Paleo Picnic: Lamb Burgers with Curry Ketchup

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This past weekend turned out to be pretty good weather, so RB and I decided we would pack a picnic and head over to Music in the Park at Curtis Park. It was a great time, and enjoyed by people of all ages.

We sat on a blanket made up of squares of old polyester pants sewn together by RB’s Yia, Yia. In our picnic basket, we brought lamb burgers wrapped in napa cabbage and topped with rings of red onion, avocado, feta cheese, and curry ketchup that I made just before we packed the basket. We also brought a broccoli, cauliflower, and bacon sauté with toasted almonds and our favorite snack, parsnip chips.

Suggested wine pairing is the Shenandoah Vineyards Zingiovese, which is a 54% Sangiovese, 48% Zinfandel blend*. A beautiful elixir from our friends at Sobon Estate that stands up to the spicy and sweet of the curry ketchup and the meatiness of the lamb.

*The percentages do not add up to 100%, but I took the blend info straight from their informational PDF here. *shrugs* 😉

And now… the recipes!

Lamb Burgers
1 lb ground lamb (we used Superior Farms)
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbs oregano
1 tsp coriander
1 1/2 Tbs crushed garlic
pinch salt
Mix all ingredients together with your hands in a medium-sized bowl until well incorporated. Form into 3 or 4 patties (3 for best results). Refrigerate until you are ready to grill.

Curry Ketchup
2 containers of organic tomatoes
(I used small, cherry sized yellow tomatoes)
1 small can of tomato sauce
1/3 cup water
2-3 Tbs tomato paste
1 Tbs pomegranate molasses (if you don’t have pomegranate molasses,
you can use regular molasses, or honey)
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp curry
2 tsp crushed garlic

Rinse the tomatoes then put them in a pot with the tomato sauce and the water. Bring to a simmer and cook the tomatoes and allow them to burst open. This is what you want. The tomatoes will cook and break down and get thick this way. Keep the mixture on a simmer until the liquid content reduces by half. Then, add the rest of the ingredients (all the spices and the molasses, then the tomato paste). At this point, the mixture will resemble ketchup, so continue to reduce until it gets to your desired thickness.

This recipe makes about 1 1-2 to 2 cups, so you can bottle the unused portion and refrigerate for a week. The funny thing is, is that on a picnic with RB, the ketchup didn’t make it through the night. When we got home, he piled some more of the vegetables on a plate and on top of them went the rest of the ketchup. 😉 At least I know he loved it, so that’s why I decided to share the recipe with you.

The “bun” for our burgers were leaves of napa cabbage. The leaves of the cabbage are durable enough to conveyor belt the meat to your mouth, but tender enough to bite into. We sliced the red onion very thin, and naturally, feta was the cheese of choice.

Thanks again to Superior Farms for providing such a nice variety of lamb. We really enjoyed all the cuts. You can see how we prepared the rack here and the boneless leg here.