Moroccan lamb filo pie

This is a brillant way of using up bits and pieces from the fridge. You can do all sorts... Moroccan, Indian, Italian, vegetarian... whatever takes your fancy.

In this particular instance we used a small piece of lamb neck fillet, mushrooms, spinach, a sweet potato, courgette, an onion, a small handful of pine nuts and a little bit of feta. Everything was browned and then we added chopped garlic, ginger, a chilli, nutmeg, ground cumin, a little cinammon and some stock. We left it to simmer for 20 minutes or so until the potato was soft.

Allow the filling to cool a little and then you can build the pie in a loose bottomed cake tin. Overlap 6 sheets of filo pastry so that half of each slice is outside the tin perimeter, then spoon the filling into the middle. Fold over the filo sheets and scrunch to form a lid. Brush the top with a little oil before baking in a pre-heated oven for approx 20-30 minutes. Serve with appropriate accompaniments... with this we had a tomato chutney and salad.

Tandoori rack of lamb with saffron rice

First, make your tandoori spice mix. We used ginger, coriander, cumin, mustard powder, garlic, cardomom and paprika - mixed with yoghurt. Marinade the rack of lamb for at least an hour.

Roast the lamb in a hot oven for 15 minutes, and then put it under the grill for a final 5 minutes for pink meat.

Whilst the lamb is cooking prepare the side dishes. We had basmati rice with shallots and saffron, plus paneer cheese cooked with tomatoes, spinach and mushrooms.

Rack of lamb with braised summer vegetables

Marinaded and ready for the grill:

Oh my god this is gorgeous!!!! I think we’ll be making this throughout the summer it’s THAT good.

We saw a very similar recipe in (we think) Sainsbury’s magazine and adapted it slightly. You don’t want to exclude the anchovies (even if you’re not keen on them) as they melt into nothingness but impart a really nice flavour in to the broth.

Ingredients (serves 2):
Rack of lamb (6 or 7 cutlets)
1 leek, diced
6 shallots, peeled and halved
6 mushrooms, sliced
2 anchovies, chopped
1 little gem lettuce, cut into quarters
½ cup of peas
250ml chicken stock
50ml white wine
Small knob of butter
1 tbl sp olive oil

Marinade for lamb:
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 tbl sp white wine vinegar
1 tbl sp good quality olive oil
A small handful of mint leaves chopped

Plus new potatoes, to serve

• In a frying pan, fry the diced leek and halved shallots in the butter and oil until they start to soften.
• Then add the mushrooms and anchovies and cook until the anchovies dissolve.
• Add the stock and wine and turn the heat down to a low simmer. Allow to cook for 10-12 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pre-heat the grill to high. Prepare the marinade for the lamb by mixing the sugar, salt, pepper, oil, vinegar and chopped mint in a bowl.
• Place the rack of lamb on a grill tray and pour over the marinade.
• Grill the lamb until cooked to your liking, approx 10 minutes should be plenty for lamb which is cooked on the outside and slightly pink in the middle.
• Remove the lamb from the grill, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
• Add the peas and gem lettuce quarters to the broth and turn the heat up a little until the lettuce has wilted slightly and the peas are cooked. Carve the rack of lamb into cutlets.
• Pour the veg and broth into deep bowls and place the lamb cutlets on top.
• We had this with new potatoes which was perfect.
  

Lamb curry

We rarely follow a recipe for curries and instead prefer to bung in what we fancy or have to hand. Although not authentic in the slightest, they always taste good.

Ingredients (serves 2):

500g diced lamb (we prefer slow cook cuts of lamb in a curry)

4 large tomatoes, diced

8 mushrooms, sliced

1 onion, diced

1 chilli, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

1cm piece ginger, minced

seeds from 4 cardomom pods

1/2 tea sp garam masala

1/2 tea sp masala curry powder

1/2 tea sp turmeric

1/4 tea sp ground cumin

olive oil

rice, to serve

small bunch of chopped coriander, to serve (optional)

• The easiest (and tastiest) method we find is to chop the meat into bite sized chunks and place in a bowl with the garlic, ginger, chilli, cardomom, garam masala, cumin, curry powder and tumeric. Add a large glug of olive oil, stir everything well and leave to marinade for an hour or so.
• When the meat has marinaded for a while, fry the onion in oil in a non stick pan.
• When the onion has softened remove them from the pan and set aside.
• Add the marinaded lamb and cook until browned.
• Add the sliced mushrooms and then the onion back into the pan
• Add the diced tomatoes and a little hot water. Start with 150ml but you may want to add a little more later.
• Season with salt and pepper and leave on a low heat to simmer for at least an hour, stirring often and adding a little hot water (or stock) if you think it needs it.
• Serve with rice and some chopped coriander if you like.

