Any ethnic recipes for camel meat?

[Butcher Pete]

Evenin' everyone. I'm guessing this is the proper board for this question, as I'm sure any dishes using camel meat would NOT be American or European. A month or two ago, I bought some frozen camel meat at this big international market near my house. "Camel sirloin," 0.80 lbs. It looks like a steak. I tried Googling it, but didn't find much info, other than historical accounts of Middle Eastern cultures stuffing several sheep inside a whole camel and roasting it in a giant oven, which sounds somewhat time-consuming (it'll have to wait 'till the weekend.) Anyway, not sure how to treat this little camel steak. My only ideas so far:

- Someone suggested a "Moroccan hotpot," which is apparently seasoned with cumin, ginger, cinnamon, coriander, cayenne, allspice, and cloves. Anyone ever heard of this, or have any idea what else goes in it?
- Making it into a hamburger patty with my meat grinder and just eating it on a bun. Seems like a shame to give such a plain treatment to such an exotic meat, but then again, don't want to cover up the unique flavors..
- Grilling/broiling it. It IS a steak, after all. I like to eat my steaks rare though, and I'm not sure if this is safe with camel meat. I mean, are there any food-borne diseases that camels carry around?

If anyone else has recipes or ideas for it, I'd love to hear them.. Thanks for readin'.

 

[GB]

I am not familiar with camel meat so I am just guessing here, but I would be willing to guess that any Middle Eastern dish that uses beef or goat would be a good bet for camel. I think stews might be a good place to start. I will be interested to hear what you end up doing with it and how it was.

 

[chefkathleen]

I would too. I've had, up until now, had so many exotic dishes and meats that I thought I had almost covered them all. I had no idea that camel would be eaten considering that it's to desert people as our horses have always been to us.

 

[Wyogal]

camel recipes - Google Search

 

[Butcher Pete]

I ended up cooking it up tonight. I diced it up and fried it in a pan with some olive oil, then put it on some pita bread with hummus, cucumbers, tomatoes, and an Arabic spice blend (cloves, coriander, paprika, pepper, cardamom, and cumin.)

It tasted DELICIOUS. It was like beef, but with a little bit of sweetness to it. Very lean, also. I would definitely buy it again. A little tough, but only because I cooked it well-done... I wasn't sure if it was safe to eat camel rare.. And it's not! Upon googling, it turns out that people in Saudi Arabia sometimes get the Bubonic Plague from eating raw camel liver!! Sure dodged the bullet there..

 

[GB]

Sounds like you pick a great way to do it.

 

[Wyogal]

Now that you know you like it, try the stuffed camel recipe and let us know how it goes!!!

 

[thecurrypot]

This one is from the Jack Absalom cook book

Camel Stew.

3 medium sized camels
1 ton salt
1 ton pepper
500 bushels of potatoes
200 bushels of carrots
3000 sprigs of parsley
2 small rabbits.

Cut camels into bite-sized pieces. This should take about two months.
Cut vegetables into cubes (another two months)
Place meat in pan and cover with 1000 gallons of brown gravy.
Shovel in pepper and salt to taste.
When meat is tender, add vegetables.
Simmer slowly for 4 weeks.
Garnish with parsley.
Will serve 3800 people.
If more are expected, add two rabbits.


My own addition to this recipe would be to add Corriander Cumin and Turmeric. But I am a sucker for Curry.