Just Stew It: Lahm-bi Ajine

Nicco Muratore

Modern Middle Eastern restaurant Mamnoon has menued its Lahm-bi Ajine since opening day and has no intention of stopping, given the dish is a bona fide fan favorite. It features local American lamb shoulder, finely ground and cooked with onion, pepper paste, tomato, Fresno chile, garlic, allspice and black pepper. The resulting lamb stew is spread onto a Lebanese flatbread called man’oushe, which is baked in a hearth oven and then topped with crispy halloumi cheese, pomegranate molasses and fresh mint.

“It is unique, delicious and different from what most places offer as a lamb flatbread,” says Nicco Muratore, Executive Chef of Mamnoon parent Mama Group. “The fact that we make everything in house sets this dish apart and adds to its popularity.” And although it’s a prep-heavy dish, “the scalability of the cooked lamb stew recipe allows us to prep a lot of it at once and then heat it on the flatbread for service.”

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