Stuffed Dates

Savoury, not sweet — the dates are filled with spiced lamb and herbs and served over rice.

Lamb. Not vegetarian — contains lamb.

Ingredients

• 30 large medjool dates
• 350 g minced lamb
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• a large handful of mint, finely chopped
• a large handful of parsley, finely chopped
• 60 g pine nuts
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons salt
• black pepper
• juice of 1 lemon

to serve

• rice or bulgur
• yoghurt

Method

1. THEY ARE SAVOURY, NOT SWEET, AND THAT IS THE THING TO KNOW BEFORE STARTING. The dates are stoned, filled with spiced minced lamb and a great deal of chopped mint and parsley, warmed through, and served over rice or bulgur as a main course with yoghurt. Approached as a sweet -- stuffed with nuts or cheese and handed round with coffee -- the whole thing makes no sense, and that is the version most people expect. The herbs are what make it work: without a large quantity of fresh mint against the sugar, lamb and dates together are cloying.
2. THE HERBS ARE A LARGE HANDFUL EACH AND GO IN RAW AT THE END. Into the cooled lamb, not cooked with it. Thirty dates is a lot of sugar and the raw mint is the only thing cutting it; wilted into the pan it loses its edge entirely.
3. THE DATES ARE STONED FROM THE SIDE AND NOT SPLIT IN HALF. A slit down one side and the stone eased out, so each date stays a closed pocket that can be pinched shut again around the filling. Halved, they are a canapé base rather than a stuffed thing, and the filling falls out on the plate.
4. THEY ARE WARMED THROUGH BRIEFLY AND NOT BAKED. Eight to ten minutes in a covered dish in a moderate oven, or turned gently in a pan with butter. Long baking collapses the dates into jam and the sugars catch and burn.
5. THE LAMB IS COOKED DRY BEFORE IT GOES IN. Browned and cooked until the pan has no liquid left. A wet filling makes the inside of the date sloppy and the whole thing slides apart.
6. THE LEMON GOES OVER AT THE TABLE. A hard squeeze across the dish as it is served. It is the second thing, after the mint, holding the sweetness in check.
7. The dates SLIT DOWN ONE SIDE and the stones eased out, each left as a closed pocket.
8. The butter melted, the pine nuts toasted until golden and lifted out.
9. The onion softened 6 MINUTES, the lamb browned hard and cooked until the pan is DRY.
10. The allspice, cinnamon, salt and pepper stirred in, then the filling COOLED.
11. The toasted pine nuts and the RAW chopped mint and parsley folded through.
12. Each date filled generously and PINCHED SHUT.
13. Packed into a shallow dish, covered, and warmed at 170°C for 8 to 10 MINUTES.
14. TESTED: the dates should be warm and still hold their shape. Collapsed into jam means too long in the oven.
15. The lemon squeezed over and served on rice or bulgur with yoghurt.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Lebanon · All recipes