Marinate and Slather

A good flavoursome marinade can do wonders to a piece of meat, it can tenderise, season, flavour, add fat to the cooking process. But why stop there, you’ve put the effort into getting extra flavour in the cooking process, why not rest the cooked meat in some reserved (unused) marinade, or slice it and toss it through an embellished marinade? Amp up and reinforce the flavours.

Marinade
Garlic, crushed
Parsley, chopped
Mint, chopped
Rosemary, chopped
White wine vinegar
Grape seed oil
Salt & Pepper

I mixed the above together in a bowl to taste, adjusted and got it just how I liked it, herby with a fiery garlic bite. I also made sure I made more than I needed as I then tipped half of it into another bowl and set aside. Some nice fatty lamb shoulder chops were left to develop in the marinade for an hour or so and then broiled until browned, cooked through and the fat golden and crispy on each side.

While the lamb was cooking I added the following to the reserved marinade, maybe a little Frank's red hot too.

Slather (marinade additions)
Jalapeños, diced
Pickles, diced
Grain mustard

When the lamb was cooked I transferred the chops to the waiting slather and let them rest ten minutes, just long enough to be comfortably handled. The bones were easily cut out, bone marrow pushed out and into the slather, and the meat sliced and tossed back through the slather.

This is great as a meat salad, or even better in a fresh wheat tortilla heated over a flame adding it’s own burnt edges to the mix.

Kefta mkaouara (tagine)

I never need an excuse to fire up the tagine, it’s a great cooking vessel and it’s always nice to come across new recipes to try rather than getting stuck in a rut. This recipe is based on a Rick Stein one which stuck in my mind from one of his various television shows, so this may not be his exact recipe, but how I remembered it and adjusted for my tastes.

500g Lamb or beef mince
Cumin, ground
Paprika, hot smoked
Chilli, flakes
Parsley, finely chopped
Salt
1 Egg, per portion
Tomatoes, 1–2 cans
Garlic, 3–4 cloves sliced
Onion, diced

In a bowl, combine the mince, a couple spoons of cumin and paprika, add chilli to your taste, salt and a handful of parsley. Mix together, but don’t overwork the meat. Use a tablespoon to scoop even portions of meat and roll into balls. Set aside.

Heat the tagine over a medium heat, when up to temperature add a good glug of olive oil and start browning the meatballs. When lovely and brown all over, spoon into a bowl and set aside.


Add the onion and garlic to the tagine and sauté until translucent. Add a spoon or two of cumin, paprika, salt and chilli to taste. Gently cook the spices out. Add the meatballs back to the tagine and stir. Pour in the can of tomatoes, and add some liquid if needed, you want the liquid to cover at least half the meat ball. Place the lid on and cook for 5–10 minutes.

Taste and season. Make little wells where you want to place the eggs and crack them in. Place the lid back on and cook for about 5 minutes, depends on the size of your eggs.


Serve with some good flat bread and strained yoghurt.

Kofta tagine

This is based on a recipe by Rick Stein from one of his many many travel cooking shows, the TV rather background noise than being watched when this dish piqued my interest, mainly because it was easy enough for me to remember to write down later, and a good excuse to drag the dusty tagine off the shelf and put it to use. The following is from memory, I did try to find a copy in one of his books I have, but no dice. It’s surprising quick and easy to throw together and perfect for the cooler months.

Kofta
Lamb mince
Cumin, ground
Salt
Hot paprika (or sweet and cayenne pepper)
Parsley, chopped

• Roughly work all the ingredients together and form into balls. Set aside.

Tagine
4–5 Garlic cloves, minced
1 Onion, finely diced
1 can of good quality diced tomatoes
Cumin
Hot paprika
1 egg per serve

• Heat the tagine over a medium heat, add in a good glug or three of olive oil and thoroughly brown the kofta. Transfer to a bowl. Sauté the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the paprika and cumin, cook until fragrant.
• Pour in the tomatoes, thin out with a little water if needed. Bring to the simmer, and adjust seasoning.
• Arrange the kofta in the tagine, leave space for the eggs to be broken in, cover and cook for a couple of minutes, or until the kofta are cooked through.


