Ground Lamb

Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Serve with bowls of diced tomato, sliced romaine lettuce, and purchased eggplant salad to spoon atop burgers in pitas. Finish with fresh apricots, grapes, and cookies.

Before spooning yogurt out of the carton, pour off any liquid on top. If you use a particularly thick yogurt, you may need to thin the sauce with a little water.

For ease of preparation, ask for the full round, not the short cut or partial leg, and have the butcher butterfly it for you.

Raita is traditionally served as a cooling complement to particularly spicy dishes in Indian cuisine, but we find this yogurt salad an excellent accompaniment to a wide variety of foods, including the mild curried lamb patties below. Can be prepared in 45 minutes or less.

Called tzatziki in Greece, this yogurt sauce can also be used on a baked potato as a nonfat alternative to sour cream. To prevent the pita bread in this recipe from getting soggy, place the trimmed portion of the bread down into the pocket to act as a sponge for the lamb drippings and yogurt.

Active time: 35 min Start to finish: 2 1/2 hr

Quick, upscale and delicious. Leftover garbanzo bean spread makes a great dip for carrot and celery sticks.

Serve this quick stir-fry with rice.

Bobotie In the popular South African dish known as bobotie, leftover lamb or beef is minced and combined with bread and spices and baked for awhile before being covered with a custard and baked again. It is generally served in squares or wedges. We have substituted kaffir lime leaves for the lemon leaves called for in the original and used ground meat instead of minced.

Voli are marbles, the multicolored little balls that were so popular with kids during my childhood. But unlike the glass versions, which were quite expensive, the ones we used to play with were made of clay and colored in various bright, glossy shades. They were fragile, and their glaze would crack, revealing their dark red insides, similar in color to these delicious meatballs with bulgur. This recipe comes from the island of Rhodes, and bulgur is probably the grain originally used. Later, in the stewed meatballs of the mainland, it was replaced by rice.

In this recipe, matzo meal binds a delicious stuffing that features ground lamb, pine nuts, fresh mint and turmeric.

Koosa Claritas — pale green, slightly rounded zucchini — are traditionally used in this dish, but we find that yellow zucchini make for a more attractive presentation because they don't discolor when cooked in tomato sauce.