Hummus Meets Birria

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In the early 1900s and other late periods thousands of men and women emigrated primarily from Lebanon but also Syria, Jordon, Palestine and Iraq. That was before a country called Lebanon actually existed, as it formally became a country under the French Mandate in the 1920s. They came to Mexico escaping economic hardship and religious and political persecution under the Ottoman Empire. According to the Mexican-Lebanese Cultural Institute, there are as many as 800,000 Lebanese people and their descendants now living in Mexico. Americans would recognize actress Salma Hayek and the billionaire industrialist Carlos Slim who are of Lebanese heritage.

Lebanese cuisine specialties have be adapted to include shawarma, the popular Levantine Arab dish consisting of meat cut into thin slices, stacked in a cone-like shape, and roasted on a slowly-turning vertical rotisserie or spit. This is the origin of “Tacos al Pastor” but in Mexico pork eventually replaced lamb. In the city of Puebla, a specialty isTacos Arabes made with pork cooked with herbs and spices and served in a thin flatbread that resembles pita bread. Another speciality is ‘jocoque‘, a type of strained thick yogurt commonly used in Mexican cuisine.

Hopefully, my fusion of hummus and birria de borrego catches your attention and appreciation of a lesser known fact about Árabs in Mexico. Let’s get started.

Ingredients

Serves 4

Lamb

2 ½ lbs of lamb shoulder

2 cloves garlic

6 dried chile ancho/pasilla or guajillo

1 bay leaf

2 whole cloves

½ teaspoon dried thyme

½ teaspoon dried marjoram

¼ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 cup chopped canned tomatoes

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Salt and pepper

Hummus

Canned or prepared from ½ lb uncooked garbanzos

Garnishes of chile pepper and chopped fresh oregano or parsley

Preparation

Chile Sauce

Remove stems and seeds from pods and rinse twice with water discarding the rinse water. Rehydrate the pod in water for about 30 minutes, until the pods are completely soft turning them during the soaking period. Retain the chile-liquor for the next step.

Add pods in the food blender with sufficient liquor to cover pods and puree the pods until the pods are completely liquified. Pass the liquid through a sieve into a bowl to separate the puree from the remaining solids. Set aside up to 2 cups of sauce. If you have less than 2 cups add water.

Lamb

Remove as much gristle/suet and silver skin as possible from the meat then salt and pepper. Add two tablespoons of vegetable oil into a dutch oven, heat to med-high and brown the lamb about 4-5 minutes each side. Remove and cool.

Heat the oven to 350 F. Pour out and discard the fat from the dutch oven leaving a thin layer. Reheat the dutch oven to medium-high heat; add the clove, thyme, marjoram, cumin, nutmeg and bay leaf and cook to toast the ingredients for several minutes. Add the chile sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Add the lamb back to the dutch oven. Add the canned tomatoes bring to a boil, cover and place in the preheated oven. The cooking time will be about 2 1/2 hours. Turn the lamb over about halfway through the cooking time. Check every 45 minutes or so. If the liquid has reduced too much add more water. If necessary, thicken the sauce by removing lamb to a plate and simmering the sauce on the stove top for 15 minutes or until it coats the back of a spoon.