• Crack in the eggs individually, cover the tagine and cook for about 2 minutes, or until the white is set but the yolk is still runny. Serve up with some crunchy crusty bread.

Lamb heart with salsa verde

With offal becoming more mainstream I am beginning to see a wide range of some quality offerings up front and centre of all places at the supermarket. I was picking up a few things for dinner as the other half was out for the night when I spied some rather tasty looking lamb hearts, and a bargain too, knowing full well I’d be pushing water uphill if I ever tried to offer up some to her it seemed like providence, so they were grabbed up.


I decided to keep things reasonably simple, the heart is cleaned and broken down, arteries, valves  sinew and little blood clots removed. The pieces of meat set aside as I prepared a simple salsa verde, very finely diced parsley combined with garlic and white anchovy broken down to a paste with a back of a knife, lemon juice, salt, pepper and good quality olive oil. Let the salsa sit as long as you can, the more time you give it the better the flavour will be.


The heart meat was tossed to lightly coat in some oil, and then a little salt and pepper sprinkled over, then the pieces were cooked medium rare like a steak in a screaming hot pan for probably not even a minute a side, but depends on how big the piece is. As I was just serving myself, I was a bit little rustic on the presentation, a good schmear of salsa down on a board, and each piece of meat sliced to show of it’s juicy interior then arranged on the salsa verde, a little pile of salt and pepper to adjust the seasoning as you need it.

Cumin lamb with hand pulled noodles

Finally back from holiday, a week of sun and lounging next to a pool with a cocktail in hand, life was hard, however the cool Wellington weather snapped me back to reality as soon as I stepped out of the airport, gone was the hot 30ºC sunny weather. Unfortunately I didn’t come back with just photos and good memories of the much needed break, I was also covered in jellyfish stings which I sustained on the last day snorkelling through a rather dense patch of their larvae. So after a few days recuperating I set my mind to the next kitchen project. It came together serendipitously as much of my ideas do, I was at Yans supermarket stocking back up on the usual suspects, tapioca starch, fish sauce, rooster sauce and the like, and then killing a little time at the butchers next door waiting for the other half, when I spied a rather good looking, and dirt cheap, lamb fore-quarter. My mind shot back to my last trip to Auckland and Xi'an Food Bar with their amazing hand pulled noodles. I went into research mode, and hunted down methods and recipes, which are a bit lacking in detail online, so this is my version muddled together from many sources, one person's way to knead, someone else's resting times, and quantities fudged by me from what I could find. There are so many recipes just saying ‘enough’ water. How much is enough? Fundamentally it’s just flour and water so surely the ratio is important. I ended up deciding on 60% hydration (10 parts flour 6 parts water), when I first started out I thought it may be a bit dry but with the resting steps the flour hydrates and becomes soft, pliable, and incredibly stretchy with the kneading method.

Noodles (enough for 4 portions or 2 very very generous servings)
400 g Flour, high gluten such as bread flour
240 ml Water
5 g salt (dissolved in the water)

Tip the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the centre. Pour in the water and mix to form a ball of dough. Don’t worry about mixing it too much, it doesn’t need to be a smooth ball of dough. Cover with cling film and let it rest for 15 minutes.


Place the dough on a clean work surface and start to roll out into a log about 60cm in length, take one end and fold it in half to the other end, repeat the rolling and folding for about 15 minutes, giving it a chance to rest for a couple of minutes every five or so. The dough should be very smooth by now, if not keep kneading. Place the dough in a clean bowl and cover with cling film, let it rest at room temperature for a hour.

Take the dough and shape it into a rectangle about 10 cm wide and 3–4 cm thick, cut off a 1 cm slice, so you should have a rough rectangle of dough 10 cm long, 3 cm wide and 1 cm thick, coat the slice in a neutral oil, such as Canola or rice bran, lay the piece on a tray. Repeat until done. Cover the tray with cling film and place in the fridge for a hour.

