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....

  

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!