Lamb and sweet onions

I went through some magazines last weekend picking out recipes to make this week and tried to pick out something besides chicken. I found a recipe with ground lamb and spinach with sweet onions that sounded perfect. Mike and I love ground lamb and I liked that the recipe included vegetables-another one pot meal! Since it's the 2 of us most of the time I like making 1 dish that has everything in it and call it done.

I found it in Food & Wine, here's the link http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/lamb-and-spinach-stuffed-onions. The recipe's called Lamb-and-Spinach-Stuffed Onions by Marcia Kiesel. I've made lots of recipes by Marcia and I've always been pleased, good sign. I could not find large sweet onions like her recipe so I have completely changed that part of the recipe. If you can find the giant onions feel free to stuff them.

Lamb and-Spinach Stuffed Onions my way

3 medium sweet onions like Maui onions, root ends trimmed
extra virgin olive oil, for drizzling
5 ounces spinach, washed and stems removed but not dried
3/4 pound ground lamb
2 teaspoons chile powder
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon
~1 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded Gruyère cheese
1 cup beef broth
1 cup crushed tomatoes like Pomi
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup half and half

1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
1/8 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup shredded Gruyère cheese

Preheat the oven to 350°. Put the onions in a baking dish, root ends down, and drizzle with oil. Add 1/2 inch of water to the dish. Cover with foil and bake for about 1 hour, until tender. Let cool slightly. Dump out water and butter lightly when dish is slightly cooled.

Meanwhile, heat a large nonstick skillet. Add the spinach and toss until wilted. Transfer to a colander and squeeze out the water. Coarsely chop the spinach.

In the same skillet, cook the lamb over moderately high heat, breaking it up, until no pink remains, ~5 minutes. Pour off most of the fat and add the chile powder and cinnamon. Cook over moderately high heat, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in the spinach. Transfer the lamb filling to a large bowl. Stir in the bread crumbs, Gruyère, 1/4 cup of the beef broth and 1/2 cup of the tomatoes.

Cut 1/2 inch off the top and bottom of the baked onions and remove the papery skins. Cut the onions in half and scatter the pieces on the bottom of the baking dish. Layer the lamb on the onions.
 
In the large nonstock skillet, combine the half and half with the remaining 3/4 cup of beef broth and 1/2 cup of tomatoes and bring to a boil. Simmer until the sauce thickens slightly. Pour the sauce over the top of the lamb and onions.

In a bowl, combine the remaining bread crumbs, chile powder and Gruyère cheese. Mound the topping over the lamb and onions. Cover with foil and bake for 30 minutes, until bubbly. Uncover and increase the oven temperature to 425°. Bake for 5 minutes, until the topping is crisp. Let rest for 5 minutes before serving.

I have to say Mike loved this dish. He pretty much always likes what I fix but he really loved this dish. It was creamy and the chile gave it a very nice kick, adjust accordingly. He ate 2 helpings and told me I could the leftovers for lunch. Then he said or I could eat them now. Haha-I got leftovers. It was so good leftover I didn't need to heat it up. We actually didn't open that bottle of wine but it would have been delicious with a Zinfadel or Pinot Noir. Enjoy!