Lamb Balls

So here in bd broil's household we have been cooking less with a baby in the house and also a smaller percentage of new dishes are being added to our rotation. My goal this year is to cook things I haven't cooked or cook using methods I have not. As the cousin of the famous Honeycrisp, I felt it was only right to put it out there somewhere. This is the ideal somewhere. I'm going to try to cook different food or differently about once a week, if it doesn't happen the world will not implode and I will not start over not will I starve.

Tonight I made three components of the meal. Lamb meat balls from the meatball shop cookbook with a spinach-basil pesto sauce. And a vegetable bake with eggplant and zucchini.

Veggies: I sliced and place eggplant in a pan and covered with zucchini and rings of onions. Then I covered it all in oregano, onion power, salt, pepper, and a can of crushed tomatoes. Covered and baked for 40 min. It was good enough.

Pesto: I worked off a recipe but didn't stick to any of the measurements. Mrs. Broil's would be so proud. She always makes fun of me for measuring. This was basically spinach and basil in a 2-1 ratio in a food processor with walnuts, salt, olive oil, and parm cheese. 2 things I learned, toasting the walnuts keeps them crunchy and was completely worth it while blanching the greens, ice bath, and draining them is annoying and I'm not sure what it brings to the flavor/texture.

The lamb balls were the star. Daniel Holzman and Michael Chernow opened the meatball shop in NYC and its awesome. For the holidays, my sister got me their cookbook.

Mediterranean Lamb Balls

2Tbsp olive oil
2lbs ground lamb(I was lucky enough to have the butcher grind it for me this afternoon)
3 eggs
1c dark raisins, chopped
1/2c chopped walnuts
1/2c chopped parsley
1/2c chopped mint
1/2c bread crumbs
2tsp salt
1tsp black pepper

Glaze a baking dish in the olive oil. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl by hand. Roll about 2 dozen golf ball sized balls and place the balls in the dish tightly packed together in rows roast them for about 20 min at 450*f.

The were perfect. Tender. Sweet. Juicy. And slightly browned and crunchy on the outside. The pesto helped to balance out the sweetness.

I've never cooked with lamb until today. Honeycrisp told me it'd be easy and she was right. Mrs Broils doesn't like lamb but really liked these. There are a lot of things she says she doesn't like, I wonder what else I can get her to start eating.