Epic harissa lamb roast

Last weekend, Mark suggested he take me out for a Sunday lunch - my counter-suggestion was that he buys the ingredients for me to cook for him instead. This may seem odd, but I had been wanting to try the slow roast harissa lamb recipe for a couple of weeks, and this was the perfect opportunity (and how I lived to regret it). 


In hindsight, this dish is wonderful - it tastes just beautiful and is (if I say so myself) one of the tastiest dishes I have ever made. So let's get started on the recipe for Slow Roast Shoulder of Lamb with Harissa, Spiced Pilaf Rice and Yoghurt (yes it deserves all capital letters). To add a bit of colour, I also made a grilled courgette salad and fresh beetroot -but I'll go into that later.


1 large shoulder of lamb - the recipe suggests 2kg, I used c 1.6kg - this also means the times I used were slightly less than in the recipe, but I have kept the original times for writing up
1*90g jar of rose harissa (I used Belazu, available in Waitrose)
salt& freshly ground black pepper
2 heads of whole garlic, cut in half;plus 3 extra cloves (peeled and minced)
Olive oil
1 lemon, quartered, plus 1 extra for squeezing
1/2 cucumber, lightly peeled
125g Greek style yoghurt (I used reduced fat, which may seem counter-intuitive given the amount of fat and calories in this dish)
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped
3 large onions (I used red ones), peeled and finely sliced
vegetable oil
100g sultanas (for info,the recipe suggests chopped dried apricots as a substitute)
1 heaped dessert spoon ground cumin
1 heaped dessert spoon ground allspice
A large pinch of saffron threads (c12)
Caster sugar
400g basmati rice (I used brown basmati)
500ml cold water
1 bunch coriander, leaves picked off and chopped
100g flaked toasted almonds - I only really needed half that, it depends how much you like almonds in food


Right - about 4 hours before eating, I preheated the oven at 175 C. I rubbed the shoulder of lamb with half the jar of harissa - the recipe suggests seasoning the lamb with salt as well,which I did, but I found it a bit too salty,so I'd probably leave this out - and then arranged the garlic halves in the bottom of a roasting pan. I added  the lemon quarters, sprinkled the pan with a little olive oil and salt and then placed the roast on top of the garlic and lemon. 

   

                       
I roasted the lamb in the oven for about 25 minutes, then turned the oven down to 130 C and roasted for another 3 1/2 hours. I basted the lamb about every half hour and, when the lamb was cooked, I turned the oven off with the door of the oven cracked slightly open and (as at this point the rest of the food was ready) put a couple of plates in the oven to warm.

About an hour before serving, I started preparing the pilaf - I used a large, heavy bottomed saucepan and put it over a high heat before adding a glug of olive oil, the onions, garlic and raisins. I fried this (it's important to stir constantly, as otherwise it can burn) over a high heat until the onions began to soften, then added the ground cumin and allspice, the saffron, a large teaspoon of harissa and a pinch of sugar. Again, I stirred constantly (scraping the spices off the bottom as I went) for about 5 minutes, before stirring in the rice until fully coated with the mixture.

I then added the water and covered the pilaf with a lid until the water began to simmer, then turned the heat down to its lowest setting and left it for 15 minutes - the recipe points out that as much steam should be retained as possible, so I barely lifted the lid. I then turned the rice off and left it for half an hour, lid firmly down.

Just before serving, check the seasoning of the rice (mine needed a bit more lemon) and sprinkle over the toasted almonds. I should note that brown basmati does work - but clearly needs a little more time and water than regular basmati, as it was noticeably too al dente....

In the meantime, I also made the yoghurt sauce - I quartered the peeled cucumber, removed the seeds and then chopped into 3mm cubes which I put into a colander over the sink. I seasoned the cucumber with a little salt, rubbed it in and left it for 30 minutes. After this point, I mixed together the cucumber, yoghurt, mint and a squeeze of lemon juice. Simples.

So, that the lamb, the pilaf and the yoghurt sauce. While that was all going on, I also made two other things, which you can fit around the rice:


1. TONY's AMAZING BEETROOT DISH (for which there is no official name)


My father is responsible for re-introducing me to beetroot with this dish alone. It's so yummy, I could eat just this dish for dinner. A bunch of beetroot will serve 2-4 people. You will also need olive oil, balsamic vinegar, dried basil and a large tablespoon of creme fraiche (I used half fat).


