Ainsley Harriott's Kofta Kebabs with Yoghurt and Greek Salad

The original recipe for the lamb comes from Ainsley Harriott's "Low Fat Meals in Minutes" and has been a firm favorite with my family for years. The combination of minced lamb, mint, coriander, chili and cumin works like a charm, especially when served in warm pita bread with a fragrant yogurt dip and fresh Greek salad. This is a must-do even for those of you who are  not usually so keen on lamb. Trust me!  

Ingredients (serves 4):

700 g minced lamb (shoulder or leg)
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1 large clove of garlic
1 handful of fresh mint leaves
1 large red onion
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 red chili
250 g yogurt
1 tablespoon lime juice
1/2 tablespoon of sugar
1 packet feta cheese
1 large red pepper
1 small packet of cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber
1/2 tablespoon of dried oregano
olive oil
salt, pepper

Preparation: 

1. You will need three bowls for this: one medium-sized mixing bowl for the meat, one salad bowl, and a smaller one for the yogurt dip. Have these ready on your work surface before you begin.

2. Chop the onion finely, placing 2/3 in the bowl for the meat and the rest in the salad bowl. Finely chop the coriander, the mint, and the garlic: half of each goes into the meat bowl, half into the dish for the dip.

3. Place the minced lamb in the meat bowl, add the cumin, a generous amount of salt and pepper, the finely cut chili (or half, depending on how spicy you want this to be) and mix well. Form longish shapes, place on a tray and rub with a bit of olive oil. Set aside. 

4. Cut the feta cheese in cubes (or just crumble it using your hands) and add to the salad bowl. Wash the peppers, peel the deseed the cucumber and cut both into 1cm pieces before adding to the bowl. Halve the cherry tomatoes and add them to the mix. Dress with a generous 4 tablespoons of olive oil, the dried oregano, some salt (not too much, the feta can be quite salty) and some black pepper. Mix well and set aside.

5. For the dip, simply mix the yogurt with the herbs, add the lime juice, a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Season to taste.

6. The lamb is cooked for 20 mins on the pre-heated barbecue (medium-heat). Toast the pita bread on the bbq or simply use a toaster (leave them in until they begin to puff up, that's when they are ready).

We eat these as you would eat a kebab: the warm pita bread is filled with chunks of the lamb, salad and a generous serving of the yogurt sauce. 

Lamb Köfte with Coriander, Chili and Feta

My daughter's class recently undertook a so-called "food exploration", in which the kids were encouraged to try new things - not always an easy task, I am sure. My daughter initially chose somewhat boring dishes to bring: sausage rolls and meatballs. So in order to make things a bit more "interesting", I decided to make at least the later a bit more interesting. I ended up with a dish that I will surely cook again in the future: lamb meatballs with a feta-cheese center, flavored with fresh coriander, ground cumin and chili.

Ingredients (for approximately 12 meatballs):

600gr  minced meat (I recommend you use lamb)
1/2 bunch of fresh coriander
1/2 red chili
1 medium sized onion
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 egg
2 tablespoons of bread crumbs
1/2 packet of feta cheese (cut in 12 cubes)
salt and pepper


Preparation:

1. Finely chop the onion, chili and coriander and place in a large bowl. Add the minced meat, the egg, bread crumbs, cumin, a generous amount of salt and some black pepper. Mix using your hands and (if you dare) taste to check the seasoning. If you don't, you might want to take a small amount of the mixture and quickly fry it in a pan to ensure that you have enough salt. Or you can just trust our instincts and hope for the best :-)

2.Divide the mixture into 12 portions and form meatballs, placing a piece of feta cheese at the center of each.

3. Fry the meatballs over medium heat (alternatively you can put them on the BBQ) for about 10-15 mins until cooked through.

Serve with some greek salad, yoghurt dip with herbs and some pita bread.

Lamb koftas in tikka marinade with tomato raita

During the past few summers minced lamb has been one of our favorite things to put on the barbecue. When I saw this recipe in Reuben Riffels amazing book, I just had to try it. While it uses pieces of leg of lamb rather than the minced variety (recipe to follow), the combination of flavors is amazing and now that the weather has finally turned and the BBQ season is officially open....

Ingredients (serves 4):

600gr leg of lamb (de-boned)

For the tikka marinade:
1/2 cup of plain yoghur
1/2 cup of tomato passata
1/4 cup of olive oil
3 crushed cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon of grated fresh ginger
2 teaspoons of cayenne
2 teaspoons of paprika
1 teaspoon of chili powder
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of salt

For the tomato raita:
1 cup of plain yoghurt (again, use the thick variety)
1 handful of cherry tomatoes, diced
1/2 bunch of chopped fresh coriander 
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1/2 teaspoon of ground cumin

In addition you should get some naan (you can make this yourself, but it's easier to buy it) and some mango chutney. In case you can't find naan and can't be bothered to make it yourself, just use some toasted pitta bread.

Preparation:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the tikka marinade in a bowl and mix well. Cut the lamb into longish strips and mix with the marinade. Cover and leave in the fridge for 4 hours.

2. Take the meat out of the marinade, pad dry and thread 2 pieces of meat on one skewer each (I recommend allowing some time for the meat to reach approximately room temperature before proceeding). Place on the barbecue (medium heat) and cook for about 6 minutes on each side, occasionally brushing with the remaining marinade. Set aside.

