Cookbook Challenge: Week 18, BBQ

Recipe: Lamb with coriander and chilli
Cookbook: AWW Kitchen

Oh, the weather in Melbourne has been so lovely this week. Perfect for this week's Cookbook Challenge theme - BBQ.

Despite my best intentions when the Cookbook Challenge began, I still find myself on Sunday frantically trying to decide on a recipe, cook, photograph and blog before the week is over. I always intend to be more organised.... but.... I think I need the pressure!

It took me ages to decide on a recipe - you would think that BBQ would be an easy week, but for some reason I just couldn't find anything I particularly liked. It didn't help that I had run out of garlic and was trying to find a recipe without it. In the end, we just went out to buy some and I was able to finally decide on a recipe.

In the cookbook, the recipe is for chicken, but since I already had lamb chops I just went with them. I thought it was pretty good with lamb. Spicy, sourish, and fragrant - gosh it smelt good cooking on the BBQ. I served the chops with a simple baby spinach and chickpea salad, and I couldn't resist garnishing with some extra cut chilli. Delicious, and another challenge done for the week. Perhaps I'll be more organised next week?

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here

Update: See the round up for this week at My Food Trail.



Lamb with coriander and chilli

Adapted from AWW Kitchen

Serves 4

8 lamb chops

Coriander and chilli paste
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
4 fresh small red thai chillies, chopped coarsely
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 cloves
2 cardamon pods, bruised
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
10cm stick fresh lemongrass (20g) chopped coarsely
2 medium brown onions (300g) chopped coarsely
4 cloves garlic
1/3 cup (80ml) lime juice
2 teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Make the coriander and chilli paste by blending or processing all ingredients until the mixture forms a smooth paste.

Combine the paste and the lamb in a large bowl, cover, and let sit for at least an hour.

Cook the lamb on a hot BBQ for a few minutes, turn and cook for several more minutes until cooked.

Cookbook Challenge: Week 5, Greek

Recipe: Greek shortbread
From: The Australian Women's Weekly - The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining

Second recipe: Lamb skewers with tzatziki
From: Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course

This weekend, Rilsta from My Food Trail invited me, Kat from Spatula, Spoon & Saturday, and Arale79 from Meals on Budget over to do some baking. The idea was to bring a recipe, ingredients, do the baking, and then eat our creations!

I decided to kill two birds with one stone, and do Greek Shortbread so I could tick off my Cookbook Challenge recipe.

After a delicious lunch of Rilsta's moussaka, and Arale's watermelon and feta salad, Kat and I headed into the kitchen to make some baked goods. Let me tell you, Rilsta's kitchen is the cleanest, most organised kitchen I have ever been in. Since I'm a rather messy cook/baker, I had to try my best not to get flour, butter or sugar everywhere!

Fortunately, the shortbread were easy to make, so there wasn't much of an opportunity to make a mess. However, I over softened the butter, so the shortbread dough was EXTREMELY soft, and very difficult to shape. I mostly plopped bits of dough on to the tray and poked them into rough crescent shapes!

When the biscuits were ready, they were meltingly soft and crumbly. I think that may have been because the butter was so soft. I didn't do very well coating them in icing sugar though - whoops!

We finished off the afternoon with Kat's delicious semolina and yoghurt syrup cake and some home made ice cream from Rilsta. It was a fun day, thanks gals!



When I got home, I managed to do another recipe for the Challenge - lamb skewers with tzatziki. I thought the lamb was tasty, but I do wish I had tasted the marinade before adding lemon juice. I thought it was a touch on the sour side. But apart from that, the lamb was nice and tender and I would try the marinade again.

See previous Cookbook Challenge posts here.

Update: Head to My Food Trail to see the round up of other people's posts this week.



Greek Shortbread
From The Australian Women's Weekly - The Complete Book of Modern Entertaining

250g unsalted butter, chopped and softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup (80g) pure icing sugar, sifted
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon brandy
1/2 cup (70g) finely chopped toasted flaked almomnds
2 cups (300g) plain flour
1/2 cup (75g) self-raising flour
pure icing sugar to coat

Preheat the oven to 160°C.

