One of my first memories is when I was six years old and my mother told me that we were going to eat frog legs for dinner.  I remember sitting down at our favorite French restaurant with eyes wide open and staring at the frog legs on my plate.  I honestly cannot remember if I ate, I just remember hearing that it tasted like chicken.

I was lucky to grow up in a household where I got to try many different dishes from many different regions around the world.  My mom is a great cook and encouraged me to start cooking at an early age.  I remember sneaking downstairs to make my parents breakfast in bed and getting so excited that when I ran upstairs with the tray of food that I spilled all the coffee on their eggs…they ate the whole thing.  From a young age I liked to try using different spices and ingredients in any dish that I was cooking.  Some were successful like using cumin on sweet potatoes and some were not successful like peanut butter and tomato sauce (shudder).

Last week I was in the mood for Middle Eastern spices, so I made lamb burgers with homemade pita bread and tzatziki.  The lamb burgers had golden raisins, toasted pine nuts, cinnamon, coriander, cumin, and ground cardamon.  I let them sit for an hour so that they soaked up as much flavor as possible and they turned out amazing!

I couldn’t decide how I wanted to make the pita bread, the recipe said to either use a pizza stone in the oven or on the stovetop with a caste iron skillet.  Summer has finally arrived and I try to do as much cooking outside as possible so I don’t heat the house up too much by using the oven.  I decided to try the pita bread on the stove and on the grill (since I was already using it for the burgers).  I think the bread cooked more evenly on the stove and not as much on the grill.  They were both tasty but I think I prefer the bread from the stove.

Overall, I think that the meal tasted really good and I got my spice craving out of the way!  I hope you enjoy the burgers!!!

Moroccan Spiced Lamb Burgers

1 Lb. Ground Lamb

1/4 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup chopped golden raisins

1/8 cup chopped toasted pine nuts

1/2 tbs. cinnamon

1 tsp. cumin

1/2 tsp. ground coriander

1/2 tsp. ground cardamon

1 egg

1/4 panic bread crumbs

Spinach

1 Red pepper

1 Sweet Onion

Cherry tomatoes

Heat outside grill to high.

Combine the raisins, green onions, pine nuts, cinnamon, cumin, coriander, cardamon, egg and bread crumbs making a paste.  Add salt and pepper. Add the lamb and mix until combined and form into a ball.  Cover and put in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

Take the lamb mixture out of the refrigerator and bring to room temperature.  Form into four patties and sprinkle salt and pepper.  Chop the onion and red pepper and place on the hot grill after brushing with olive oil.  Place the patties on the grill and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side.  Flip the onions and peppers when you flip the burgers.

To serve, place the pita bread on a plate, smear with tzatziki and add a handful of spinach and build your burger on top of the pita bread.  Add cherry tomatoes if you would like with the onions and peppers.

I hope you enjoy the spices as much as I did!