I had a bit of spare lamb meat on hand from doing a presentation for another lamb dish, so I decided to try another dish of tasty lamb.  Mutton is not some thing I am eager to eat on a regular basis due to the very strong flaovr however a good lamb should never be passed up!

Mutajjan

(Lamb or Goat with spices)

Translation:

#1.)  Take a suckling kid, scald it and cut up into joints, then boil it lightly in vinegar and take it out.  Then dry it off and fry it in fresh sesame oil.  When it is done and lightly browned, throw soy sauce to cover on it and season it with the well-known spices, which are coriander, caraway and finely milled Chinese cinnamon.  If you like, sprinkle it with a little lemon juice, and it comes out excellently.

#2.)  Boil a kid, after being cut up into joints, in water and salt.  Then fry it in sesame oil and season it with mentioned spices and put in vinegar and soy sauce mixed together.  It comes out excellently.

#3.)  Joint a kid and boil it in vinegar and throw it in sesame oil and fry it in it and flavour it with spices.  If you want it sadhij, boil it in water with mastic and Chinese cinnamon, and fry it in fresh sesame oil and season it with spices.  These recipes might be made with lamb also.

Rodinson, pp. 377

Ingredients:

2 lbs goat or lamb (cubed)

2 TBS sesame oil

1 tsp ea. cinnamon, caraway (seeds or ground), coriander cumin

1/3 cup vinegar

1/3 cup soy sauce

My Redaction:

The choice is between lamb or goat.  Either meat has a rather strong flavor and requires a little extra seasoning.  If beef is chosen instead cut the spices down by half.  The meat I did go with was lamb, which is readily available.  The cut of the meat is cubed leg.  The meat will cook down so don’t worry if 2 lbs sounds like a lot.

The recipe does not specify a cut just that the meat is well marbled; and lamb meat is certainly well marbled!

Take the cubed meat and boil in water with the vinegar till tender.  If a stronger vinegar flavor is preferred wait to use the vinegar till just before removing the cooked meat from the end stage of frying.  Drain the meat thoroughly.

Place the meat in a large enough pan with sesame oil and cook till browned.

Add spices (and vinegar if desired NOT extra vinegar though) and toss so that all the meat is well coated.

The vinegar and soy sauce cut down the mutton taste (even in lamb) that is present, making the dish less gamy.  The spices can be toned down or added to depending on the taste of the cook.

This dish would be excellent over saffron rice or even stuffed into bread with a garlic yogurt sauce.  Very very yummy!