This concoction went down very well with my parents. As with all the recipes, it is a mish-mash of different ideas I have found on the net, coupled with whatever ingredients I have - more often then not, these experimental dishes come out lovely. Trouble is I nearly always forget what I did, which is basically the only reason for writing this blog.
So we had a shoulder of lamb with a spice crust - I say crust, it wasn’t at all crusty, but it did flavour the lamb beautifully - a spice blanket perhaps. I served with couscous and a tomato and okra side.
First make a harrissa.
- 2 tspn paprika
- 2 tspn tomato puree
- 2 tspn red wine vinegar
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 3 tspn ground cumin
- Chillies, how many is up to you, they have to be red. I have a lovely chilli bush growing in the garden full of small, sweet and fiery little babies - I think I used about 10
All of that lot went in the blender, and then had some further pounding in a pestle and mortar (because my blender is useless). This in itself made me happy - it is so tasty, I could have quite happily ate the lot as it stood. Really zingy and hot, but not overpowering, and also so sweet and flavorsome.
The I made the spice rub for the lamb.
- 1 star anise (ground to powder in pestle and mortar
- 1 tspn of ground coriander
- 1 tspn ground cumin
- 6 cloves of garlic
- a few sprigs of thyme
- 2 bay leaves, finely chopped
That lot all went in the pestle and mortar and got bashed to a paste, then I added the harrissa to that.
I scored the shoulder of lamb (£15 from William Rose, amazing cut of meat) and rubbed the spice rub all over the top side, then placed in a dish, covered with clingfilm and left it in the fridge for 24 hours.
The next day (the day of the feast!) I took the lamb out of the fridge at about midday, let it warm to room temp for an hour or so. Remove the clingfilm and replace with foil, leaving space between the meat and foil. This went into the oven at a very low heat for the rest of the day - about 8 hours in total. During this marathon cooking time, the lamb put out loads of juice, a kind of watery fatty liquid. After about 5 hours, I removed some of this liquid as it was absolutely swimming in it. About an hour before serving, I removed the foil and some more of the juice and turned the heat up a bit to try and get a bit of crisp on the skin (didn’t really work but it didn’t matter).
Couscous - which can very often be very boring and bland, is make delicious with a few simple extra ingredients. Boil water, measure out the right amount of cous cous and water (see packet) and gently stir. Then add 1 tspn of ground allspice, a stick of cinnamon and 6 cardamon pods. Put it all in an oven proof bowl and put a plate on top if it. Soak some dried apricots in hot water for 10 minutes, then drain and chop. Add these to the couscous, along with a generous bunch of chopped coriander. Gently stir it all in, cover with foil, and place in the bottom of the oven to keep warm until ready to serve.
Okra - Trim the okra and cut into 1 inch bits. Heat some oil in a large pan until hot and throw i the Okra . give it 5 minutes or so to get them started. Then add in another heady mix of north African spices - 2 tspns each of cumin seeds, coriander seeds and paprika. 2 (more!) cloves of garlic, 2 chillies. Toast the seeds for a few minutes, then blend or bash everything together and thrown them at the Okra. Stir. Now chop up 4 or 5 tomatoes and bung those in too. A bit of water to help it all cook, and let it simmer for 15 minutes or so until the Okra is tender but still has a bite.
Pile couscous on the plate, shred the lamb with a couple of forks (it will fall apart) and place on top, and some of the okra on the side. Delicious. Mum said it was the nicest north African food she had ever had. Happy customer!