First, slice the beetroot finely (use a mandolin if necessary - I've done both with and without, and both work fine - just don't mandolin your finger like I did), then heat a glug of olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add the beetroot and make sure all slices are coated with olive oil. Fry for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly to make sure they don't burn, then add a large glug of balsamic vinegar, freshly ground pepper and a little dried basil. 

 

About 20 minutes later, add another glug of balsamic vinegar, a bit more dried basil and the creme fraiche, then stir for a couple of minutes.....and that's it! It looks a bit messy, but tastes wonderful. I wouldn't have beetroot any other way...

2. Bruce's grilled courgette salad


This is a simple but rather time consuming dish - you need to mandolin each of the courgettes and then individually griddle each of the courgette slices. So this should probably be done in advance, although without adding the dressing, otherwise the courgettes go soggy.


4 courgettes, topped and tailed, and mandolined into c 2mm slices
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 dessert spoon red wine vinegar
caster sugar
1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced (I used two)
olive oil
1 bunch fresh mint, leaves picked and chopped


Place the courgette slices into a colander, season with salt and leave for 1 hour, then dry on absorbent kitchen roll. Heat a griddle pan until very hot and then griddle each individual courgette slice until charred on both sides, then place the slices into a large mixing bowl.

Just before serving, add the vinegar, a pinch of caster sugar and the garlic -mix this with your hands - add pepper, a slug of olive oil and the chopped mint. Combine well and serve.

And now (drum-roll), the finsished product(s) - I loved this dish/combo, and have decided to engineer a dinner party just so that I can cook this again! Well worth the effort....

  

Bruce weekend returns - not so meaty

I am finally getting around to writing about last weekend's meal, so I thought I'd do it all at once - last weekend I put my foot down and insisted that we have a non-meat Bruce theme.

Last Saturday was a cold, cold night, for the UK anyway, so I went for something slightly comfort food-y. For starters, I chose Polenta with asparagus, poached egg and black olives (controversially vegetarian) and for mains, I opted for Roast cod with olive oil mash.

The cod was something my friend Megan had (when we visited Chez Bruce for my 29th Birthday on the most recent Megan and Kelly London Invasion), and didn't enjoy much - so it was something I wanted to tackle. Also, cod is something I haven't ever cooked, which is strange given it's so easy to get hold of, so I wanted to give it a try.

But - first things first - Polenta with Asparagus, Poached Egg and Black Olives. This recipe is super-easy, but looks and tastes incredibly impressive. It's also easy to make it look presentable, which is something I always struggle with. Also, the recipe isn't snobby about instant polenta - in fact it encourages it, which is good because I love the stuff. I used polenta valsugana from Waitrose, but I expect other similar brands are fine too. The ingredients below are enough for 4 as a starter or a light lunch according to the recipe - I was cooking for 2, and it worked to just halve the ingredients.

1 litre of water

250g instant polenta

100g unsalted butter

150g grated Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra shaved Parmesan)

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

16 spears of fresh English asparagus

A few drops of any vinegar to poach eggs

Olive oil

2 tsp tapenade, thinned down with a bit of olive oil into vinaigrette consistency

Now -at this point, the recipe refers to page 53 for a tapenade recipe. Which doesn't exist (unless I've gone blind, as I couldn't find it anywhere in the book). So I used one on the BBC recipes site, which was lovely, and I did this first:

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 lemon, juice only

3 tbsp capers, chopped

6 anchovy fillets, chopped

250g black olives, pitted

small bunch fresh parsley, chopped

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2-4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (I used half the recommended amount, I think that's sufficient).

I put the garlic, lemon juice, capers, anchovies, parsley and the olives into a bowl and simply blended them using a stick blender until it formed a rough paste. I then added the olive oil and some pepper (no salt needed thanks to the anchovies) and stirred well, then put into a tupperware box for later. I did have some photos of this, but somehow they seem to have disappeared from my iphone - so you'll have to live without them I'm afraid.

I then turned to the polenta dish - first I brought the water to the boil and added salt before mixing in the polenta, whisking constantly. Once it started blubbing (the recipe refers to it as bubbling a bit like lava), I left it for 2-3 minutes, then turned the heat down to its lowest setting and cooked it for c15 minutes, stirring constantly. It got a bit thick a couple of times, so I just added a touch of boiled water and kept stirring. At the end, I beat in the butter and the parmesan, added a bit of pepper (no salt, but add to taste) and covered it while I did the rest.

