Today’s recipe is Mediterranean-style lamb shoulder marinated and then cooked sous-vide in a yogurt marinade, and served with lamb stock-infused cous cous and grilled zucchini. The combination of all three together is delicious. I had never prepared lamb marinated with yogurt before, and after having seen Conor prepare wonderful lamb dishes with yogurt, I really thought I should remedy that situation.
I couldn’t resist to cook the lamb sous-vide, and this photo tells you why. After 24 hours at 57ºC/135ºF, the lamb was very tender and juicy, and still pink inside. The flavors and textures in this dish work very well together. If you don’t have sous-vide equipment, check out Conor’s recipe to find out how to cook this dish using the oven instead.
This was the first, but certainly not the last time I marinated and cooked lamb with yogurt. Here’s what I did…
Ingredients
For 2 servings
300 grams (.66 lb) lamb shoulder, cubed
For the marinade
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
3/4 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
100 grams (about 1/2 cup) Greek yogurt
1/2 Tbsp olive oil
1/2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 green chilli, seeded and minced
1/2 tsp honey
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
For serving the dish
100 grams (about 1/2 cup) cous cous
250 ml (1 cup) lamb stock
2 zucchini, cut into slices lengthwise
extra virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground black pepper
fresh cilantro for garnish
Preparation
Combine all the ingredients for the marinade in a bowl.
Stir to mix, then add the lamb, and stir until it is coated with the marinade.
Vacuum seal the lamb with the marinade and allow to marinate for 24 hours. Then cook sous-vide for another 24 hours at 57ºC/135ºF.
I keep various types of concentrated stock in my freezer, frozen in ice cube trays for easy portioning. This is some cubes of concentrated lamb stock, combined with hot water to reconstitute it to regular strength.
Bring the lamb stock to a boil, then turn off the heat and add the couscous.
Stir to mix.
Then cover and allow the couscous to soak up the stock for 5 minutes.
Meanwhile, brush the zucchini with olive oil and cook on a hot griddle on both sides.
Taste the couscous after 5 minutes to check whether the texture and flavor are to your liking. If needed, season with salt, add some boiling water, or some olive oil.
Take the bag with the lamb out of the sous-vide.
Pour the juices in the bag into a frying pan and bring to a boil.
Cook, stirring, until the juices have thickened.
Now add the lamb from the bag and coat it on all sides with the sauce. This will also warm it up a little.
Arrange the couscous, zucchini, and lamb on preheated plates. Garnish with fresh cilantro.
Flashback
A stovetop smoker is a great piece of equipment to own. It is cheap, but gives great results for little effort. In this case, I smoked a duck breast and served it with a lovely plum chutney.
Stefan's Gourmet Blog 
This looks excellent Stefan. I am conscious that I owe you some sou vide fish. The bags keep reminding me. Soon, I promise!
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Looking forward to that! I think you will like it so much that you will soon need more bags. Best to start with a fish that doesn’t flake as much, like salmon, sea bass, monkfish, sole, mackerel. Flaky fish like cod or red mullet are very difficult to get out of the bag in one piece.
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Hi Stefan. As I have said before, I am a bit afraid of using my vacuum sealer when there is liquid in the bag. Was the bag fully vacuumed or air just pushed out and then sealed?
I need to know since this dish looks amazing and would like to try it. Jack.
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I use a chamber vacuum sealer, so there is no problem when there is liquid in the bag and I did apply a full vacuum. If you use the type of vacuum sealer with a clamp that sucks the air out of the bag, then the best way is to use ziploc bags and to push the air out by submerging the bag in water (except for the top). The water pressure will push out the air. This is also called the water displacement method. A chamber vacuum sealer is quite an investment and it is quite large, but I got mine second-hand and I’ve not regretted buying it for a single moment.
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Hi Stefan. Sorry to bother you again but what bags do you use and where can I get them? I have just run out and would like to use a finer gauge material if possible. Jack
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No problem, Jack, always happy to help.
What type of bags you’ll need depends on what type of vacuum sealer you use: a chamber vacuum sealer or a ‘clamp’ vacuum sealer?
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It’s a clamp.
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That means you will need bags with ‘ridges’ on the inside, as otherwise the vacuum sealer won’t work. I have only used two brands with mine: foodsaver and sousvide supreme. Both were very alike in quality and price. Both are available as individual bags or as a roll out of which you can create bags with custom length. The drawback of a roll is that it takes a bit more time as you have to seal it twice.
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Good going on opening up that lamb so we can see inside – not enough of that going on in the food blogosphere
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A 1/2 tablespoon? A 1/2 cup and a 1/2 teaspoon I can do but….. 🙂
To confuse it further a tablespoon in this country is defined as 4 teaspoons – 20ml.
The combination of flavors was superb. Without hiding the lamb taste too much. From the sous vide yogurt based recipes I have tried this is one of the best.
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I have a set of measuring spoons that includes a half tablespoon. It is the same as a teaspoon and a half, 7.5 ml. This is probably the most Middle Eastern lamb recipe I’ve posted.
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