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By Root 558 0

or a dish of lentils. As it melts, it seasons your dish and flecks it with bits of green. Once you have herb butter on hand, you’ll find it provides instant enhancement of all kinds of warm foods.

Spicy Herb Salad

An herb salad startles the tongue and makes a lively side to all kinds of foods, especially meats. Everything is torn rather than chopped. If you have an herb garden, don’t hesitate to include herbs other than those mentioned here, such as sorrel, lemon thyme, marjoram, different kinds of basil, and chives.

1 HANDFUL SMALL SPINACH LEAVES

1 HANDFUL CILANTRO LEAVES

1 HANDFUL ANY OR ALL OF THE FOLLOWING HERBS: ITALIAN PARSLEY ARUGULA DILL SPRIGS LOVAGE OR CELERY LEAVES SMALL MINT LEAVES, TORN

2 SCALLIONS, INCLUDING SOME OF THE GREENS

SALT

1 TABLESPOON EXTRA-VIRGIN OLIVE OIL

1 TEASPOON FRESH LEMON JUICE

Tear or cut the spinach and cilantro into bite-size pieces, pluck or tear the herbs, and slice the scallions. Toss all the greens together with a few pinches of salt, then drizzle with olive oil. Toss well to coat the leaves, then toss one more time with lemon juice. Taste and add more oil or lemon juice, if needed.

Lamb Chops with Tingle-and-Burn Spices

To get the tingle-and-burn spices this solo eater was drawn to, we made a sauce of pure ground red chile, garlic, spices, and olive oil. It definitely added those elements.

The Lamb

2 OR 3 LAMB CHOPS

SALT AND PEPPER

GROUND CUMIN

A FEW PINCHES OF RED PEPPER FLAKES

OLIVE OIL

JUICE OF 1⁄2 LEMON

The Sauce

1 LARGE GARLIC CLOVE

SALT

1 SCANT TABLESPOON GROUND RED CHILE

1⁄4 TEASPOON EACH OF GROUND CUMIN, CORIANDER, AND CARAWAY

1 TABLESPOON OLIVE OIL

1. Rub the lamb chops with plenty of salt, freshly ground pepper, cumin, and red pepper flakes. Drizzle a little oil over the meat and then squeeze the lemon over all. Cover and refrigerate for at least an hour. Let the chops return to room temperature before cooking.

2. To make the sauce, smash the garlic in a mortar with a few pinches of salt to break it up. Add the chile and spices and work them into the garlic with the oil.

3. Grill your lamb chops on an outdoor gas or charcoal grill, or a ridged pan placed over high heat, for a few minutes on each side or until they’re as done as you like them. Let them rest on a plate for several minutes, then spread the sauce over them. Serve with the spicy herb salad.

Kaftes

Here is our interpretation of Sari’s lamb kaftes and cucumber-yogurt salad with mint, which we serve with bulgur or rice. Because one pound of lamb will make enough of these little sausage-shaped meats for four big eaters, a single eater might want to use only half that much. And if you don’t want to eat them twice in a week, shape, then freeze the meat that you don’t cook, and it will be there waiting for you.

Kaftes are absolutely delicious grilled over a wood fire, but if it’s winter and snowing, or if you don’t have a grill or want to light a fire for yourself, they can be cooked to good effect on a ridged cast-iron pan, which happens to leave nice-looking grill marks as a bonus.

1⁄2 POUND GROUND LAMB

1 SLICE BREAD

1⁄2 ONION, GRATED

2 TABLESPOONS CHOPPED PARSLEY

1⁄2 TEASPOON BLACK PEPPER

1⁄2 TEASPOON GROUND CUMIN

1⁄2 TEASPOON PAPRIKA

1⁄4 TEASPOON ALLSPICE

1⁄2 TEASPOON SALT

1. Put the lamb in a bowl. Cover the bread with water and let it stand until soft while you grate the onion on the large holes of a standing grater. Add the onion to the lamb along with the parsley, spices, and salt. Squeeze the water out of the bread, add the bread to the bowl, and then mix everything together until the meat begins to develop some elasticity. You can do this in a mixer, or just get your hands in the bowl and knead the meat until you sense a change. Cover, refrigerate, and let rest for an hour for the seasonings to blend.

2. If you’re going to grill the meat, fashion it into torpedo-shaped pieces, then stick your skewer right into the middle of each one and squeeze