Lamb
Mediterranean Meatballs with Basil Tomato Sauce
Middle-Eastern Lamb Burgers with Lime Couscous and Courgettes
Arabian Shepherd’s Pie
Shepherd’s Pie
Robert’s Gypsy Stew
Chilean Lamb Stew with Pumpkin and Sweetcorn
Slow-braised Lamb with Flageolets
Lamb Khoresh with Rhubarb
Anchovy and Rosemary Roast Lamb
Lamb Boulangère
Desert Lamb with Brown Rice Pilaff
Some people in Mousehole can remember when Dylan Thomas and his young wife Caitlin lived in the village. It’s possible, it is often said, that he was inspired by the backstreets of Mousehole for the tittle-tattle ‘voices’ in the mythical village Under Milk Wood. One of the main gossiping spots in Mousehole used to be outside the butcher’s when it was at the top of Brook Street. These days, the corner shop is called Cornish Rock and sells gemstones. You can’t buy fresh meat in Mousehole except on Thursdays, when Vivian Olds, a butcher from neighbouring St Just, drives round the village in his special refrigerated van. You see him parked up at different spots, or striding around in his white pork-pie hat and cotton coat delivering orders. If you buy from the back of the van, which I often do, the order is dealt with on a miniature butcher’s block. The chill cabinet is surprisingly well stocked and it is generally possible to buy eggs, home-cured bacon and collar joints, organic chickens, steak for pasties and minced meats, but lamb is the local speciality. Cornish lamb, particularly if has been reared in fields close to the sea, is exceptionally fine.
MEDITERRANEAN MEATBALLS WITH BASIL TOMATO SAUCE
Serves 4
There is something gently therapeutic about making meatballs. It is so satisfying to roll them between your hands, turning a mound of minced meat into neat little balls. These are cooked in a tomato sauce and served, Italian-style, over pasta. The mixture can be doubled or trebled to feed more: just scale everything up in proportion.
1 large onion
50g butter
½ tsp fresh thyme leaves
400g can chopped tomatoes
sugar
salt and pepper
20 basil leaves
1 thick crustless slice of bread
2 milk or thin cream
1 egg yolk
500g minced lamb
400g linguine
chunk of Parmesan to serve
Peel, halve and finely chop the onion. Melt half the butter in a large frying pan or similarly wide-based pan and gently soften the onion, stirring frequently and adding the thyme after 5 minutes. Cook for about 15 minutes in total until the onions are limp and soft but hardly coloured. Tip half of the onions into a mixing bowl and add the tomatoes to the onions left in the pan. Season with ½ a teaspoon of sugar, a generous seasoning of salt and pepper and about 150ml of water. Simmer the sauce for 10 minutes. Shred half the basil leaves and stir them into the sauce.
Chop the olives quite finely. Shred the remaining basil. Tear the bread into pieces and soak in the milk or cream until soggy. Give the soggy bread a squeeze to get rid of excess liquid and add it, remaining basil, olives, egg yolk, meat and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper to the onion in the mixing bowl. Mix and mulch everything together with your hands, pressing the mixture into a ball. Rinse your hands, leave them wet – this helps prevent the meat from sticking to your hands – and pinch off small lumps of mixture, rolling between your palms into cherry-tomato-size balls. Lay the balls out on a plate as you go. The dish can be kept waiting at this point; simply cover the plate with clingfilm and chill in the fridge. It’s quite a good idea to chill the balls for about 20 minutes anyway, to encourage them to firm up.
Coordinate the pasta cooking time with the final stage of cooking the meatballs. Reheat the tomato sauce and when bubbling away nicely, drop in all the balls, shaking the pan so that they are all immersed in tomato sauce. When the sauce has returned to boiling, reduce the heat and cover the pan. Cook for 6–8 minutes or until the balls are firm and cooked through. Pile the meatballs and sauce over the drained pasta. Serve immediately, with Parmesan to grate over the top.
