Lucknow Spiced Roast Lamb

Another excellent recipe from Rick Stein's India. There's a fair amount of prep work in making and applying the spice paste, but once it's done and the lamb is in the oven, that's it. You can serve with quite plain accompaniments (roast potatoes or boiled rice, and some simple vegetables or salad) because the lamb is so rich and the spice paste so delicious. It's tempting to skip steps like frying the onions but I urge you not to; much of the paste should end up inside the roast, and you want it to percolate into the meat, so it needs to be tasty straight from the blender. With this mix of ingredients, that's easy.

Ingredients

• 2kg easy-carve (boned) leg of lamb
• 2 brown onions, thinly sliced
• 6 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
• 6cm ginger, roughly chopped
• 55g cashew nuts
• 75g desiccated coconut
• 300g thick Greek yoghurt
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 tbsp garam masala
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp Kashmiri (mild, bright red) chilli powder

Fry the onions in oil for 10 minutes until deep golden brown; add the garlic and ginger and fry for a further 2-3 minutes. Transfer to a food blender and blend to a paste with all of the other ingredients.

Sit the leg of lamb in a roasting tray and make 1.5cm deep and wide incisions all over, so you can push the spice paste in. If you like, you can take off the thickest part of the fat as well, but leave some on so the roast stays moist. Push the spice paste into the middle where the bone was removed, and into the incisions, and finally coat the surface of the lamb thickly. If you have any left over, plop it underneath the lamb. Add about 200ml of water to the bottom of the tray and cover the whole leg loosely with foil. Roast at 150C for 1.5 hours, then remove the foil and roast for a further 30 minutes uncovered. Allow to rest for 15 minutes before carving thickly.

Faux Middle Eastern Lamb Tart

OK Uncle Richard, you can look away now! This is a totally inauthentic bit of fusion food that I've taken even more time-saving liberty with than the original. But it was surprisingly tasty, and I think I will make it again.

Ingredients

• 1 red onion
• 500g lean lamb mince
• 1 tbsp tomato paste or three tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1.5 tsp ground coriander
• Pinch of dried chilli flakes
• 3 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
• juice of a lemon
• a generous handful of finely chopped mint, plus extra leaves to serve
• 3 sheets frozen puff pastry
• two more tomatoes
• handful of chopped flat-leaf parsley
• hummus made from one tin of chick peas
• 1/2 to 1 pack of feta cheese, to taste

Lay the pastry out to defrost, preheat the oven to 200C, and make the hummus, if you haven't already.

Finely chop the red onion and fry gently for a few minutes, until translucent and soft. Add the lamb mince and fry, breaking it apart, until browned. Crush in the garlic and stir through the paste, or finely chop the tomatoes and stir them in. Add the spices and fry for a few minutes, until fragrant. Turn the heat off and add half of the lemon juice, cumin seeds, and mint. (The mixture will appear undercooked compared to e.g. moussaka; you can cook it for longer, but it will get a blast in the oven later, so don't make it too dry.)

Spread the middle third column of each pastry sheet with hummus, then top with the lamb mixture, and scatter over the crumbled feta. Loosely fold over the outer thirds of the pastry to form a fat edge. You can slightly crimp the tops and bottoms of the sheets if it looks like the juices are going to run out. Bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until the pastry is risen and golden.

Meanwhile, dice the remaining tomatoes and combine with the parsley and the remaining mint, cumin seeds and lemon juice. When the tart is finished, top with this salad, the reserved mint leaves, and serve.

Lamb Kofta with Tomato Sauce

The well-meaning but somewhat dappy SO managed to buy 1kg of lamb mince when I'd asked for diced lamb -- I suppose it was just extremely well-diced. So I had to think of a way of using a huge amount of lamb mince, and I didn't really feel like mousakka or shepherd's pie. So for the first time, I made kofta! I had a few jars of homemade passata that a friend had given me so used one as a base for the tomato sauce, but you could easily use a tin of chopped tomatoes and cook it for longer. Loosely following this recipe, we didn't fry the onions first, and the final result had a distinctly raw-onion-y flavour. So I recommend frying them first, if only for a minute or two, just to get rid of that rawness.  I served this with aloo gobi and plain basmati rice.