Next, I brought two pots to the boil (Mark, dedicated washer upper, was not impressed by the consumption of pots in this recipe) - one to poach the eggs, and one for the asparagus. I boiled the asparagus as normal, and added a few drops of vinegar to the poaching pan. I then cracked each egg into a cup and carefully slid them into the pan. When the eggs were poached (a few minutes, I just guessed and was lucky), I removed them with a slotted spoon and dabbed them try with a kitchen towel. Again, I had more photos of this, and they are, unfortunately, lost. So instead you get a token remaining asparagus photo.

I seasoned the asparagus with a tiny bit of olive oil, flaked sea salt and pepper and arranged them on two warmed plates (plate warming is a new fad of mine now that I've realised it's actually quite effective). I then put a spoonful of polenta next to the asparagus, placed the poached egg on top, spooned a little tapenade over the top and then "artistically" (read clumsily) added some shaved parmesan.

This dish was met with much content - despite the lack of meat - and will definitely be made again.

Now for the next course - Roast cod with olive oil mash. Again, this recipe serves 4 as a main course, but I halved for two people.

1 large courgette, topped and tailed

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1 sweet potato (the recipe suggests 4 large potatoes, such as Desiree or Romano, but I prefer sweet so substituted. It's pretty good)

100ml milk (I used semi skimmed)

100ml olive oil

4x175g pieces of fresh cod, cut from the head of the fillet. They should be similar sized so they roast evenly, and the recipe suggests buying fillets with skin. The ones I got were skinless.

Gremolata (see below)

2 large plum tomatoes (I used mini plum tomatoes because they were on special offer)

Dried herbs de provence

1 peeled clove of garlic (I used 2)

Firstly, I tackled the tomatoes - I preheated the oven to 240 C, pierced the tomato skins, seasoned them with salt and pepper and put them into an ovenproof dish (I used a small paella pan). These I sprinkled with the herbes de provence, dribbled them with a little olive oil and added the (very thinly sliced) garlic, and then roasted them in the oven for about 20 minutes (the recipe said 10-15 minutes, but I missed the timer). I then removed them from the oven and set them aside until later.

 

Next, I boiled the sweet potato until they were soft but not too soft. I drained them and then added them to the pan again to steam for a while, boiling the milk and olive oil in the meantime. I then used a potato masher to combine the potatoes with the milk and olive oil, plus a little salt and pepper, over a low heat, then took of the heat and covered until later.

And now, the cod.....I heated an oven proof frying pan until it was very hot and added a small amount of olive oil, then brushed it across the pan to create a thin layer of oil across the pan. I then seasoned the cod with salt and pepper and immediately placed the two fillets onto the pan. The fish sizzled immediately, and I left them there, without moving them, for 3-4 minutes. I then placed the whole pan into the oven to roast for c8 minutes. At this point, the oven should be very hot - it needs to be preheated well in advance - otherwise there's a risk that the cod is steamed rather than roasted. When it is removed from the oven, the cod should be firm, but should separate easily, and then when I turned it around it was a beautiful golden colour.

In the meantime, I sliced the courgette into even, oblique slices and put them under a medium grill until they had coloured a little. Next time, using a griddle pan would be better I think, as it also creates the pretty charcoaled grid-lines on the courgette.

I also made the Gremolata - which was something I had never heard of before- a northern Italian mix of lemon zest, chopped parsley and garlic. For this, as the previous sentence suggest, I used the zest of an unwaxed lemon, two very finely chopped garlic cloves, and the leaves of a bunch of finely chopped parsley and mixed it all together. And that's it - it's so easy and tastes delicious, and will be using this for other fish or white meat dishes in the future.

Now to bring it all together - I placed a spoonful of the mash onto each plate, and then added the cod, golden side up, next to the mash. On top of the mash I placed three baby plum tomatoes, and the courgette was reserved for on top of the cod. I then spooned a little Gremolata on top.

 

It tasted lovely - I'm not sure I'd make it again, as cod isn't my favourite fish - but it was definitely worth the effort. Thank you again Bruce!!