MIDDLE-EASTERN LAMB BURGERS WITH LIME COUSCOUS AND COURGETTES
Serves 4
It’s lovely, sometimes, to serve a meal on one big platter, letting everyone tuck in without fuss and formality. Meals like this one, which are quick and easy to prepare but look stunning and appear complicated, are perfect for such treatment. The lamb burgers are loaded with interest and their small size makes them extra appealing. It’s important, incidentally, in order to achieve the intended textures and flavours, for the courgettes to be al dente and the burgers pink in the middle.
3 tbsp olive oil
50g pine kernels
1 red onion
50g bunch of coriander
500g minced lamb
salt and freshly milled black pepper
750g courgettes
½ chicken stock cube
generous pinch of saffron stamens
200g couscous
2 limes or small lemons
100g feta or soft goat’s cheese
Heat ½ a tablespoon of the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat and, when hot, stir-fry the pine kernels for a couple of minutes until pale golden. Tip on to a double fold of kitchen paper to drain. Peel, halve and finely chop the red onion. Wash the bunch of coriander and shake dry. Set aside a few sprigs and chop the bunch, stalks and all, very finely. Place meat, onion, pine kernels and coriander in a mixing bowl. Add 1 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper, then use your hands to mix and mulch the ingredients, forming them into a ball. Rinse your hands and, with wet fingers, divide the ball into four equal pieces. Divide each quarter into four pieces again and use your hands to roll and pat into small patties-cumburgers. Set aside on a plate as you go. Cover the patties with clingfilm and store in the fridge for at least 10 minutes to chill and firm up while you prepare the couscous and courgettes. The patties can be kept safely for up to 24 hours and will freeze perfectly.
Trim the courgettes and cut lengthways into 3 or 4 thick slices. Dissolve the chicken stock cube in 400ml boiling water. Stir in the saffron. Place the couscous in a bowl, stir in the stock, juice of ½ a lime and 1 tablespoon of olive oil. Cover and leave for about 10 minutes to hydrate. Heat a griddle pan for several minutes until very hot. Smear the courgette slices with the remaining oil and cook briefly on both sides on the griddle. Arrange on a large platter and season with salt, pepper and the remaining lime half. Cook the burgers without moving for 3–4 minutes a side. Arrange the burgers next to the courgettes. Fork up the couscous and pile it next to the burgers and courgettes. Crumble the goat’s cheese over the courgettes and strew over the reserved coriander sprigs. Serve with lime wedges to squeeze over the top.
ARABIAN SHEPHERD’S PIE
Serves 6
Reinventing favourite dishes like shepherd’s pie is a dodgy business. The whole point about them is that they are reassuringly familiar. This pie, made with leftover roast lamb or chicken, provides the all-important comfort-food factor, with just enough spin to excite the jaded palate. Adding saffron-soaked sultanas and couscous instead of flour to thicken the pie, with chickpeas and ground coriander and cumin, transforms the mood of what used to be a way of finishing up the remains of the roast. Topping the pie with crushed rather than smooth mashed potato and seasoning it with more hauntingly flavoured cumin completes the makeover.
salt and pepper
3 tbsp sultanas
pinch of saffron stamens
4 carrots
1 chicken stock cube
400g can chickpeas
400g can Eazy fried onions or 2 medium onions and 2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp ground coriander
3 tsp ground cumin
600g roast lamb or chicken
2 tbsp couscous
1 lemon
50g bunch coriander
2 tbsp olive oil
Pre-heat the oven to 400°F/200°C/gas mark 6. Boil the unpeeled potatoes in plenty of salted water until tender. Drain, return to the pan and cover with cold water. Leave for a minute or so, drain and remove the skins. Crush the potatoes into chunky pieces. Meanwhile, place the sultanas in a cup, add the saffron and just cover with boiling water. Leave for a few minutes to soften. Trim and scrape the carrots, then grate on the large holes of a cheese grater. Dissolve the stock cube in 500ml boiling water. Drain the chickpeas, rinse with cold water and shake dry. If using Eazy fried onions, tip them into a spacious, heavy-bottomed pan placed over a medium heat and stir in the ground coriander and 2 teaspoons of cumin. Cook, stirring to distribute the spices, for a couple of minutes before adding the carrots. Stir thoroughly, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan and cook for 5 minutes. If using fresh onions, peel, halve and finely chop them and cook for about 15 minutes in 2 tablespoons of olive oil to soften before proceeding with the recipe. Tear the lamb or chicken into bite-size chunks and stir into the pan. Add the sultanas and their saffron soaking water. Stir in the couscous and then the stock. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes until the couscous has hydrated and thickened the mixture. Taste the gravy and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and lemon juice. Coarsely chop the coriander and stir into the mixture. Tip into a suitable gratin-style, ovenproof dish. Spoon the crushed potato over the top. Season with the remaining cumin and dribble with 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Cook in the oven for 15 minutes until the potatoes are crusty and the filling is piping hot and bubbling up round the edge.
