- We are here at here at Nur,
where we are going to learn a thing or two about lamb neck,
are we not?
- When it comes to braising lamb, we got four shanks,
What else you got?
One neck.
Neck is meaty, it's fatty, cooks just like an osso buco,
super delicious, very underused,
and Chef Ofir is gonna show us
something completely different to do with it.
- We're here to live and learn,
and to respect grandmothers.
On today's Prime Time.
Chef Ofir, - Nice to meet you.
- thank you so much for having us here at Nur.
Really, really appreciate it.
We're excited to try something
that we don't normally get to make.
- Then we can start to debone it and just --
- Let's go from there.
Can we do this?
Because this is the one thing that we can do.
(Ofir laughs)
- Absolutely, it's all yours.
You can rough chop these,
you know, leeks, celery, carrot, and onion
for the bone, for the stove.
- May I?
- All your pleasure.
- [Ben] So why lamb neck?
- [Ofir] Lamb, it's really, really big thing
in the Middle East.
All the culture in the Middle East like
really used with it, it's very like like holiday thing,
and the people, they grow up the lamb in Israel, they like,
they really, really, like, proud, and the lamb they do in,
and how they grow it.
- [Brent] Is this a specific dish?
- [Ofir] It's a specific dish for a holiday thing,
for my grandma, she make it, like in the holiday.
- I'm done, Brent what are you doing?
- [Brent] Making sure it's good, man.
- I think -- - How do you think?
- Yes, it's amazing,
only thing we need to do is just to
open it, and open it, open it,
and open it, so we have like a space.
- Butterfly this way. - Exactly.
Wow, it's perfect.
- Perfect.
Perfect. - You know.
We're going to fill it with lot of herbs, and freekeh.
Freekeh is a green wheat,
so there is like the spinach and the onion,
for the filling, for the neck.
- [Ben] Okay. - [Ofir] The stock.
For the neck.
And now, what we're gonna to use is cumin,
- [Ben] Yup.
- [Ofir] ras el hanout, five spice, and baharat.
- Okay. - Okay?
Four different spices,
So we going to put like, teaspoon and a half
- Ras el hanout, what is that? - Ras el hanout.
So, ras el hanout, every spice shop, in the Mediterranean
have a different blend of spices, it's called ras el hanout.
It's mean "Head of the shop".
It is what it is, ras el hanout.
Every spice shop ever all ras el hanouting.
- So this is yours?
- Oh, I don't have a spice shop yet,
but whenever I have, I will have it.
So, the filling like, to be inside.
We're going to close it with the butterfly things you do.
And we're going to roll it, do the same thing.
We're going to season these things,
We want like, you know, flavor here...
- Worthwhile to mention, that lamb has so much flavor,
and specially the neck, there's a lot of fat,
and a lot of that flavor is from the fat.
- It's aggressive already.
We take it to a different level of aggressive.
- Totally.
- [Ofir] Salt, pepper, cumin, a little bit,
ras el hanout, baharat, five spice...
Then all of you like, look about me, like,
I'm crazy with the spices, don't worry you will see.
- I can't wait, I can't wait.
This is, this is the spice level I like to see.
- Yeah?
- Yeah, oh yeah.
- Everyone just here and get like
- [Brent] Is this ever on the menu?
- [Ofir] No. - [Brent] No.
- Not on the menu.
Super traditional for both of you.
- This is Thanksgiving.
Yes, we are going to make Thanksgiving,
three of us together.
- I'm dead serious, I'm already wanting to make this
over turkey, like...
- [Ofir] I will use a little bit with the hammer,
just to open it a little bit.
You help to the season to get inside deeper to the meat.
And then, fillings.
The reason we open here, the butterfly,
so it's we can close it on the filling,
and when we roll it, it will save everything inside.
Look at that, look at that pretty.
- [Ben] Wowoweewow.
- [Brent] What to we think?
- Shhhh.
Like coming to a class.
Time to a class.
The only thing I'll ask you to do,
just to shhk, put sage inside,
so when we sear it, shhk, all the sage gets inside.
- [Brent] How is this different than
what your grandmother taught you.
- [Ofir] The only thing is different, is the salt.
- Really?
- Because, yeah, I try to save my grandmother recipe
super traditional, and super like, original,
stick to the base, and stick to the ...
- Uh huh.
- [Ofir] And then we're going to sear the neck
I'm start on the thick side, and not on the open side, okay?
I don't add oil.
- [Brent] It's cooking on its own fat.
- [Ofir] Exactly.
- [Ben] There's the one of these things that we talk about
a lot of the shop, is like you have something that is fatty,
then you're gonna sear, don't add oil.
- [Ofir] Exactly.
- [Ben] Use the fat that is in, that is already there,
because you're just gonna make it more flavorful
by cooking it by its own fat.
- [Ofir] Totally, totally.
- [ Ben] Yeah.
- [Ofir] So she squeeze the tomato,
and she get just the seed and the juice
all the acidity, of the stew,
just one tomato.
And this is the start of the sauce too.
So, now it's the fun thing,
we're gonna build kind of a picture.
Every time she build it differently,
so it's become like an art.
So, it really depends what we want.
So, grandma okay with us?
If we start restyling.
- [Ofir] Exactly.
- [Ben] Okay, okay.
If she gets after us in the comments,
Before the neck, this the magic she say,
take the garlic, cut it to half,
give to the neck, to sit on the garlic.
So the garlic stand here, and the neck, stand on him.
So, - Love it.
- [Ofir] whsshk!
You get all the flavor.
Tomato juice, we're going to spread it
all over, okay?
So the cabbage get a little bit, the neck get a little bit,
and the vegetables, everything get a little bit.
That is the acidity we want,
this is the acidity we're going to get.
And this is the stock, after like two and a half,
I save the bone, because we want to cook
the bone inside too.
So we give to the bones to next to the neck.
We spread and all over.
So we're going to start now 400 Fahrenheit,
three hours total, it's like, four hours process.
What we're going to get something like, very like,
solid, flavory...
- [Ben] Ooh. - [Ofir] So this what we get.
After four hours.
We want to slice it? - Yeah.
- [Ofir] Want to try?
- [Brent] Yes, yes.
- [Ben] Oh my God.
That is beautiful.
- Let's like a plate.
Let's try it, all of us together, no?
- [Brent] Yes, please.
- [Ofir] You ready?
You ready for this.
- [Ben] I'm going straight to the, I'm going straight here.
This is where I want to be.
- [Brent] The texture is so perfect.
Nice and tender.
The fattiness with all of the herbs from the inside
is perfect.
- Yeah.
That fattiness, and like,
that meat you get its so hard working,
it like, really really stands up to like all the spices.
I don't, I do not ever really make lamb neck,
it's like a very rare thing that I get to try it.
What about you, have you had it?
- I made this before,
and it's definitely never been this good.
- [Ben] It's amazing how many ingredients went into that,
and then how unified everything is.
All those flavors, are just singing.
Now we tried it,
I'm kinda curious we incorporated all these different
ingredients from everywhere,
how do you describe this?
Does it, do you say this is an Israeli dish or --
- Yeah, if you're gonna put it on the menu.
- I know, I don't think about the name,
it's always like think about Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving.
And this is like my Thanksgiving.
- This is so amazing, thank you so much.
- Thank you so much, really, really appreciate it.
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