Lamb Shepherd's Pie

At Christmas, my family chooses different countries as the inspiration for our Christmas Eve celebration.  We have had a Spanish Christmas, a Newfoundland Christmas, a Mexican Christmas, a Ukrainian Christmas, and a French Christmas, among other countries.  

Last Christmas we celebrated an Australian Christmas.  This lamb shepherd pie was the main dish.  We also add a dessert called lush, pavlova,  and an Australian bread called damper.

Lamb Tagine

This isn't the first time I made this recipe.  I made lamb tagine last June.  I used the same recipe as well.  The difference is that I used saffron this time.  I bought a small package of saffron in Spain.  

 This was a great recipe, which is why I made it twice.  I'm not sure how saffron affected the overall flavor.  I can't remember exactly how it tasted last time.  Last time I added dried apricots.  That was a tasty addition, and I probably should have added dried apricots this time as well.

Lamb Tagine

Lamb is probably by favorite type of meat.  I don't cook with it regularly though.  I think it is because lamb is so expensive.  I grew up eating lamb, and I didn't realize how good I had it.

I have three other lamb dishes on this blog.  I had made lamb rogan josh, rice with fave beans - timmen baghilla, and a lamb stew.

Lamb Rogan Josh

I saw the new X-Men movie yesterday.  I'm not a huge fan of action and adventure movie, but I do enjoy them every once in a while.  I usually do not remember or have not seen the prior movie, so I go in without the back story.  Fortunately, it's not necessary to know the back story most of the time.

There is currently a Jane Austin movie out that I want to see.  It has good reviews.  I believe it is based on Lady Susan.  That may be the only Jane Austin book I have not read.

Rice with Fava Beans - Timmen Baghilla

This recipe came from The Iraqi Cookbook.  I made a light and flavorful potato salad from this cookbook too.  This recipe was excellent.  It's one of the best I have posted on my blog.

Fava or broad beans are one of the oldest plants still in cultivation.  These beans were eaten in the Mediterranean starting around 6000 BC.  Today they are eaten throughout the world.

I actually used frozen edamame in this recipe instead of fava beans.  It isn't traditional, but I didn't want to work with dried beans.  Edamame are immature soy beans.  Edamame are eaten throughout Asia but not in the Middle East.  

Lamb Stew

There are several foods I associate with my father. They include peaches, dark chocolate, German chocolate cake, waffles, and lamb stew. When I was growing, up his cooking repertoire consisted heavily of stews.

While looking through the Basque cookbook for our Christmas Eve celebration, he was drawn to this lamb stew recipe. He suggested we make it more than once. Luckily we made it because it was flavorful and comforting.