Sous-Vide Ethiopian Lambstrami

Spicy Ethiopian Lambstrami? What makes this dish Ethiopian are the traditional spices I am using namely Berbere. Berbere is a highly seasoned exotic spice blend that contains Korarima, Rue, Ajwain and Nigella and Fenugreek to name a few. These are just some of the ingredients. There are plenty more spices and ingredients that go into making authentic Berbere. I purchased the spice from Zamouri Spices. The ratings were above average so I gave them a try.  

You might be asking your self by now what is Lambstrami? Lambstrami is my made up name for a Lamb that is cured, smoked than tenderized using Sous-Vide. Pastrami is traditionally made from Beef but anything can be turned into a Pastrami and Pastrami just means cured meat. 

I purchased my boneless leg of lamb from Costco. Costco carries this all the time and it's so convenient to have an idea pop into your head and have access to costco to buy what you want. The Lambs weighs 5.27 lbs or 2390.43 grams. I like using grams when calculating recipes because of the minute calculations that are required when using cures. 

Here is a picture of the lamb with the netting removed. 

Now butterflied opened with lots of slits in it to make sure spices and cures get deep into the meat. 

I've been thinking about using Berbere for several months now and could not come up with a recipe that would be great.....until now....I hope. 

I first combined salt and cure and rubbed it into every nook and cranny of the meat. I then mixed the sugar with the Berbere and did the same thing.

All vacuumed sealed and here it will lie for 8-12 days to cure. After the curing process is complete I will rinse off the meat and figure out a way to shape it into something that I can smoke. I am going to use Transglutaminase Activa RM to bind the meat together. I want the Lamb when folded together to become one solid muscle. 
Transglutaminase, also called meat glue, is an enzyme that can be used to bind proteins to make uniform portions of fish filet, tenderloins, etc. that cook evenly, look good and reduce waste. Transglutaminase can also be used for creative applications in modernist cuisine such as making shrimp noodles, binding chicken skin to scallops or even making checkerboards with different types of fish.  How can you do such a thing? Simply apply some transglutaminase on each side of the protein to bind, press the sides together and let it rest refrigerated for a few hours

Transglutaminase ‘meat glue’ was introduced into the modernist kitchen by Heston Blumenthal and is currently being used by some of the world best chefs such as Wylie Dufresne to:- Make uniform portions of fish filet, tenderloins, etc that cook evenly, look good, and reduce waste.

After I create one solid piece of muscle using some crazy folding techniques the Activa will take a full 24 hours to bond the proteins together. Everytime I fold one of these they all come out different. Each leg is unique.

Cured and rinsed and
trying to figure out how to disassemble the Lamb so I can reassemble to form one piece.

As you can tell from the picture I cut a section off of the lamb and sliced it into long sections. I will reassemble this into one large muscle. 
 

I am going to use Transglutaminase Activa RM to bind the meat together. That's the powdery stuff you see in the picture. I want the Lamb when folded together to become one solid muscle. 

I think I did it.....

Using several layers of plastic wrap I tightly sealed and rolled the Lamb into a cylinder. It will take 24-36 hours to become one solid piece of meat. 


After the bonding takes place I will apply the Berbere and a little Muscovado sugar to the lamb. This will be the outer coating of the meat. As you can see from the picture the meat has become one solid piece.

Next step..........

• Apply Spices and sugar and Cold Smoke
• Semi-Hot-Smoke at about 150-170 degrees for a couple of hours
• Sous-Vide at 142 degrees for 12 hours. 
• Another thin
  layer of spices
• Semi-Hot-Smoke to create a better bark. 
• Slice very thin

Spices applied. I cold smoked the lamb using apple pellets for 5 hours and hot smoked 150-155 degrees using apple also for 2 hours. I used several quarts of ice and water above the coals and wood to keep temp down. I did not want the internal temp of the meat to rise above 140 degrees. As you can see it came out perfect. 

The Temp out side was about 68 degrees. I used Apple pellets and the A-MAXE-N-PELLET-SMOKER.   I filled the water reservoir up with a bucket of ice and water. I used old fashion charcoal and apple wood to smoke the meat and of course using my Smokey Mountain Cooker makes it easy. Temp fluctuated between 150-155 degrees. After 2 hours I pulled the meat off. Now getting it ready for 12 hour water bath.  

Sealed and ready for the 12 hour water bath. 

Submerged for 12 hours. The results are on the right. After 12 hours had passed I submerged the lamb into an ice bath to cool it off. Last step will be to Hot-Smoke under 200 degrees and form Bark/Coating. I will apply the Berbere, Sugar and Grains of paradise for texture. Will Hot smoke for 2 hours. After this step it will be ready for slicing and eating. 

After its long 12 hour bath its ready for the additional spices. So lets recap a bit. After its long 12 hour bath I gave it a 3 hour ice bath than refrigerated it for 24 hours. I wanted it ice cold before putting it back on the Smoker. 