Ingredients

• 1 onion (white or red)
• a large bunch of parsley
• a slice of day-old bread
• 6 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp chilli flakes (optional)
• 500g lamb mince
• 75g plain flour
• 1 egg, lightly whisked
• a tin of chopped tomatoes or a jar of passata
• 3 tbsp curry powder

Finely chop or zap the onion in a blender and fry for a few minutes, until the rawness has gone and the onions turn sweet. Meanwhile, blitz the parsley, bread, garlic and spices in a blender and dump into a mixing bowl. Fold in the cooked onions and lamb mince and blend well. Stir in the plain flour and then the egg. Bring the mixture together and form into large-egg-sized meatballs.

Fry in olive oil for a few minutes on each side, until browned. Meanwhile, cook the tomatoes with the curry powder in a large saucepan, seasoning to taste. As each kofta browns, drop it into the tomato sauce. Simmer for 20 minutes or so, until the kofta are done to taste and the sauce is thickened.

Open Moussaka

We had some nasu dengaku earlier in the week, but weren't hungry enough to eat the entire massive aubergine. Tonight I had a strong craving for the flavours of moussaka, but didn't want to leave the oven on for an hour and a half during peak electricity cost, nor wait that long to eat dinner. So I tried out a somewhat crazy idea: making all the bits of a moussaka but skipping the fattiest parts and the long baking time. It actually worked really really well! The only thing that made it difficult was that grilling the topping at the end makes the plate too hot to handle!

Ingredients:

...and it gets harder to take an attractive photo ;)

• half a large aubergine
• three potatoes
• one medium onion
• 300g lamb mince
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1/2 glass of red wine
• 2 tbsp tomato puree
• one tomato
• a small handful of parsley
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp allspice
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 tbsp flour
• 150ml milk
• a bay leaf or two
• 1/2 slice of bread
• a small handful of grated cheddar

Slice the aubergine lengthwise into four, brush with oil and BBQ or grill for 4-5 minutes each side, until caramelised and tender. Scrub and cube the potatoes, then set boiling, and drain and mash when done.

Finely chop the onion and fry for five minutes, then crush in the garlic and add the lamb, and fry until the lamb goes brown, about 4 minutes. Finely chop the parsley and tomato and add, along with the wine, tomato puree, cinnamon and allspice. Stir and season, then cover and simmer for 20 minutes, until thickened and tasty.

Meanwhile, melt the butter, combine with the flour and gently whisk in the milk; drop in the bay leaves and microwave for 4-5 minutes, stirring every minute, until thickened. Blend the bread into breadcrumbs and combine with the grated cheese.

Assemble the moussaka by spreading a layer of mashed potato onto the bottom of the plate, then topping with the lamb mixture. Pour half of the white sauce onto the lamb mixture, add the cooked slices of aubergine, then top with the remaining white sauce. Sprinkle over the cheese and breadcrumbs. Grill for 1-2 minutes, until the breadcumbs are golden and the cheese has just melted.

Mechoui Lamb

Some of our friends have a pomegranate tree, and this year it has produced some lovely fruit, which they were kind enough to bring into the office and give away. The seeds are a lighter pink than the ones I've seen in the store, and they are tart, astringent, and aromatic. I wanted to set them off well in a dish that really needed their sharp, middle-eastern flavour, and as it happened a friend had mentioned this Jamie Oliver recipe for mechoui lamb on Facebook. I bought a whole shoulder of lamb and gave it a go! Verdict: needs improvement.

The recipe itself is missing half of the ingredients mentioned in the text, which makes it quite confusing reading. 3 hours at 220C was not enough to get my lamb to 'fall off the bone', so what Jamie implied was a little action with a couple of forks turned into a full-on Silence of the Lambs cleaver job, with plenty of swearing and bits of lamb going everywhere. I improvised a roasting rack out of a few stalks of celery, and the resulting broth under the lamb was absolutely heavenly... but the recipe makes no use of it! It was also expensive: the whole thing took around four hours, most of which was spent with the oven on, and the lamb cost around $30, but it only fed two of us, with a little lamb for leftovers. And the spice rub went entirely on to the fat and bone, so was completely wasted. It also seems really odd to have a salad with a meal that you have to eat with your hands. Not to mention it had too much dressing for the surface area of the carrot, so it all ended up at the bottom of the bowl, wasted. Much better to include the salad ingredients IN the flatbread - the flavour combination was great, but Jamie's execution was terrible. So here follows my amended recipe, which I look forward to trying sometime.

