Sunday dinners

So - despite the fact that Mark and I went out for a (fairly substantial) Sunday Lunch today (at the Swan at the Globe Theatre), I didn't let that stop me cooking something proper for dinner. But then, there's always space to eat something out of the Moro cookbooks...

I decided to make a recipe from each - 1. Lamb with Muslim Mediterranean marinade from book 1 (which I've made before, and absolutely love) and 2. Winter tabbouleh from book 2.


The winter tabbouleh demanded pomegranate molasses - basically a pomegranate syrup. The recipes for this on the internet suggest mixing fresh pomegranate with lemon juice and sugar to do this, but the Moro recipe just uses the fruit itself, which I think tastes delicious.
Anyway - to make pomegranate molasses, I popped the juicy seeds of three pomegranates into a sieve rested over a stainless steel pan, being careful to remove all the bitter yellow pith. I then used a pestle to squeeze the juice through the sieve into the pan.

The recipe suggests using a potato ricer or a mouli - I don't have either of those, and a trip to Peter Jones to buy one proved fruitless, so I used the sieve instead. I think it works just as well, but is probably a little more time consuming.


I then reduced the pomegranate juice over a medium heat until it had a syrupy consistency - this took about 40 minutes, and created about 3-4 tablespoons of syrup.

And now for the rest..... Firstly,the Muslim Mediterranean Marinade - mix together:
2 crushed garlic cloves 
The juice of 1 lemon 
1 teaspoon of tomato puree 
2 teaspoons of roughly ground cumin seeds 
2 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh coriander
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 onion, finely chopped
freshly ground black pepper.

 

Then rub the marinade into the lamb steaks, and leave to stand for an hour or two.

In the meantime, I prepared the Winter Tabbouleh - an interesting version of the better known cracked wheat salad:

140g medium-course bulgur wheat

1 head white chicory, finely chopped

1/2 fennel bulb, finely sliced

75g cauliflower (raw), chopped into pieces of about 1cm each

4 tablespoons roughly chopped flat leaf parsley

2 tablespoons of roughly chopped mint (I forgot I had run out making Nigella's salad yesterday - so used coriander instead, which also works well)

2 tablespoons roughly chopped walnuts (I didn't use these - I hate nuts in salad)

seeds of 1 pomegranate, yellow pith removed

I cooked the bulgar wheat per the packet, drained and left to cool slightly. I then combined the bulgur wheat with all the ingredients in a large salad bowl (my picture looks like a lot - I doubled up to make lunches for the week)

For the marinade, I mixed 1 crushed garlic clove with 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and 2 tablespoons of the pomegranate molasses. I then added 1 tablespoon of water and whisked in 3 tablespoons of olive oil. Here, the recipe calls for four, but I didn't think it needed it. It also suggests adding sugar if necessary - I, again, didn't think it was required as it tastes sweet enough just with the pomegranate and cinnamon. I then added some ground pepper, and added it to the salad and tossed it all together.

At that point, Mark was getting quite vocal about his hunger, so I pan fried the lamb (with all the marinade) over a medium heat until it was just a little pink, before serving it with the salad.

 

Amazingly, even though I had my doubts that the two combined would work, they tasted lovely together and the meal was met with some great feedback - definitely something I'll be making again!