Grains of Paradise, Muscovado sugar and the Ethiopian spice all in place. 

A two cook at 155-175 degrees using Apple wood. Again I used an ice basket below to keep temp down.

All done and ready for the slicer. Note: the additional cooking was to create a nice bark. Was it really necessary? no not really unless like me you want a bark.

A thing of beauty!!!!!!

SEE REVIEW BELOW...

My babies close up!!!!

Final thoughts: One word AMAZING!! One of the most tasteful unique foods I have ever made. I will not change a thing. Every step was perfect!!! The texture, the taste was to die for. Flavors not too pronounced or muted by the long Sous-vide process. 

To recap all the steps to pull this off:

• Buy Lamb
• Prepare Lamb and get spices and herbs in order.
• Vacuum Seal and cure
• Rinse
• Fold and shape into desired shape
• 36 hour rest in cooler
• Apply Spices and sugar and Cold Smoke for 4-5 hours
• Semi-Hot-Smoke at about 150-170 degrees for a couple of hours
• Sous-Vide at 142 degrees for 12 hours. 
• Ice bath for 3 hours
• Refrigerate at least 24 hours
• Apply another thin
  layer of spices
• Semi-Hot-Smoke to create a better bark. 
• Slice very thin

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Southwest Ribeye Sous-Vide

It was Cinco de Mayo and I was hungry for meat. I decided on Boneless Black Angus steaks for dinner. I purchased 3 very large steaks for the family which were over 2 inches thick and exceeded 4 lbs. These babies were big. I first dry brined the steaks for a short while but I wish I had more time for the salt to penetrate deep. You see I had gotten off work at 2 pm and was rushed for time to do this correctly. My goal was too dry brine the steaks and cook them Sous-Vide. Again I wish I had more time.

I  decided to keep this recipe simple so I added traditional ingredients. In addition to salt and pepper I added, Cumin, Thyme, Hatch Chili and Chipotle chilies. Normally I would add some garlic and onion but I knew I was making a Chimichurri sauce to accompany the steak which has a lot of garlic or at least mine does.

All Vacuumed sealed everything up and refrigerated the meat until ready for the water immersion. I added butter because I thought this would help distribute the flavors of the other ingredients but I have read that this is not all that helpful. I am going to try this again without the butter. I just chopped up the Chilies and added them to the bag.  

Machine set and Food submerged.

So while the food was cooking I made the Chimichurri sauce. This sauce is so simple to make and changes every time I make it. In a large food processor I combined 2 large handfuls of Cilantro, 4-5 green scallions, one large Tomatillos, roasted Jalapeno, zest and juice of a Lime, salt, pepper, cumin, Mexican Oregano, fresh garlic and finished it with olive oil. Had I thought of it I would have added avocado for texture. Basically add whatever you want to it and make it yours. Make a red one and add tomato products. 

After three hours the steaks were done but could have used another 2 hours to tenderize. I ran out of time because of my schedule. 

As you can see there is no browning or Maillard reaction. This is one of the limitations to the Sous-Vide method of cooking but easily rectified by using a torch, skillet or grill. It only takes a minute or two. One of the most important steps prior to browning the meat is to dry them off otherwise it will not brown. 

These are pics of my masterpiece. Did it come out perfect? Nope!!! 

• They needed to dry-brine a whole lot longer.
• Cooked for 3 but needed 5-6 hours.
• I needed more time in my schedule.
• Next time no butter.
• More Hatch chilies!!!!!

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Harissa of Shefele Sous-Vide

Harissa of Shefelle is an original recipe and concept based on a need and desire to eat Deli style sliced Lamb (Shefele is Yiddish). Growing up in NYC and now in Seattle I have never come across Deli-Style-Sliced-Lamb anywhere. The Consumption of Lamb in the US is very very low compared to to other parts of the world. I am making a concerted effort to eat it at least once every other month. The problem is finding great Lamb. There is also many health benefits to eating Lamb.....just Google them.  

The thoughts behind this new recipe stems from my young childhood. I grew up in NYC eating a lot of Treif. My parents were not observant and I did not know any better. It was not until I was older that I started to come back to my Jewish Roots/Faith and eliminate Treif from my diet. Now that being said I did not give up UN-Kosher foods because they tasted bad but because of my new found faith in G-D. What I do remember about Treif was that it tasted great. Growing up in NYC I ate at all the big deli's from Jewish to Italian and there were plenty of Deli's to choose from too and a plethora different kinds of Deli style meats. I loved all those meats. If you ever had a craving for Cold-Cuts (slang for Deli style meats) NYC was the premiere place to spend some time to satisfy your cravings. 