SHEPHERD’S PIE
Serves 4–6
Serve with Chang’s cabbage (page 260) or frozen peas.
1 large onion
3 medium carrots
1 celery heart
2 tbsp dripping or lard
leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
salt and pepper
750g good-quality minced lamb
1 tbsp flour
2 tsp tomato ketchup
1 dsp anchovy essence
150ml water
for the mash:
1.5kg floury potatoes
100ml milk
50g butter
freshly grated nutmeg
extra butter
Pre-heat the oven to 360°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Peel, halve and finely chop the onion. Scrape, trim and grate the carrots on the largest holes of a cheese grater. Finely chop the celery. Heat most of the dripping in a heavy casserole and fry the onion over a medium heat for a few minutes. Add the celery, carrot, thyme and bay leaf, season with a little salt and pepper and cook until the vegetables are tender. Transfer to a plate. Add the remaining lard to the pan and briskly fry the meat, stirring until it changes colour. Sprinkle over the flour, stirring it in thoroughly, add the ketchup, anchovy essence and then the water. Cook for a few minutes and then return the vegetables to the pan. Leave to simmer for 30–45 minutes until thick and nicely amalgamated. Adjust the seasoning. Remove the pan from the heat, tip the contents into a suitable shallow earthenware dish and leave to cool and firm.
Peel the potatoes, cut into even-sized pieces, rinse and boil in salted water until tender. Drain into a colander. Heat the milk and butter in the potato pan until the butter melts, then return the potatoes (putting them through a Mouli-legumes gives perfect mash) and crush to make a fluffy but firm mash. Season with black pepper and nutmeg. Spoon the mashed potatoes over the cooled minced meat, fork the potato up and dot with butter.
Bake the pie for 30 minutes until the top is golden and crusted and the meat is beginning to bubble up around the edge.
ROBERT’S GYPSY STEW
Serves 6
Artist Bob Osborne’s long relationship with St Ives inspires his work in many different ways. After a particularly heavy sea storm in Mousehole, when lots of boats were smashed to pieces in the harbour, he collected a huge pile of wood from the wreckage and stored it in the garage below the Fish Store. Almost a year later, he ended up with a series of works which he exhibited in a mixed show at the Royal West of England Academy in Bristol. Bob cooks in much the same way as he makes his art, flinging things together in an inspired way. He introduced this robustly flavoured lamb stew to the Fish Store. It cooks slowly in the oven while you do something else and is a lovely dish to come back to after a coast walk on a cold, wintry day. It’s one of those dishes where exact quantities and timings are irrelevant. Serve with jacket potatoes cooked at the same time. Like all stews, it is even better the next day.
6 neck or shoulder chops
flour for dusting
2 tbsp olive oil
salt and freshly milled black pepper
10 carrots
2 × 400g can of chopped tomatoes or bottled passata
½ bottle red wine
3 medium onions
200g fine green beans
2 tbsp chopped flat-leaf parsley
Pre-heat the oven to 325°F/170°C/gas mark 3. Peel the garlic, leave them whole and place in a spacious, heavy-bottomed pan with a tight-fitting lid that can accommodate all the ingredients. Trim the chops of excessive fat. Dust with flour, shaking away the excess. Brown the chops in batches in hot oil in a frying pan. Place the chops over the garlic cloves and season with salt and pepper. Scrape and trim the carrots and then cut into big, chunky pieces. Add to the pan and pour over the chopped tomatoes or passata. Season again with salt and pepper and then add the red wine. Peel, halve and thinly slice the onions and add them to the pan, pushing them down under the liquid. Season for a final time. Cover and put the pan in the oven. Cook for at least 2 hours. Remove the lid and check that the onions have wilted into a soft slop and that the carrots are tender. If not, return to the oven for a further 30 minutes. When you are satisfied that the stew is done, remove it from the oven; it can sit happily, covered, for up to 30 minutes. Top and tail the beans and cook in plenty of boiling, salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and loosely stir into the stew with a garnish of parsley.
