One of the nice things about having lived in so many different places and tried so many different foods, is that I feel no compunction about borrowing spices from different cuisines and using them how I would like to use them rather than in a traditional manner.
I have typically been served za'atar on flatbread with olive oil or with labneh, the thick Middle Eastern yogurt, but the flavors always seemed to be suitable for lamb. I looked for some recipes for this online but they all added additional ingredients like honey or mustard or tahini; I felt that the za'atar flavors would get lost in the mix.
I went with simplicity, it worked well, and here is the result - a streamlined list of ingredients but a lot of flavor.
Recipe
1 lb lamb tenderloin, cut into medallions. I had 2 1/2 lb tenderloins and I cut each one into 6 pieces, leaving with me with 12 medallions or 3 per person
2 tsps olive oil
2 tsps za'atar
2 garlic cloves, peeld and crushed
Put the garlic and the oil in a large pan and set aside to let the garlic flavor infuse the oil.
Mix the lamb medallions with the za'atar; make sure that each piece of meat is lightly coated with the spice.
Heat the olive oil and garlic over medium heat until the oil is very hot. Add the lamb medallions and sear well. My medallions were about 3 cm (a bit more than an inch) thick and I cooked them for 2 minutes per side to ensure a rare/medium-rare finish.
I served this with roasted radicchio with anchovy breadcrumbs and it was a perfect match.
P.S. The container full of funky looking green stuff in the photo above happens to be day 2 of my attempt to make kimchi out of kale. More on that if I succeed.
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