Take the dough out of the fridge ten minutes or so before you want to cook, and have a large pot of salted water on the boil, you want to stretch the noodles and get them straight into the pot, this is best done one serving at a time, so don’t try and do the whole lot at once, four or five pieces is a pretty generous serving size.


Take a piece of dough and start to stretch it out holding one end in each hand and oscillating it up and down as you go, slapping it against the bench. Sounds a bit weird, but easy once you’ve got the hang of it. Lay the pulled noodle out on the bench and move on to the next. Once the serving of noodles have been pulled, gently roll a rolling pin over the noodles, don't really use any pressure just let the weight of the pin help even out the noodles.

Now for the fun bit, take one end of a noodle and tear it down the middle right to the other end, don’t tear it in two leave it as one long noodle, get them into the boiling water and cook for about 3 minutes, once they float to the surface they’re cooked.


Here’s a good video to show the method of stretching out the noodles, and hey it’s got Andrew Zimmern in it.

Cumin Lamb
1 fore-quarter of lamb or shoulder roast
Cumin
Chilli flakes
Garlic
Salt
Prickly ash (Szechuan pepper)
Rice bran oil
Black Bean Chilli sauce, literally chilli oil with fermented black beans in it.

I had a pretty awesome fore-quarter of lamb, I ended up removing the neck and fore shin for a later use, but a decent shoulder cut should do the job too.


In a blender combine 3 parts cumin, 1 part chilli, 1 part prickly ash, a good tablespoon of salt, 6 or 7 cloves of garlic, a good portion of a jar of the black bean chilli sauce (about a cup and a bit) and a little extra oil. Blitz until it forms a rough paste.


Make slashes in the fat on the flesh side of the meat and generously rub the paste all over the lamb. Wrap tightly in a few layers of cling wrap and leave it to rest overnight in the fridge.


Preheat the oven to 220ºC. While the oven is heating remove the lamb from the fridge and let it sit on the bench for about 30 minutes. Slice up a few onions and make a trivet in a roasting pan with the slices and some coriander, add a splash of cooking rice wine. Lay the lamb on top of the onions, cover tightly with tin foil and place in the heated oven, turn the temperature down to 150ºC and cook for 4 hours 30 minutes.


Getting it all together
Remove the lamb from the roasting dish, carefully, wrap it in tin foil and set aside to rest and also to cool down a little so it can be pulled apart a little easier. When it’s cool enough to handle remove all the bones and roughly shred with a fork. Cover and set aside.


Strain the cooking liquid into a pot with some chicken stock, a 50/50 mix of stock and cooking liquid is good, bring to a simmer and reduce a little, taste and season as you like, I added a little extra chilli. There will probably be quite a bit of fat in the sauce so you can skim it if you like, I skimmed quite a bit off and then tossed it through the shredded meat, a bit decadent.

Get a few containers of garnishes ready it will make plating up much easier, coriander leaves, sliced chilli, bean sprouts, lime, chilli oil, sliced spring onion.

Serving
Place a ladleful of the sauce into a large bowl along with a portion of lamb a few coriander leaves and chili slices. Get the noodles pulled and into the boiling water, when cooked pull out with tongs and toss in the bowl with the lamb, transfer it to a serving bowl and garnish with extra coriander, chilli, bean sprouts, spring onions and chilli oil, or whatever else you have. Get the next portion on the go.

Slow lamb roast

You can roast a pork belly for a few hours at 180ºC and you'll end up with some pretty good meat with great crackling, or you could cook it forever, as I have done in the past, or even follow David Chang's method of 6 hours or so uncovered basting now and then (Lucky Peach, Issue #2, page 121). You can confit your meat at 130ºC for 3 hours, and have pretty good results, you won’t be complaining about what you're eating, or you could confit it at 90ºC, or even 70ºC for 12 or 24 hours and have great results. There isn't really any extra effort involved, just a bit of extra time, or in some cases a lot of extra time, but it is passive, it doesn’t require you to be in the kitchen.