CHILEAN LAMB STEW WITH PUMPKIN AND SWEETCORN
Serves 4
A colourful autumn stew with a high proportion of vegetables to meat. Oregano gives the gravy a haunting flavour. Serve with garlic bread (see page 319).
1 bay leaf
4 tbsp vegetable oil
400g pumpkin
salt and pepper
1 leek
3 large carrots
2 corn on the cob or 340g can sweetcorn
1 tbsp dried oregano
500g diced lamb fillet
½ tbsp ground cumin
500g small new potatoes
1 chicken stock cube dissolved in 600ml boiling water
2 tbsp finely chopped flat-leaf parsley
Peel and dice the onion. Place onion and bay leaf in a spacious heavy-bottomed pan with 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil and stir. Cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes while you peel, seed and cut the pumpkin into kebab-size chunks. Stir the pumpkin into the onion, season with salt and pepper, cover the pan and cook for a further 5 minutes. Trim and slice the leek. Rinse under cold running water, shake dry. Scrape the carrots and cut into chunky rounds. Hold the sweetcorn upright on a work surface and slice the corn off the cobs with a sharp knife. Stir leek and carrot into the onion together with the oregano, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes. Dust the meat with cumin. Heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil in a frying pan and quickly brown the meat in batches. When all the meat is browned, add it to the pan with the sweetcorn, potatoes and chicken stock. Bring to the boil, reduce the heat so the stew simmers steadily, cover the pot and cook for 30 minutes or until the meat is tender. Adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper, stir in the parsley and serve. Reheats perfectly.
SLOW-BRAISED LAMB WITH FLAGEOLETS
Serves 6
A rather wonderful chemical reaction seems to take place when lamb shoulder is stewed with tomatoes. The acidity in the tomatoes liberates and mingles with the fat in the meat and results in a particularly luscious gravy. When the succulent sweetness of slowly cooked onions and buttery, mellow flavour of garlic are added to the equation, the result is rich and subtle. These gorgeous juices are absorbed by the pretty green flageolet beans.
2 large onions
12 shallots
12 garlic cloves
350g dried flageolet beans, soaked overnight in plenty of water or 2 × 400g cans flageolet beans
2 bay leaves
4 branches of rosemary or a small bunch of thyme
2 branches of sage
salt and pepper
300ml red wine or half-wine, half-water
2 × 400g cans Italian tomatoes
1 lemon
1 shoulder of lamb or 2 half-shoulders
2 tbsp anchovy essence
Peel, halve and thinly slice the onions. Trim the root end of the shallots, peel and separate the sections, leaving the shoot-end intact. Smack the garlic cloves with your fist to loosen the skin, then peel it away. Tip the canned flageolet beans into a colander or sieve, rinse under running water and drain. If using dried flageolets, boil them in plenty of unsalted water for 15 minutes and drain. Tip the beans into a large casserole or ovenproof earthenware dish. Push the sliced onions amongst the beans with the shallots and herbs and all but two of the peeled garlic cloves. Season very generously with pepper but lightly with salt. Pour over the wine, tomatoes and their juice, breaking up the tomatoes a bit, and squeeze over the lemon juice. Trim away any flaps of fat from the lamb and make several incisions in the fleshy parts with a small sharp knife. Peel and slice the two remaining garlic cloves and post the slivers in the gashes. Smear the anchovy essence over the lamb (this adds a subtle, salty pungency) and push the joint into the beans. Cover the casserole or use foil to make a lid and cook for 4 hours in the lower part of the oven at 275°F/140°C/gas mark1. Remove the lid, increase the oven temperature to 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7 and cook for another hour. Serve directly from the dish, carving the meat in chunky pieces. Serve with green beans.
