Roast lamb with pomegranate molasses and ras el hanout

Not too long ago, Ed and I (well, mostly Ed) cooked a leg of lamb for his family.  It was delicious. I love me some lamb, but this was better than anything I had ever thought of before.  It was a boneless leg of lamb, from the folks in Vermont that make that yummy sheep cheese. Since the boy sheep don't make cheese, they turn into food.  

We did some looking around on the internet, and settled on a 130F internal temperature to pull out the meat.  It rose another 10ish degrees once we'd taken it out.  Ended up medium, mostly, with the ends more cooked than the middle, and that worked well so that everyone can choose how cooked they wanted their meat.  Yum!  

Ed marinated the lamb overnight with pomegranate molasses on the outside, and some ras el hanout spice on top of that, which is a spice mixture that just made me drool as I dreamed about roasting meats.   We got it from one of the Armenian shops on Mt. Auburn street.  I recommend.  Anyway, after marinating all night, we brought the lamb to room temperature, filled the rolled-up part with caramelized shallots, and then we roasted at 400 for 20min, and 325 for the remainder of the time (an hour, maybe? kept checking the thermometer and removed at 130F).

The lamb was scrumptious.  I recommend it!

Fennel salad

For Thanksgiving, Ed and I headed over to his aunt's house in Lexington, with 34 other guests. This meant an easy time for cooking for us, as we didn't have to deal with a turkey, but we were assigned to bring some sort of salad or vegetable. Browsing through the Ottolenghi cookbook, I saw this salad, and I instantly knew I wanted to make it.I'm not a huge raw fennel fan, but it turns out that when you slice it thinly and add a delicious dressing, it's pretty scrumptious.  And so pretty! The salad was a big hit, and we made it again a few weeks later for Ed's family back in Rochester, where it was also a big hit. So, I highly recommend you make this salad! Pomegranates are in season in the fall and winter, so now's the time.

Fennel Salad:
2 fennel bulbs
1/2 pomegranate, seeds only
~1/2C crumbled feta
~1/2C fresh tarragon leaves
~1/4C fresh flat-leaved parsley

Dressing:
Juice of a lemon
Olive oil (maybe 2-3tbs?)
2 tsp sumac
Salt
Pepper

Fennel fronds and more sumac for decorating

Mix together all the dressing stuff in a bowl.  Taste, adjust, taste.  Roughly chop the parsley and tarragon, and add that to the dressing. 

Use a mandolin or verrrry thinly chop the fennel bulbs. I sliced them lengthwise, removed the core, and mandolinned them from there.  Reserve some fronds for garnish.  Crumbled the feta, and put everything except the pomegranate seeds in the bowl - they'll turn it pink if you mix them around too much.  Toss it all around, let it marinate for a bit, and mix in the pomegranate seeds just before you serve it. Sprinkle with more sumac and some fennel fronds on top, for garnish. Enjoy!