The idea of not having enough time to cook is being pushed on us more and more these days, Food in a Minute for example. While Food in a Minute is a shill hocking off what are essentially prepackaged meals, there are others out there making their living off meals under 30 minutes, or X number of ingredients or less, it just feels like they’re making the act of cooking a chore and something that you need to get done as fast as possible. It shouldn’t be that way, it should be a pleasure, something you don’t mind taking that extra bit of time to do well. But I don’t have kids, I cook for two usually, so maybe I don’t understand the pressures of cooking for the whole family. Maybe I’m just a nut, I like getting home and spending time in the kitchen cooking dinner, then after eating, and cleaning down, I may do a bit of prep work for the next nights meal.

My preferred method when it comes cooking a leg of lamb, roast it low and slow. Save the med-rare cooking for the cuts that show it off best, rack, backstraps, rump. Leg (and shoulder) should be unctuous, falling off the bone, rich with it’s meaty lamb flavour, nothing beats it.


Spice rub
1 Tablespoon Cumin seeds
1 Tablespoon Coriander seed
1 Tablespoon Dried Thyme
1 Tablespoon Fresh Thyme
1 Tablespoon Salt (kosher)
1 Teaspoon Sweet Paprika
2 Garlic cloves
Olive oil

Grind all the ingredients (apart from the olive oil) in a mortar and pestle. When everything has been thoroughly crushed and ground together, add enough olive oil to form a thick paste.

The Lamb
Preheat the oven to 140ºC. Slice up a few onions and layer on the bottom of a roasting pan. Remove the lamb from the fridge and coat with the spice rub, place it on the bed of sliced onion. Leave the lamb out for about half an hour, which should be plenty of time for the oven to preheat, and take the chill off the meat (never cook meat straight from the fridge).

Half an hour later, put the lamb in the oven (uncovered) for 30 minutes, giving the spice mix a bit of direct heat to release its flavour. Remove the roasting pan from the oven, pour in 250ml of red wine, cover tightly with foil and return it to the oven for four and a half hours, basting a couple of times throughout the cooking.

When the long wait is up take the pan out of the oven and set aside to rest. Turn the oven up to 200ºC. Carefully remove the leg from the pan to a cutting board, and cover. Strain the liquid from the pan into a saucepan. Again, carefully transfer the leg from the board to the pan and roast for 15 minutes in the hot oven, giving it a nice golden crust.

Meanwhile, reduce the cooking liquid, but not too much, just enough to have a good strong sauce. Thicken it with a little arrowroot dissolved in water, do not bring the liquid to a boil again as it will become loose. I like arrowroot as it thickens without adding flavour, and it doesn't make the liquid cloudy, but if you prefer you could go down the traditional flour gravy method.

The meat should have a good golden crust and be falling off the bone tender, but not falling apart. It's perfect for a cold night, served on a parsnip & potato mash made with lots and lots of cream.

Lamb pizza

A Middle-Eastern inspired pizza for dinner tonight. It starts off just like every other pizza, with a basic dough. Although, instead of a variety of toppings finished off with melting cheese, this has a rich spiced lamb mince drizzled with olive oil, yoghurt and lemon juice.

Place a heavy tray near the bottom of the oven and preheat to 230°C.

Finely dice some celery, carrot and onion. Soften the vegetables in a pan with a little olive oil. When the onion is translucent sprinkle in a teaspoon (or so) of coriander, cumin, thyme and smoked paprika, add dried chilli flakes (as much or as little as you like). Cook until aromatic. Add about 500 grams of minced lamb, cook until brown. Finally add a jar (500 ml) of passata (or whiz up a can of tomatoes), cook until almost dry. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Set the meat aside to cool down.

