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.

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? :)

Roast Aubergine Wedges

It's too hot to eat 'properly'. I just want sliced vegetables, dipped in hummus and duqqa. But I also want aubergines, roasted and meltingly soft. So - I made some - just sliced a very large aubergine into edges, tossed them in olive oil, ground black pepper and ground coriander, then roasted them for fifty minutes at 200 C, until caramelised and delicious. In future I'll need to make these on the barbeque, so as to avoid heating the house by running the oven... a new antipodean challenge!

Hummus

Today I'm still a little poorly so I've been working from home. At lunch, that gave me the opportunity to make my own hummus, which I haven't done in ages! It's really simple, and the individual ingredients keep for a long time, so you can quickly whip up a batch whenever you need. You can vary the flavours, at the end stirring in toasted spices, chopped herbs, even small pieces of roasted pepper or sundried tomato; or you can vary the proportions somewhat for a runnier, or more lemony, or more garlicky basic recipe.

Ingredients:

• 210g of cooked chick peas (i.e. the contents of one 400g tin, after draining)
• juice of half a lemon
• half of a medium or one very small clove of garlic
• 2 tbsp tahini
• 1/2 tsp salt
• olive oil
• paprika (optional)

Drain and rinse the chick peas, removing the goobery liquid they're packed in. Add to a blender along with the lemon juice, garlic, tahini, salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil. (If you don't have any tahini, you can toast 4 tbsp of sesame seeds over a low heat until golden on all sides, and use them instead, but the hummus will not be as smooth.)

Blend, starting on a low speed and then turning it up to create a smooth paste. Scrape the hummus out of the blender (use a piece of bread to wipe out the last few tasty bits!) and put in a bowl, smoothing down to remove air pockets. Dash over a little paprika and a touch more olive oil. Brilliant with sharp cheddar or hot lamb and some salad leaves.

Ernie is perplexed: how can I still be hungry after
the mouse he brought me as a snack at 5AM?