Beat the butter, vanilla extract and sugar in an electric mixer until it is pale and fluffy.

Beat in the egg yolk and the brandy.

Stir in the almonds and the sifted flours.

Take a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a sausage shape, tapering slightly at the ends. Bend it into a crescent. Repeat with the rest of the dough.

Place the shortbread on a lightly greased oven tray and bake for about 15 minutes or until slightly browned. Leave on the trays for 5 minutes to cool.

Dust the shortbreads heavily with sifted icing sugar and cool on a rack.



Lamb skewers with tzatziki

Adapted from Darina Allen's Ballymaloe Cookery Course

Serves 8

900g lean shoulder or leg of lamb

For the marinade:
300ml natural yoghurt
2 cloves crushed garlic
2 teaspoons ground corinader
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
juice of 1/2 lemon (I recommend tasting your marinade to see how sour it is before adding this)

Cut the lamb meat into 2.5cm cubes and season with salt and pepper.

Mix together the marinade, and put the meat into it for at least an hour (I left mine overnight).

Drain the meat and thread the pieces on to skewers.

Grill for 7-10 minutes on a barbecue until cooked, and serve with the tzatziki.

Tzatziki

1 cucumber, peeled and diced into 3-5mm cubes
salt
1 garlic clove, crushed
425ml greek or natural yoghurt
1 heaped tablespoon mint, freshly chopped
salt and papper

Put the diced cucumber into a sieve and sprinkle with salt. Leave it to drain for 30 minutes.

Dry the cucumber on kitchen paper and then place into a bowl with the garlic, yoghurt and mint. Stir well to combine and season with salt and pepper.

Jamie inspired roast lamb

This (rather unattractive) roast lamb was inspired by a recipe in Jamie Oliver's book, Cook With Jamie. In the book, he has a recipe for Mad Moroccan lamb (page 170 if you have it).

Jamie's recipe looked wonderful, but rather involved, and it included cous cous. I adore cous cous, but the Boys are not fans. But I liked the idea of the spices, especially since we all have colds. Subtle flavours are a bit lost on us at the moment.

I served the lamb with balsamic chickpeas (adapted from Jamie's recipe) and roast potatoes. For the potatoes, I parboiled them whole, then cut them in half and tossed in a glug of olive oil and 1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds, coriander seeds, chilli flakes plus a good seasoning of salt and pepper. They went into the oven for half an hour.

The lamb was too well done for my liking, but it still tasted good. I'm an "bit of this, bit of that" kind of cook, so truthfully I have no idea if all the spices and stuff I put in are necessary for yumminess. Possibly not, so consider the recipe below a guide more than anything!




Jamie inspired roast lamb with balsamic chickpeas and roast potatoes

Serves 6-8

For the lamb

1 x 2kg shoulder of lamb
2 teaspoons cumin seeds
2 teaspoons coriander seeds
2 teaspoons black mustard seeds
2 teaspoons chilli flakes
6 large cloves of garlic
Zest from one lemon
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 teaspoons salt

For the chickpeas

1 large red onion, peeled and sliced
1 cinnamon stick
salt and pepper
1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
100ml good quality balsamic vinegar
200ml water

Preheat the oven to 220 degree C. Score the lamb in a criss cross pattern about 2.5cm apart.

In a mortar and pestle, crush the garlic cloves with the salt.

In a dry pan, toast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds and black mustard seeds over a medium heat until fragrant. Tip them into the mortar and pestle and add the chilli flakes. Crush it all together, then add the lemon zest and lemon juice. Mix it all up with a spoon, it should be like a paste. Rub this all over the meat, making sure you get it into the cuts. Put the lamb on a rack in a roasting pan and put into the oven for about 1 & 1/2 hours (mine went in for 2 hours which was too long unless you like well done meat). After the lamb is cooked to your liking, take it out of the oven and allow it to rest for 10 minutes.

For the chickpeas, heat some olive oil in a large saucepan and fry your onions and cinnamon with a pinch of salt and pepper for about 15 minutes or until softened. Don't hurry this. Add the chickpeas with the water and the vinegar. Simmer on a medium heat until nice and thick, then remove from the hob and serve with slices of the roast lamb.