Ingredients:

• 300g lamb neck fillet
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 orange
• 1 carrot
• a handful of fresh mint
• half a pomegranate
• a little natural yoghurt (optional)

Trim off any really fatty bits on the fillet, then rub in the spices. Roast in a 220C oven or bbq on a grill for 15-20 minutes, until cooked but still pink and tender on the inside; turn off the oven and remove the lamb to rest. Meanwhile, deseed the pomegranate into a bowl. Segment the orange over a salad bowl, letting the juices drip in. Peel the carrot and finely julienne with a sharp knife. (If you're in a hurry, you could grate it, but the texture won't be quite right.) Shred the mint and combine with the orange and carrot.

Pop the flatbreads in the still-hot oven for 30-50 seconds, until hot. Slice the rested lamb into thin disks and toss with the carrot and orange, then pile into the flatbreads and top with pomegranate seeds, and yoghurt, if using.

Braised Lamb Shank with Shallots and Red Wine

Earlier today I ran 12k. I knew in advance I was going to be pretty much crippled afterwards, and also desperately craving protein. So we picked up a couple of hearty lamb shanks at the butchers' yesterday, ready for a long stew into tenderness. In deference to my sad throbbing legs, we even did the grocery shop in a car, instead of on the bikes as usual! Fun times.

Anyway, back to the recipe. It's a Nigel special but seriously, I think people have been cooking meat like this since the Middle Ages. Or whenever it was that wine was invented. We also found out that in stews, you can happily use pickling onions ($6/kg) instead of shallots ($12/kg): after an hour they taste identical. I'm going to go fall over now.

Ingredients:

• two lamb shanks (or one, or four, depending on how much meat you feel like!)
• 250 ml red wine (doesn't have to be good enough to drink, but shouldn't be vinegar either)
• 250 ml vegetable or meat stock
• 3 sprigs of rosemary
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 8-10 shallots, or pickling onions
• 1 tbsp wholegrain mustard

In a casserole pot, fry the lamb shanks, turning once or twice so that they sear and get nice caramelised edges. Meanwhile, tail and peel the shallots, and split or cut any large ones in half. Slosh the wine onto the meat and add the shallots/onions, vegetable stock, rosemary, and crush in the garlic. Stir once, cover and simmer for an hour and a half, until the meat is falling off the bone. (Or you can pop it into a 160C oven; either way.) Stir in the mustard, and serve with fluffy mashed potatoes and some wilted spinach, with black pepper grated and lemon juice squeezed over.

Lamb 'Abritzi' with Courgettes

There's a huge glut of courgettes in the market at the moment, so we're incorporating them into everything we eat! This is the same classic family recipe as ever, but with one of the peppers replaced with a deseeded sliced courgette. The flavours work really well together! But I'm not sure I'd replace the green pepper completely.

Moglai Biriani

I've been in Tasmania for most of the last week, hence the lack of updates. Tazzie cuisine is excellent, featuring lots of fresh seafood and local produce. It was also wonderful to see so many apple varieties again - shame I couldn't take any back to WA, what with the quarantine.

Today we went into Perth to catch up on some bits and pieces of shopping we hadn't got round to in ages. One important task was to use a very generous book voucher we had received for the wedding from a friend. As you may have seen me complaining, I really could do with a few new cookbooks for inspiration! I found a rather hefty and inspiring tome - The Complete Asian Cookbook, which tours every country east of Turkey and north of Australia. I need to buy a few things from the market next weekend, but I did manage to put together a pretty amazing moglai biriani tonight, even with half the ingredients missing. What follows is what I actually made, but I thoroughly recommend picking up the cookbook yourself and trying the full, correct recipe.

Complete with Tasmanian Devil oven glove purchased
from Hobart's excellent Salamanca market!

Ingredients:
For the lamb:

• 1 medium onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 300g of lamb chunks
• 1/2 tsp crushed black onion seed
• 1 tsp powdered cumin
• 1/2tsp dried chilli
• a large handful of fresh mint leaves
• one tomato, roughly chopped
• juice of half a lemon

For the pilau:

• 1 medium onion
• 1 garlic clove
• 1/2 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
• 1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 100g basmati rice
• 3 bay leaves
• a chicken stock cube
• a handful of sultanas

For the topping:

• a handful of almonds
• half a cup of frozen peas
• a sprig of fresh coriander leaf

Finely chop the two onions and fry gently for five minutes, until golden. Crush in the garlic, stir for a further minute, then split between two pans, preferably a stainless steel suitable for cooking rice, and a heavy oven-proof casserole pot, like a small Le Creuset. To the latter, add the lamb chunks, onion seed, cumin, chilli, mint leaves, tomato and lemon juice; cover and simmer for an hour, checking occasionally and adding water if you find it sticking.

