Well I finally tasted my version of qawarma. No favas, no yoghurt, no mint I just warmed it up in a pan and spread it on bread and it was fabulous. Well spiced, lamby and delicious. There were only three of us and it was a snack with drinks before dinner. However, we polished off two-thirds of it and would have eaten it all if I'd warmed up the remaining third, but I'm keeping for my friend Naomi to taste this evening.
I have four more tails in the freezer plus some ground lamb which I'll add to the next version. It will be more authentic, and even better, there will be more of this tasty dish. To any of you who think that lamb fat is overpowering with a smell of lanolin, try tail fat. You'll be surprised. And if you are still not convinced read this article by Matthew Brown.
Here is a photo of even fatter tails that Laurie from Hawk Hill Farm sent me. Please read her comment below.
1 comment:
Jennifer, I am happy that you finally got a chance to eat fat tailed lamb. Not all of the ones we sent were from purebred Tunis as there was a few Tunis/Cheviot crosses and the one thin one was probably from the Cheviot/Hampshire cross. The pure Tunis were the ones with the most fat. The tails get bigger as they mature with the pure mature ewes and rams having tails that are about 8" + across.
The Tunis breed was developed in the US from a Tunisian Fat tailed sheep. The Tunis breed is on the critical list for endangered breeds in Canada. There are probably fewer than 100 purebred Tunis born in Canada in a year and fewer than 10,000 worldwide. The breed is on the Slow Food USA Ark of Taste. The more people that know about this wonderful breed, the better chance we have of preserving it.
The Awassi fat tailed breed which is one of the main fat tailed breeds (and probably the ones encountered by the other chefs) has a huge tail by comparison. I don't know of any breeders in North America. There are a few in Australia but most are in the Mediteranean.
We reserved a few tails for ourselves and tried your Rillons recipe from Odd Bits. The fat got very crispy on the outside and the tail meat was delicious. We now have our butcher trained to reserve the tails for us.
I have convinced another Tunis breeder to save her tails as well though after I described them to her I think they will be going into her own kitchen.
We will save a few for you this year. You have started a trend.
Best regards,
Laurie
Hawk Hill Farm
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