I have spent a great deal of of time replicating Delicatessen and Charcuterie because of my yearning for Cured meats. You will find that most cured meats are made from Pork and that is a NO NO for an observant Jewish man. So I am attempting to mirror those Un-Kosher cured meats with permissible cuts. This particular recipe is reminiscent of Hot Gabagoul I ate as a child. Hot Gabagoul is of course a cured meat and this lamb Dish is not. I wanted to try it this recipe first without being  dry-cured but just cooked.

First of all what is Harissa? Harissa is a hot chili paste!!! And their are many innovative  recipes that have their own twist on Harissa. I have read that it was created in Tunisian (North Africa) and from their branched out all over Africa, the middle east and all the way to Europe. Here is a great article detailing some history about Harissa and the North African Jewish people.  I chose this specific Harissa because of the positive reviews it received. My next project will be to make my own. Again their are many variations to this hot chili condiment. What drew me to this particular variation was the inclusion of Sumac to the ingredient list. 

I kept it easy and purchased a boneless leg of lamb at Costco.  

This is a beautiful leg of lamb. looking at the package it had the right shape I was looking for.

I opened up the lamb and cut away some of the thick fat. 


I made additional cuts in it so it would take on more of Harissa paste. I made a Harissa paste by combining the Harissa with olive oil. I purchased the spice from Zamouri Spices. 

Vacuumed Sealed for 48 hours. 

After 48 hours. I decided to use Transglutaminase Activa GS because it helps bind the meat together. I wanted the Lamb when fold together to become one solid muscle. I created a slurry using the Activa GS and applied it to every nook and cranny of the lamb.
Transglutaminase, also called meat glue, is an enzyme that can be used to bind proteins to make uniform portions of fish filet, tenderloins, etc. that cook evenly, look good and reduce waste. Transglutaminase can also be used for creative applications in modernist cuisine such as making shrimp noodles, binding chicken skin to scallops or even making checkerboards with different types of fish.  How can you do such a thing? Simply apply some transglutaminase on each side of the protein to bind, press the sides together and let it rest refrigerated for a few hours

Transglutaminase ‘meat glue’ was introduced into the modernist kitchen by Heston Blumenthal and is currently being used by some of the world best chefs such as Wylie Dufresne to:- Make uniform portions of fish filet, tenderloins, etc that cook evenly, look good, and reduce waste.

I fold the lamb together on its self and placed on plastic wrap and rolled up the meat into a very tight log. 

I used a sharp sausage hole pluck-er and exhausted the residual air from the Lamb. I than wrapped and rolled it several more times with plastic wrap. 

I tied it with rope to secure shape. This baby is 18 inches long. 

Vacuumed sealed. It will sit in my refrigerator for 48 hours. This will allow the Activa GS to form a bond with the meat and create one large muscle. 

This is a 49 liter (51.77 qt) polycarbonate container designed for my Sous-Vide machine. I had to buy the extra big baby to shelter the 18 incher. The container was filled with 30.5 qt of water to accommodate the Salami. 

I chose 135F for the final temp of the Lamb. This temp will allow the Lamb to be very pink inside but firm enough to slice. 

The Lamb is cooking at 135F and will cook for 24-26 hours. If you notice I had to use tongs to weigh it down. I was concerned that after a few hours gas would escape and it would float. 

After the cooking process I will submerge the lamb in an ice bath to cool off quickly. After a night in the cooler I will examine the outside and determine if I should torch it to bring out the carmelization. It needs to be visually appealing.  

It came out awesome. But it needs to be Torched to bring out the the Maillard Reaction (browning) that we are all use to seeing. 

Browning it with a Butane Torch. Butane is better than propane. Propane gives off unpleasant odors. 

Just a great picture!!!! I love the smell of the fat burning. 

Browned up and ready for the next step.

That looks awesome!! Nice and pink with the Harissa popping out. 

Time for the slicing!!

All sliced up and ready to eat. The lamb came out awesome. The texture was almost perfect and the lamb was extremely flavorful. The Harissa flavors came right through. What will I do different next time? Since I sliced the meat thin I probably did not need 24 hours of cooking Sous-Vide. I think 12 hours would have been fine. I think the texture would have been better with less cooking. In addition the Activa GS worked well but did not create a perfect bond of the proteins because of the Harissa paste that I made using olive oil. Next time I will leave out the olive oil. What else could I have done? The Lamb could have benefited from a couple of hours of a fruit smoke at 225 F. This could have helped with the texture a lot.  I will give this lamb 3 out of 5 stars.  

My Ideas for Cold-Cut Lamb Sandwiches. 

• Homemade Tzatzkik sauce, Red Onions, Fresh thick sliced Tomatoes
• Mint Pesto, Feta cheese, Cucumber
• A homemade Greek slaw.
• Grilled Eggplant slices, Onion and Mint Pesto
• Use Pita Bread
• Tapenade, Feta cheese and Mint leaves

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