’s birthday – a romantic night for two.

This is not a hard recipe per se – there are just a lot of moving parts in this dish that liken preparing it to the feeling of running a marathon (but what a victory dish at the finish!) The first step for me was to go to the Union Square greenmarket and pick out a lamb shoulder and the other necessary ingredients. Unfortunately, I could not find one with the bone in, but “the lamb woman”, our purveyor from upstate, swore that the 4lb. hunk of lamb we walked away with would do the trick.

And so, four hours before dinner was to be served, I prepared the lamb for it’s first two hours in the oven. The hardest part of this endeavor was grinding the terrific amount of spices with our rather flimsy mortar and pestle. The fennel seeds in particular were quite tough.

A while later, I set to work on the chickpeas, which were not complicated at all and required me to use fresh marjoram for the first time ever, which is a savory-smelling herb that looks like something M.C. Escher might draw. The ingredient that makes this part of the dish really sing is the balsamic vinegar.

When the lamb comes out for the first time, it’s time to combine everything together. I got out Brian’s birthday present, a new 8 qt. Dutch oven, and covered the bottom with the chickpeas, placing the lamb on top in the center of the oven. Next, I covered the whole thing with the couscous, add some lemon halves, and it was back in the oven once again.

What came out of the oven was amazing. As Jamie recommended, I cracked open the top part for my one man audience and started shredding the lamb with a fork and my knife, which really didn’t take much effort because the meat was practically melting on its own. I topped it with a generous bunch of cilantro and a big dollop of farmers’ market yoghurt. 

We dug in and it was totally amazing. It’s called “Mad” for a reason – the flavors are crazy – the sweet of the dried fruits, the melting lamb mingling with the vinegar from the chickpeas and the cilantros and lemon giving just  hint of spice and freshness. There are only two things I would do differently next time:

1. while I loved the steaming, concentrated “jammy” lemons, the lemon skins baking on top of the couscous left a horribly bitter taste right below. I’m not sure what caused this, but I might try zesting the lemons first next time. 
2. This dish could easily feed 8 people and it was just funny how much was left after. Brian fed his whole office the next day with the leftovers. If you make this dish and you don’t have a lot of family living with you, INVITE PEOPLE OVER!

From: Cook with Jamie: My Guide to Making You a Better CookIngredients

4 1/2 pound shoulder of lamb, preferably free-range organic (it just tastes better)

2 tsp. cumin seeds

2 tsp. coriander seeds

2 tsp. fennel seeds

2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

2 tsp. dried red chilies

2 tsp. sea salt

2-3 sprigs of rosemary

For the Chickpeas:
olive oil

4 medium-size red onions, peeled and sliced

1 cinnamon stick

a bunch of fresh marjoram or thyme, leaves picked and chopped

sea salt freshly ground pepper

2 14-oz. cans good-quality chickpeas

1 c. good balsamic vinegar

For the Couscous:
2 pints vegetable stock

9 oz chopped raisins, dates, sour cherries, cranberries, or apricots (or a mix of)

1lb and 9oz couscous

2 lemons, halved (and this blogger suggests zesting them first)

For Serving:
1 pint plain yogurt

a big handful of fresh cilantro leaves

1 fresh red chilli, deseeded and finely sliced

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Score lamb in criss-crosses about 1 inch apart. In a grinder or mortar & pestle, smash spices and salt until you have a good mix. Rub spices all over meat and push rosemary sprigs into the flesh. Put lamb in a roasting pan and place in oven to cook for 2 hours.

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan and fry onions, cinnamon and marjoram or thyme with a pinch of salt and pepper until soft, about 15 minutes. Add 3 cups of water and 1 c. of vinegar to the onions. Simmer on medium until it thickens, add chickpeas and remove from stove. 

Bring stock to a boil in a large pan and add dried fruit. Simmer slowly for about 5 minutes, by which time the fruit will have plumped up a lot. Turn off heat, add a good pour of olive oil and couscous, stir quickly and then cover to let couscous soak up the liquid. When there is no liquid left (after about 10 minutes) drizzle with more olive oil and place out on a flat tray.

When lamb is golden and roasted, turn the heat down to about 400 degrees. Take lamb out of the roasting pan, pour away fat, and set aside. Add a little water to the roasting pan and place it over low heat and scrape any sticky bits off the bottom. Turn off heat.

Get a large pot (at least 4-5 inch high sides) and rub the bottom and sides with olive oil. Sprinkle about 1 inch of couscous on the bottom and more around the sides, pushing it with a spatula helps it to stick to the sides. Spoon chickpea mix into the middle (making sure to remove cinnamon stick), put lamb on top, pour the pan juices over it, and completely cover with the rest of the couscous. Put lemon quarters around the sides of the pan on top of the couscous. Cover with moist wax paper and then aluminum foil, then put it in the oven for another hour. Remove from oven and use a knife or fork to pull some of the couscous away – the meat should pull away from the bone. Let stand.

To Serve: Bring the entire pot to the table, add a squeeze from the cooked lemon and dollop on the yogurt. Sprinkle with cilantro, mint, and sliced red pepper.