LAMB KHORESH WITH RHUBARB
Serves 6
Rhubarb gives this herby, saffron-scented Persian lamb stew a haunting sharp, fresh, clean flavour. The meat cooks until it is meltingly soft but ends up curiously pink. The dish reheats perfectly and suits being served with rice, which in Persia is cooked, burnt-style, to make a golden crust on the bottom. A scoop of creamy yoghurt works well with this.
2 large onions
75g butter
salt and pepper
1.3kg boned lamb shoulder, scrag end of neck or chump chop
2 tbsp olive oil
2 generous pinches of saffron stamens
juice of 1 lemon
600ml chicken stock
80g bunch flat-leaf parsley
handful mint leaves
500g rhubarb
400g basmati rice
600ml cold water
Greek yoghurt to serve
Peel, halve and finely slice the onions. Melt just under half of the butter in a spacious, lidded casserole dish and stir in the onions. Season with ½ a teaspoon of salt, cover the pan and cook gently, stirring once or twice, for 15–20 minutes until soft, sloppy and hardly coloured. While the onions are cooking, cut the meat into big cubes, trimming away excess fat and gristle. Using half the remaining butter and the olive oil, brown the meat in batches in a frying pan – this ensures the meat browns rather than sweats – transferring to a plate as you go. Soften the saffron in a little boiling water. Add meat and saffron to the sloppy onions, season generously with pepper, and add half the lemon juice and the stock. Bring the liquid to the boil, immediately turn down the heat to very low and simmer gently for an hour. Finely chop the parsley and mint leaves, setting aside about 1 tablespoon of parsley. Melt the last of the butter in the frying pan and gently stir-fry the chopped herbs for a couple of minutes. Trim the rhubarb and cut into 5cm lengths, discarding any silky skin that presents itself. Stir the rhubarb and herbs into the pot and cook, uncovered, for a further 20–30 minutes until the sauce has reduced slightly and thickened, and the rhubarb disintegrated. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt, pepper and the rest of the lemon juice. Just before serving, stir in the remaining parsley. Twenty minutes before you are ready to serve, wash the rice in several changes of cold water. Place in a lidded pan with the water, bring to the boil, immediately turn the heat to its lowest level, clamp on the lid and cook for 10 minutes. Turn off the heat, do not remove the lid, and leave the rice for 10 minutes to finish cooking in the steam.
Serve the khoresh with rice and a scoop of yoghurt to stir into the juices and mix with the rice.
ANCHOVY AND ROSEMARY ROAST LAMB
Serves 6
This is a deeply savoury, particularly special way of roasting lamb. Anchovy, garlic and rosemary are all posted, together, in little slits over the joint and it’s cooked in the Italian wet-roast style, with lemon juice and white wine. The idea is that the meat roasts and steams all at once and you end up with ready-made gravy and noticeably moist, tender meat. We cook this over and over again. Mashed potato is good with it. Mint sauce isn’t. The recipe comes from Roast Chicken and Other Stories.
small bunch of rosemary
1.8kg leg of lamb
2 × 50g can anchovies
75g soft butter
½bottle white wine
juice of 1 lemon
black pepper
Pre-heat the oven to 425°F/220°C/gas mark 7. Peel the garlic and slice lengthways into 3 pieces. Divide the rosemary into 12 little sprigs. Make twelve 5cm-deep cuts over the lamb and stuff half an anchovy, a piece of garlic and a sprig of rosemary into each cut. Cream the butter with the remaining anchovies to make a soft, smooth paste and smear this all over the joint. Make a bed for the lamb in a roasting tin with any remaining rosemary. Pour over the wine, squeeze the lemon juice over the top and season generously with black pepper. Roast in the hot oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350°F/180°C/ gas mark 4 and roast the lamb for a further hour or slightly more, depending how well done you like your meat. Baste with the winy juices from time to time during cooking. Remove from the oven and rest for 15 minutes before carving. Drain the meat juices into a jug to serve as gravy; if it seems too thin, a quick bubble on the hob first will do the job.