Lamb Tava

This recipe is a Cypriot dish taken from the book Falling Cloudberries by Tessa Kiros. We've adapted it ever so slightly.

It's great in the fact that everything gets cooked all together at the same time in one dish, so there's very little washing up.

Ingredients: (serves 2)

4 lamb chops

1 red onion, roughly chopped

1 red pepper, roughly chopped

2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped

2 large potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

4 large tomatoes, cut into large chunks

A handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

2 tea sp cumin seeds

1/2 tea sp ground nutmeg

olive oil

salt and pepper

• Preheat the oven to 170 degrees.
• Place the lamb chops in a deep casserole or baking dish.
• Add the potatoes, pepper, onion, garlic and tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper before adding the herbs and spices. Add a large glug of olive oil (good quality olive oil is best for this) and mix everything up really well.
• Pour about 100ml of water over the top and mix again.
• Cover the dish with foil and bake in the oven for about 1 hour. At this point remove the foil and place back in the oven for another 1.5 hours or so. Give it a good mix every half an hour or so.
• Sometimes we serve this on its own but on this occasion we added a handful of mixed greens to the dish for the last 15-20 minutes or so of cooking. Tessa suggests serving it with salad or sauteed vegetables.

Moroccan lamb meatballs

This is the second thing we've made using the speciality sausages we bought from Alternative Meats. These sausages are called Algerian Merguez style and are a very tasty slightly spicy lamb sausage.

Ingredients:

6 lamb sausages (skins removed)

white onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, diced

green pepper, diced

a handful of mushrooms, sliced

tin of chopped tomatoes

1 handful of chopped mint

1 handful of chopped coriander

200ml veg stock

a pinch of cinammon

tea sp of honey

tea sp of ground cumin

olive oil

salt and pepper

• Pre heat the oven to 170 degrees.
• Mould the sausage meat into meatball shapes and brown them in olive oil, then set aside in an ovenproof dish (or tagine).
• In the same frying pan, fry the onion, garlic and pepper for 5 minutes or so. Then add the sliced mushrooms.
• Add the remaining ingredients (chopped tomatoes, stock, herbs, honey, cumin and cinammon) and allow to simmer for 5 minutes or so. Season with salt and pepper.
• Pour the sauce over the lamb meatballs and place the dish in the oven.
• Allow to simmer in the oven for around 30 minutes or so before serving with cous cous.

Slow roasted shoulder of lamb with garlic, rosemary and anchovies

Ingredients (serves 2-3):

1/2 shoulder of lamb

4-5 small/medium sized potatoes

1 carrot

3 celery sticks

5 shallots

a handful of mushrooms

2 rosemary sprigs

1 bay leaf

2 cloves of garlic

2 anchovies

200ml of white wine and 200ml of stock

olive oil

salt and pepper

mixed greens

• Pre heat the oven to 180 degrees
• Peel the potatoes, carrot, celery, shallots and mushrooms and cut into chunks
• Make slits with a sharp knife in the lamb and insert slices of garlic, rosemary and a piece of anchovy into each. Season the lamb with salt and pepper.
• Add some olive oil to a large oven and hob proof dish and place on the hob on quite a high heat.
• Add the lamb and chopped veg to the dish and allow them to brown for around 5 minutes. Turn the veg and lamb over half way through.
• Transfer the dish to the hot oven and allow to roast for 30 minutes.
• Take the dish out of the oven and turn the heat down to 140 degrees. Add the wine, stock and bay leaf and put back in the oven for another 2 hours.
• Check on it occasionally and turn the veg and lamb over every half an hour or so. Add a little more stock and/or wine if it needs it and season to taste when there is about 10 minutes cooking time left.
• Towards the end of the lamb cooking time, cook some mixed greens in salted water and drain.
• When ready, turn the oven off, remove the dish from the oven and transfer the lamb shoulder to a chopping board. Put the dish with the veg and juices in it back into the oven to keep warm.
• Slice the meat off the bone - you should be able to pull chunks away using just a fork.
• To serve, place a pile of the greens in a deep bowl and ladle the lamb and vegetables on top. Finish by ladling some extra juices from the pan on top of the lamb.