Meanwhile, toast the coriander seeds, cumin seeds, peppercorns and remove to a mortar and pestle once fragrant, then crush finely. Stir in the cinnamon and nutmeg, then add all of the spices to the onion and garlic in the stainless steel pan, along with the rice. Fry for a minute, then add the bay leaves, stock cube and sultanas, and twice as much boiling water as rice. Simmer for 20 minutes, checking occasionally and adding more water if you find it sticking - do not stir.

Ten minutes before the lamb is done, start the oven preheating to 160C. When the lamb is cooked and the sauce around it has thickened and become fairly dry, remove it from the casserole, and replace with half of the rice. Put the lamb back on top of the rice, then cover with the remaining half of the rice. Cover the casserole pot and place in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Five minutes before the end, lay the almonds out on a baking tray and toast in the oven; keep an eye out so they don't burn. Remove and roughly chop. Heat the peas in boiling water in a microwave, then drain. Remove the biriani from the oven and serve, topped with the almonds, peas and coriander leaf.

BBQ'd Herby Lamb Chops with Red Pepper Quinoa

Going right back to a Nigel Slater herb rub for this one, but applied to a couple of fat lamb chops from the local butcher. We only grill them until rare and mop up the juices with some quinoa spiked with roast red peppers and plum raisins, and a couple of salad leaves.

Lamb and Fennel Stew with Oranges and Mash

A simple stew to make over a lazy hour watching a fan-edited version of the Phantom Menace. The editors did their best but the film is still a train wreck. Luckily we had a delicious stew to cheer us up at the end!

Ingredients

Tastier than it looks ;)

• a large, ripe orange
• 350g stewing lamb
• 300ml of lamb, beef, or vegetable stock
• two bay leaves
• Worcestershire sauce
• half a head of garlic, loosest papery parts removed
• two medium leeks
• the tough parts of a large bulb of fennel (use the fronds and tender parts in a salad)
• salt and pepper

Using a sharp knife or peeler, peel several long strips of orange rind from the orange. In a cast-iron stewing pot, fry the lamb at a moderate heat until seared and caramelised. Pour in the stock, orange rind strips, bay leaves, slosh in a little Worcestershire sauce, and drop in the garlic, whole and unpeeled. Cover and simmer for forty-five minutes, checking occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking.

Tail and slice the leeks lengthwise, discarding any tough or discoloured leaves. Wash, removing all dirt and grit, then roughly chop. Add to the pot and cook for a further twenty minutes, turning every so often. Top up with more water if needed.

Finely slice the tough parts of the fennel, treating it like a smaller version of celery. Add to the pot and simmer for another fifteen minutes. Top up with more water if needed.

In a separate pot, put on some scrubbed potatoes and/or sweet potatoes to boil. Mash with a little salt, butter and mustard and set aside covered, to keep warm.

Test the lamb for doneness- it should be tender and falling apart. Turn off the heat and uncover the pot; slice the orange into segments, dropping them into the pot as you go, in the same way one would for a salad. Squeeze the excess juice into the stew. Fish the garlic head up to the surface and pop the squishy cooked garlic cloves out of their sheaths using a spoon, discarding the papery head when it's empty. Stir through, taste and season - mine needed about half a teaspoon of salt and a good grating of pepper. Serve with the mash.

BBQd Lamb and Aubergines with Tahini Dressing

Another post-workout meal created by my lovely husband slaving over a hot BBQ! Simply lamb chops, sliced aubergine, and a corn on the cob BBQd to perfection, served with a sauce of 1 part tahini to 2 parts natural yoghurt, the last of the bread from yesterday, and a few leaves for colour. Way more than I could eat, even after Zumba :)

Roast Tomatoes and Croutons with Cold Lamb

We're beginning to run down the fridge before I leave for Canberra, so we quarter and roast about a kilo of tomatoes with a big handful of oregano, marjoram and thyme  from our overgrown herb box. With some crispy croutons -- bread, cubed, tossed in olive oil and roasted in the still-hot oven for ten minutes -- the hot tomatoes perfectly complement cold lamb chops left over from yesterday, their acidity cutting through the fat of the lamb.