3. For the raita, mix all ingredients in a bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Recipe adapted from: Reuben Riffel, "Reuben cooks: food is time travel"

Indian extravaganza: Lamb- and Chicken Curry

Making Indian curry is actually fairly straightforward and you can follow pretty much the same steps no matter what kind of meat (or fish) you are using. The only thing that will need to adjust is the cooking time (longest for lamb and beef, shortest for prawns), the curry spice mix that you are using, and the amount of chili you want to use. Naturally you can put together the spice mix yourself (usually a combination of ground cumin, ground coriander, chili, tumeric, ground ginger, garlic, and a few other things), but I decided to make my life simpler by purchasing a high quality ready mix*. In this particular case, I am using a spicy curry for the lamb and a milder version for the chicken.

Ingredients (serves 4 in total):

500gr Chicken breast (alternatively you can use drumsticks)

500gr lamb (from the leg)
1 large red onion, chopped finely

2 tablespoons of grated ginger
2 red chilis, sliced
4 cloves of garlic, chopped finely

2 cans of coconut milk
1 handful of chopped coriander
1 large can of peeled tomatoes

Curry spice mix

Preparation: 

1.  Starting with the lamb curry  (since this takes longest), cut the meat into 2-3cm cubes. Heat some oil in a saucepan and add half of the onion, about 3/4 of the chili, half the ginger and half the garlic. Fry gently until the onion starts to soften. Add about 1 1/2 tablespoons of the curry mix, continue to fry for another 2-3 minutes, then add the meat. Stir will until the meat is evenly covered, then add the coconut milk (1 can) and 3 peeled tomatoes (without the juice). Season with some salt and pepper and simmer with a closed lid for about 1 1/2 hours until the meat is soft.

2. For the chicken curry, you follow pretty much the same steps, the main difference being that I used a milder curry mix and less chili. Also, assuming that you are using chicken breast, the cooking time will be much shorter (about 20 mins once the meat is in). In case you are using chicken thighs or drumsticks (with bones), the cooking time will be longer, roughly 45mins, 

3. Once the meat is soft and tender, season to taste and sprinkle with some coriander.

(*) In the UK they usually sell these in the form of a paste rather than a dry mix. In case you are using such a paste, simply start by frying the onion, chili, ginger and garlic briefly, add the paste and continue to fry slowly until the onions are soft. Add the meat and fry for another 10 minutes, stirring frequently. Then add the coconut milk and cook until the meat is nice and tender.

Moroccan Lamb

Whenever I cook lamb, I remember that fabulous scene from "My Big Fat Greek Wedding", where Toula tries to explain to her aunt that her boyfriend Ian, in addition to not being a "nice Greek boy", is also a vegetarian, to which the aunt replies: "Oh, don't worry. I'll make lamb!". The reality is of course that even acknowledged carnivorous don't necessarily like lamb and I always check with my guests before serving it at dinner parties.

This particular recipe is a veritable explosion of flavors. The lamb is stuffed with dried fruit, coriander, lime, ginger, and chilies and slowly roasted in the oven for 4-5 hours. Perfect for guests!

Ingredients (for 4): 

1kg leg of lamb (ask your butcher to take out the bone, the weight here is without the bone)
1 large red onion
150gr raisins
150gr dried apricots
150gr dried plums
Juice and zest of one lime
80gr fresh ginger
1 bunch of fresh coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cloves of garlic
1 red Chili
Salt & pepper

Preparation:

1. First you need to prepare the meat. This means that you have to cut the meat to produce a relatively flat and even surface (see pictures below). You can either do this yourself or ask your butcher to "butterfly" the lamb, he will know what to do. When the meat is prepared, rub generously with salt and pepper and place on the work surface. 

2. Now you have to prepare the filling. This is pretty simple: you only need to roughly chop up the dried fruit, the onion, garlic, ginger, and the chili and mix it all up in a dish. Add the lime zest and juice, a few tablespoons of olive oil, coarse sea salt, pepper, cumin and cinnamon, and the chopped  up coriander. The smell is going to be unbelievable!

3. Next you fill your lamb, for which you need to use roughly 2/3 of your mixture. Simply spread over the meat, press down and roll-up. The result is going to be a pretty large and somewhat unwieldy lump of meat, but not to worry, the result is going to be great! Tie the meat up firmly using some string and brown the meat from all sides in a frying pan.

4. Once that's done, remove the excess oil from the pan, add the remainder of the filling and place the whole thing in the oven at 120°C. The cooking time will be roughly 4 1/2 hours, but to be on the safe side you should allow for 5 hours. I highly recommend using a meat thermometer for this recipe. Once the core temperature has reached 75°C you can either take the meat out directly, let it rest for about 15mins (very important!) and then slice it for serving. Alternatively, you can also just turn the temperature down to 50°C and leave it in the oven for a bit longer (in case your guests aren't ready for the main course yet).

To serve, you remove the string and slice the lamb. This is inevitably a bit of a messy procedure, but simply place the meat and the filling in a large dish and place it directly on the table. I serve this with glazed carrots and garlic mashed potatoes.