Tapas

Tapas - herby lamb meatballs, patatas bravas, courgette and feta fritters and tomato salad

Ingredients and method (serves 2, add bread and a green salad and it would probably serve 4):

Tomato sauce:

glass of red wine

3 fresh tomatoes, chopped

tub of chopped tomatoes

dessert spoon of tomato puree

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, diced

4 mushrooms, sliced

olive oil

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees
• Fry the onion, garlic and mushrooms in olive oil until soft
• Add the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes
• Add the red wine and turn up the heat to allow the alcohol to cook off for 5 minutes or so
• Turn the heat back down, add the chopped tomtaoes and puree and let the sauce simmer for 45 minutes

Lamb meatballs:

approx 200g lamb mince

approx 200g lamb mince

1/2 red onion, diced

1 clove of garlic, diced

a handful of fresh herbs (basil, pasrley, thyme, rosemary) roughly chopped

salt and pepper

• Combine the lamb mince, onion, garlic and herbs and season
• Form into meatball shapes and refridgerate until needed
• Brown meatballs in a frying pan before placing them on top of the prepared tomato sauce. Be careful not to stir them in to the sauce too vigorously as they can break up
• Cook meatballs and sauce in a hot oven for 20-30 minutes

Patatas bravas:

2 medium sized potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks

2 fresh tomatoes, chopped

1/2 red pepper, diced

pinch of red chilli flakes

1 small clove of garlic, diced

olive oil

• Par boil the potatoes before putting them in an oven proof dish with a splash of olive oil and placing them in the oven
• After 15 minutes or so fry the garlic and red pepper in olive oil until soft
• Add the tomatoes and chilli flakes to the garlic and red pepper and continue to cook for 5 minutes
• Add the garlic/pepper/tomato mixture to the potatoes and stir through
• Return potatoes to the oven for approx 20 minutes

Courgette and Feta fritters:

1 egg

1 table spoon of plain flour

1 courgette, grated

approx 25g of feta, cut into small chunks

3 spring onions, chopped

salt and pepper

olive oil

• Salt the grated courgette and place in a sieve over another bowl. Leave for 15 minutes and then press the courgette mixture to remove the exess water
• Mix together the egg, flour, feta, spring onions and grated courgette and refridgerate for an hour or so until needed
• Heat some oil in a non-stick pan
• Placed 4 heaped spoonfuls of the batter mixture in the pan and press each one down lightly. Turn each one over after 3-4 minutes to cook the other side

Tomato salad:

2 tomatoes, cut into chunks

1/4 cucumber, diced

handful of olives

approx 25g of feta, cut into chunks

olive oil

pepper

• Mix together the tomatoes, olives, cucumber and feta
• Dress with olive oil an black pepper
• Refridgerate or cover until needed

Lamb with garlic and herb risotto

Ingredients (serves 2 with leftovers):

arborio rice (approx 2 cups)
1 white onion, chopped

2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1 sprig of rosemary, chopped

2 sprigs of thyme

pinch of dried oregano

a few mint leaves

1/2 pack chestnut mushrooms, sliced

1/2 bag spinach

1/2 cup of peas

approx 400ml veg, lamb or chicken stock

approx 300ml white wine

parmesan, to taste

salt & pepper

olive oil

lamb (either rack, chops, cutlets etc)

1. Fry the onion and garlic until soft
2. Add the mushrooms and herbs and cook for another 5 minutes or so, season with salt and pepper
3. Add the rice and stir through to coat the grains
4. Start to add the stock and wine in stages and keep adding liquid when it needs it
5. After about 15-20 minutes put the lamb chops/cutlets under the grill and cook to your liking
6. Add the spinach and peas to the risotto for the last 5 minutes of cooking. Add the grated parmesan and adjust the seasoning
7. Serve the lamb on top of the garlic and herb risotto