BBQ'd Lamb 'Abritzi'

We're finishing off the last of the very-reasonably-priced lamb chops (we froze half for later) and I felt like giving a classic family recipe an Australian spin. We put some brown rice on, then cut the peppers into fat strips and BBQ'd them with the lamb chops. Quickly halved some olives and squeezed some lemon juice, ready to go over the peppers hot off the barbie. Wonderful! And even faster than the 'normal' version.

BBQ Challenge Week: Day 2: Fresh Pittas, Cold Lamb, Beetroot Tzatziki

Followed the recipe I used to make in Cambridge, but on this side of the planet we're very happy to eat the lamb cold and the pitta fresh off the barbie. A little sliced avocado on the side and it's a delicious fast meal post-Zumba. And as always, I love the colour of this tzatziki! The pitta is fast and easy to make - it must be as my husband had the flat rounds of dough waiting to go on the barbie when I got home ;) This is a recipe for eight hand-size pittas.

Ingredients:

• 275 ml warm water
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 250g organic wholemeal bread flour
• 200g organic white bread flour
• 1 1/2 tsp dried yeast

Either put the ingredients into a breadmaker for half an hour of dough cycle, or combine the ingredients in a large bowl and knead for ten minutes. Turn out on to a well-floured surface and divide in half, then again, then again, so you have eight pieces. Roll each piece out until it is about 5mm thick. Cover the pittas with a damp tea towel, preferably not all on top of each other so that they have space to rise. Leave for 15 minutes to rise a little then place on a medium-hot barbecue flat plate and close the lid; they should take about 2 minutes each side. Cover with the tea towel again if you're not eating them straight away.

BBQ Challenge Week: Day 1: Lamb and Red Peppers

Yesterday we got a great deal at the butcher's, 2kg of lamb chops for $20. We froze half of them, and planned to bbq the rest; we could eat them hot off the barbie and cold later in the week. They're a forequarter cut so have a fair amount of challenge in the eating, although the meat is perfectly delicious and tender. But it put me off trying any kind of complex coating since that would make it too difficult to tear into with your teeth, which is what you really want to do with a cut like this.

Sides were simply peppers cut in half and bbq-grilled until tender and charred around the edges, a quick blend of hummus, a dollop of yoghurt, half a pitta, and some shredded lettuce. So it only took about 15 minutes to prepare everything, which was great timing as we were hungry after getting back from watching a football game (I know, what's happening to me here? :)

One-layer Moussaka

Here's a yummy classic that I've been iterating for a few years, and now I finally feel like I know how to cook it quickly, easily, without using huge amounts of oil, and getting the flavours exactly right. I think back in the day I probably started with Delia's recipe and have been modifying since. My latest take is to make it in a shallow dish, since:

1. Everyone loves the crispy lovely bits where the cheese melts and the aubergine skin crisps and YUM... so making it shallow means everyone gets more topping!
2. The movers broke my deep lasagne dish and I haven't bought a new one yet.

I made enough for eight people, but here's a recipe for just four, i.e. a single dish. Serve with rice or potatoes, and some steamed vegetables, a Greek salad, or just some fluffy lettuce leaves.

Ingredients:

• 500g lamb mince, or diced lamb if you prefer
• 1 white onion
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 2 tsp fresh thyme (or 1 of dried)
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 large or 3 medium aubergines (eggplants)
• 100g sharp cheddar or parmesan
• 1 slice of bread
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 eggs
• 350 ml milk
• two bay leaves

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Finely chop the onion and fry with the lamb in an oven-proof casserole dish over a moderate heat, adding a bare smear of oil to get the meat started. After five minutes, crush in the garlic, stir and cook for a further minute. Add the tomatoes, cinnamon and thyme, and a little hot water if the mixture looks dry. Cook for 30-40 minutes, stirring occasionally, and adding water if necessary to stop it sticking. Taste and season if necessary.

Meanwhile, top the aubergines and cut them into 1cm-thick lengthwise slices. Using a silicone or pastry brush, coat lightly with olive oil and stack in a baking tray at an angle, so that each has air around it. Roast for 35-40 minutes, until tender but not falling apart.

Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a large bowl for whisking. Stir together the flour and oil in a pyrex jug, then add the egg yolks. Carefully add the milk, a little at a time, and stirring thoroughly between each addition. Drop in the bay leaves and microwave for four minutes, stopping every minute to stir thoroughly. Continue until thickened.

Whisk the whites (I use an electric whisk!) and combine gently with the cooled lamb mixture. To assemble the moussaka, put the cooked lamb sauce on the bottom of the shallow baking dish. Then add the aubergine slices, slotting them together and overlapping if necessary, then pour over the white sauce. Grate the cheese and whizz the bread into breadcrumbs, and sprinkle them over the top.

Lamb Kebabs

Just lovely to come home to a sight like this:

Pre-marinaded lamb chops from the butcher, pitta from the supermarket, our classic fall-back Greek salad and a lovely beetroot tzatziki from this very blog! Thanks man :)

Souvalaki Lamb

The butchers here make lots of prepared meats, like satay kebabs and thai chicken. This one caught my eye as a nice marinaded lamb that should be good for a quick weekday meal - it was advertised as good bbq'd or fried. While the marinade was nice, I think they used the wrong cut of lamb for such quick treatment. Ours was heavily marbled, almost gristly, and although the meat in between the fat was tender, it wasn't the best eating. The sharp Greek salad I made to go with helped cut through to some extent, but this cut would have been a lot nicer simmered in a tomato-based sauce for a couple of hours. Next time!

Lamb with Tiny Parsnips and Peppers

This is a quick variant on my 'lamb and tiny tatoes'; instead of potatoes, I chopped one parsnip and one yellow pepper per person, a whole spring of rosemary leaves and a couple of garlic cloves, roasted in duck fat for 35 minutes at 180 C before popping the lamb chops on top for the last 15 minutes of cooking time, at 200 C. Served it with some blanched beetroot leaves, tossed with a dollop of creme fraiche, a squeeze of lemon juice and a tsp of toasted, crushed caraway seeds. It was the perfect post-run dinner, something you can pop into the oven, go have a shower, and then finish off when you're clean and bathrobed :)

Quick Roast Lamb and Cauliflower Quinoa

We had some lamb rumps to eat tonight; I arrived home late after a seminar and realised I hadn't done any preparation, but that the lamb would be better-tasting today than tomorrow. I browsed the internet looking for things I could make with ingredients I had, but couldn't find anything that I wanted. Eventually I went back to the fridge, looked through and picked out things that I wanted, and that I thought would go well.

In the garden we have a mint plant which grows enormously this time of year, and it has giant, coarse leaves that you can't eat raw. I thought that would go well with some lemon, and chanced some green olives and coriander in a quick herb rub. We had potatoes last night, and I didn't have time for brown rice, so I decided to break out the quinoa - I'm always pleased when I cook it, but often forget that I have it! With some fattened raisins and some quickly stir-fried vegetables, it made a pleasing accompaniment to constrast the lemony herb rub and deep savoury lamb. A delicious, entirely improvised meal that took just half an hour to prepare.

Ingredients:

• 400g lamb rump
• a few green olives
• a small handful of mint
• a small handful of coriander
• juice of half a lemon
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 200g quinoa
• a small handful of raisins or sultanas
• 2 spring onions
• 5-6 cauliflower florets

Preheat the oven to 220 C. Remove any large pieces of fat from the lamb rumps, and place in a small oven-safe dish. Blitz the olives, mint, coriander, lemon juice and cumin seeds very briefly in a blender, to make a coarse rub. Scrape this over the lamb and turn the pieces in it, pressing it in and making sure they are all covered. Roast in the oven for 20-25 minutes, turning once, until cooked on the outside and pink on the inside. Rest for 5 minutes before slicing into bite-sized pieces.

Meanwhile, set the quinoa cooking according to its packet instructions (I use 2:1 water:quinoa, simmer for 10 minutes then switch off and allow to absorb the remaining water). Soak the raisins in a little boiling water for 5-10 minutes until plump, then drain. Finely slice the spring onions into strips, and the cauliflower into thin slices. Stir fry in a little olive oil for 6-7 minutes, keeping on the move the whole time so that the vegetables cook through, and remove from the heat once they pick up a little colour on the edges. Combine the quinoa, vegetables and raisins, and serve the lamb on top, with any juices from the pan drizzled over.