LAMB BOULANGÈRE
Serves 6–8
This is a useful roast to know because it can be adapted to suit any number of people. I have made it for two, using a small half-shoulder, and as many as twelve, when two legs of lamb were perched over the finely sliced potatoes. All you need to remember is to prepare approximately the same weight of potatoes as the weight of the lamb. The secret of its success is making sure that the potatoes and their aromatic seasoning are completely cooked and all the water absorbed before the lamb goes into the oven. The potatoes under the lamb end up soft and imbued with juices from the meat, while the uncovered potatoes will be gorgeously crusty. I usually serve it with a big bowl of green beans and redcurrant jelly rather than mint sauce.
approx. 2kg large potatoes
1 large onion
3 large sprigs thyme
2 bay leaves
6 garlic cloves
100g butter
salt and pepper
approx. 2kg leg or shoulder of lamb
Pre-heat the oven to 450°F/230°C/gas mark 8. Peel the potatoes and slice them no thicker than a 50p coin. Some food processors have an attachment that will do this in a trice; I use a mandoline, which takes slightly longer but is far quicker than a knife. Rinse the potatoes and leave to soak in cold water. Peel, halve and finely chop the onion. Strip the leaves off the thyme stalks and finely chop. Finely chop the bay leaves, discarding the stalk. Peel the garlic and finely chop 3 cloves. Mix all the chopped ingredients together. Use 25g of the butter to grease a large earthenware gratin-type dish or roasting pan. Cover the bottom of the dish with one-third of the drained potatoes. Season with salt and pepper and scatter half the onion mixture over the top. Make another layer of potatoes and onion and finish with a layer of potatoes. Smooth the top and press down evenly with the flat of your hand. Dot with butter and season with salt. Add sufficient hot water to almost cover the potatoes and cook for about 90 minutes until all the liquid has been absorbed and the top layer of potatoes is nicely browned.
Meanwhile, prepare the lamb. Peel and thinly slice the remaining garlic and post it in slits cut in the flesh. Use the rest of the butter to smear over the lamb. Season with salt and pepper. Calculate the cooking time, allowing between 15 and 25 minutes per pound (450g), depending how pink you like your lamb. Place the joint on top of the potatoes and turn halfway through cooking. Remove the joint to a warmed serving platter and rest for 15 minutes, leaving the potatoes in the oven.
Carve at the table, giving everyone some of the meat juices and letting people help themselves to potatoes – there are never enough!
DESERT LAMB WITH BROWN RICE PILAFF
Serves 6
The combination of garlicky roast lamb with a garlic and cumin crust and nutty brown rice pilaff eaten with a dollop of creamy Greek yoghurt seems particularly Arabian as the seagulls squawk and swoop around the Fish Store.
8 garlic cloves
salt
2 tbsp olive oil
1.8kg shoulder or leg of lamb
3–4 tbsp ground cumin
for the pilaff:
50g flaked almonds
50g butter
handful of broken vermicelli or fine thread egg noodles
300g brown rice
50g raisins
1 chicken stock cube, dissolved in 750ml boiling water
2 decent-sized onions
2 garlic cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp ground cinnamon
salt and pepper
Greek yoghurt to serve
Pre-heat the oven to 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Peel all the garlic and slice three cloves lengthways into 3 pieces. Chop the remaining garlic, sprinkle it with a little salt and use the flat of a knife to crush it to a paste. Stir the paste into the olive oil and smear this all over the joint. Dust the joint liberally with ground cumin. Place in a roasting tin and roast, turning once during cooking, for about an hour and a half or slightly more, depending how well done you like your meat, until crusty and brown on the outside. Rest for 15 minutes before carving.
While the lamb is cooking, make the pilaff. Sauté the almonds in a little butter in a medium-sized, lidded pan until browned. Set aside. Sauté the vermicelli until golden and set aside. Add the last of the butter and stir in the rice, tossing until glossy and golden. Return the nuts, raisins, vermicelli and stock to the pan and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat immediately, cover the pan and simmer gently for about 45 minutes until the rice is tender.
Meanwhile, peel, halve and finely slice the onions and garlic cloves. Cook gently, stirring often, in the olive oil, adding the cinnamon and a generous seasoning of salt and pepper. Cook until very limp. Fork the onions into the cooked rice and tip on to a platter to serve.