Take a ball of dough and evenly roll out in to a thin round. Place the rolled out dough on a lined tray. Spread out a layer of cooled lamb mixture on the rolled out dough. Slide the pizza on to the hot tray in the oven.

Cook for about 6 minutes, it should be puffed up and brown around the edges, if unsure lift an edge to check if it's cooked underneath.

Remove the cooked pizza from the oven and sprinkle with some chopped parsley, a swirl of yoghurt, a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon juice.

I find the best way to eat this is fold it in half, pick it up and munch away, it's even better if you stuff a bit of herb salad in the middle.

Burger night

I'm a bit over beef when it comes to burgers, unless you get some good quality mince the beef doesn't seem to add much flavour. So lamb burgers were on the menu.


I had made a batch of celeriac salad the previous night to have with a roast, it's super simple and tasty. Julienne a celeriac (use a mandoline, so much easier), thinly slice some celery and red onion and stir through some home made garlic mayo.

For the garlic mayo, in a food processor or blender (or by hand if you wish) start mixing an egg, a splash of vinegar/lemon juice, a teaspoon of mustard and a clove of garlic. When the mixture has some volume and turned a pale colour, slowly start pouring in oil while the machine runs (I use a light oil such as grape, I avoid olive oil as it has a strong flavour). When the mixture is thick it's ready (it'll take a decent amount of oil 1 cup+).


The burgers! I flavoured the lamb with thyme, grated garlic, lemon zest, salt and white pepper. It's important to give the meat a really good kneed (like bread) to develop it and make sure it has a strong bond to itself. Let it rest for a while, and then shape in to patties and sprinkle each side with ground coriander.

Cook however you like, I usually start in a pan and finish in the oven. I highly recommend you don't cook your patties well done, leave it pink in the middle (pink not raw).


Pattie 70% cooked with a good coating of ewes milk cheese ready for the grill. They were the tastiest burgers we've eaten for ages.

The slow – quick lamb roast

Lamb roast with roast potatoes

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Ingredients
A bag you can seal
Butterflied leg of lamb
Duck fat
Garlic
Lemons (2–3)
Mint
Parsley
Potatoes (enough)
Yogurt (Natural, thick Greek style)

The Night Before

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Mise en place
Juice a lemon (keep rinds)
Peel and crush garlic
Blend (finely chop) parsley and mint

Method
Place in to the bag yogurt, mint, parsley, lemon juice, lemon rind, garlic, salt and pepper.
Shake bag to mix.
Place lamb in bag and knead to work the liquid into the meat.
Leave overnight in the fridge

The yogurt mixture helps flavour and tenderise the meat.

When you're ready to cook

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Mise en place
Remove lamb from fridge and bring to room temperature
Quarter potatoes (if small new potatoes, other wise 8ths)
Slice lemons (season with salt) and place on the bottom of a roasting dish, then place rack over the top
In another Roasting pan add a good 2–3 tablespoons of duck fat and set aside.
Heat oven to 180˚C

Method
Place the lamb in the roasting dish (with the rack and lemons) and poor over excess yogurt mix, and place in oven (cook approx 15–20 minutes per 500 gram for medium).
When lamb is done, remove from oven, place on board and cover to rest.
Then put temperature up to 220˚C place the roasting pan with the duck fat into the oven and let heat until almost smoking.
Boil a pot full of salted water, when up to the boil, add potatoes, cook for 3 minutes.
Drain potatoes and pat dry.
Quickly remove the roasting pan from the oven (place on a wooden board so less heat is lost from the pan) and tip in potatoes, careful not to splash hot fat on yourself, give a quick shake and return to the oven for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown then season with salt.
When there is about 5 minutes left on the potatoes, thinly slice the lamb leg ready to serve.

Serve with caramelised lemons (from roasting dish), salad, a simple yogurt dressing (lemon, mint & yogurt + seasoning) for the potatoes and lamb and enjoy.

Note: as the duck fat is so hot when you add the potatoes not much fat is absorbed by them, so it is not as unhealthy as it sounds, but damn tasty!