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Indian style (Tika’ish) lamb kebabs with Tzatziki on Italian flat bread.

Tuesday, August 24th, 2010

Oh LUSH !

Although this is a big mix of cultures, not quite conforming to the standard of any element of the dish, but coming out delish. The other night I was watching Jamie Oliver Does Greece, and at the same time, my flatmate was cooking a Tikka Masalar. This mix of flavours and tastes inspired me to create what I have done. I admit straight up that I had no clue what the result would end up like, I was hoping for something like a chicken Tandoori, what I ended up with was nothing like that, however, it was rather lush, and defiantly something I would make again. As a rare occurrence, all three of my flatmates were willing to try some, and they all give the thumb’s up.

I’m going to write this one a bit differently, in case you want to make each bit individually.

What you need: Indian Lamb Cubes

Some lamb cubes, however much you want.
Greek Yoghurt, about half a 360ml pot.
Grama masala, Tarmac, salt, pepper, Mild Curry Powder
Red Onion and Garlic,
Tomato Paste
Coriander
Juice of a lemon
Sandwich Bag

What you need: Tzatziki

The other half of the pot of Greek Yoghurt
A red onion
Fresh mint and coriander
A cucumber
Some sweet paprika, salt and pepper.

What you need: To bring it all together.

Some flatbread, I used Tesco’s “Tomato and Cheese Flatbread”, but you could use one of those pizza Garlic Bread things, or Nan bread. The idea was to fold it up, so a wrap would do too.
- or –
Some Rice, I like the rice from the local Turkish places.
- or -
Some couscous puffed in chicken stock with coriander and mint chopped through it, maybe some raisins and pistachios too?

What you need to do: Indian Lamb Cubes

Slice up the coriander, a red onion and crush/grate the garlic.
Get a bowl and mix in there the Greek yoghurt, and add the mixed stuff above, add 2tbs of Garam masala, 1tbs Turmeric, 2tbs of Mild Curry Powder, half a tube of tomato paste and the juice of a lemon.
Mix everything up until you get a thick pinkish paste, taste it to see if you want a bit of pepper or some salt.
When you’re happy, add the lamb cubes, cover the bowl (or put it in a sandwich bag), and leave it for a few hours.
– Intermission… this is where you should do the taziki.
Take the cubes out the bowl and put then on a hot pan. I started off doing this by putting them on a skewer, but to tell you the truth, that was a waste of time. You want the cubes to be nicely coated. You can tell when they’re right because they should be slightly blackened, not completely, but a little bit. Remember: Char’d not Burnt. Towards the end, when you think the lamb is ready, and you can always cut one in half, it should be a greyish pink colour, now you can add the rest of the sauce to heat it up a bit.

What you need to do: Tzatziki.

Plonk the other half of the yoghurt in a bowl, add to that loads of mint and coriander all chopped up.
Deseed the cucumber (as the seeds would make it too watery), slice that up, and add it to the yoghurt.
Thinly slice a red onion as thin as you can get it, add that to the yoghurt too.
Add some paprika and half the juice of a lemon, some salt and pepper to taste.
Mix everything up; lovely!

What you need to do: Bring it all together.

I put the flatbread in the oven for 10 minutes so it went all nice and soft, the put over that the tzatziki and on top of that the lamb with the sauce and enjoy =D

Get all your stuff out.

All the spices.

Mix up the yoghurt, lamb and spices'n'herbs.

The tatziki is nice and easy.

Griddle Pan up that Lamb.

Plate it up, there you go !

Tags: curry, greek, indian, lush, pork
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Thai Coconut Soup – With Prawns and Stuff.

Wednesday, July 28th, 2010

I kind of made this one up based on various things I’ve seen on the telly, it took me three tries to perfect it, the first time was lush, the second time was a right mess (I got distracted by the internet and hollyoaks and the soup turned into a sauce) and the third time was fantastic. It’s a nice creamy soup, without being thick, packed with flavour and takes no longer than 15 minutes from opening up the packets of ingredients to taking your first bite. You can make it spicy-hotter by chopping up more of the chilli and adding that, or sprinkling more at the end, or you could make it weaker by leaving that bit out. What I made was just right for me. This is the first time I’ve used fresh herbs or limes before in cooking, and it really does add something to it.

What You Need For One Person (plus enough for lunch the next day)

Wok, Ladle, a good knife for chopping things up, serving plate. I can’t work out weather it’s a Spoon Soup or a Fork Soup, so I opted for both.
A packet of noodles, don’t get pre-cooked, as they don’t’ soak up the soup as well; the ones in nests are what I went for.
A packet of stir-fry veg, or some mixed veg that you like. I used baby sweetcorn, Mushrooms, Sugarsnap Peas, Spring Onion…cut up into bite-sized pieces.
Thai Curry Paste, but I suppose any kind of curry paste you like would work. I used Marks’n’Spark’s “Malaysian Rendang Paste”, it’s nice and peanutish, not to hot at all. I suppose this isn’t really ‘Thai’ thinking about it now, oh well.
Uncooked Prawns, ‘cus I like them, but would work with beef or chicken.
A touch of oil, whatever you got, it’s not important.
A lime, a bunch of coriander, a chilli, garlic (didn’t use, but would work) and fat man’s two-fingers-up of ginger.

What you need to do to make it work =)

Preparation first. Cut up the veg into bite-sized pieces if you’ve not used a packet of stir-fry mix.
Cut off the end of the chilli at about ¼ of the way from the tip and chop that up. If you like it hotter, cut ½ or more, or even the whole one and use another for this next bit. With the rest of the chilli, cut a line down it, that way when it comes to cooking, it’ll release some of it’s heat and flavour without making the dish too hot.
Chop the ginger into matchsticks, as thin as you can get. I found I used too much in these photos but use your own judgement.
Open the can of coconut milk.
Heat up a bit of oil in a DRY wok, doesn’t need a lot of heat at all as he wok gets hot easily. Put your hand over the wok and if you can hold it there for about 5 seconds before it starts to really feel hot, you’re about right.
Add the ginger, about 3 dollops of paste and the chopped bit of the chilli to the oil; give it a minute or two (it might spit at you a bit) for everything to do its business.
Add the veg and mix it up, about 4-5 minutes should do it, keep on sturing it around so it’s all coated.
Now add the can of coconut milk and then again about ¼ to ½ the can of water on top, mix it up a little. Plonk on a nest of noodles on top, it doesn’t matter if half the nest is covered by coconut goodness, and half of it is sticking out the top. Add the stabbed chilli thing here.
After about 5 minutes, the bottom of the noodles should all be the way they should be, so you can stir them around a bit and get the non-covered part under the coconutty goodness. It’ll still hold its nest shape though at this stage, so flip them ‘round.
After about 5 minutes, chop up the coriander, and add that. I got it from the shop across the road that’s by a busy road, so ran it under a tap before I chopped it to get any sort of car-crap out of it. Add that to the wok and stir it up. You don’t wanna do this to early ‘cus then it’s too coriandish. All the noodles should have separated by now.
After five minutes now, it’s all more or less done, give it another stir and add the prawns. About 5 minutes should do it depending on size. Give it a stir every minute to make sure all the prawns are covered. I’m gonna do a chicken version of this for Ma’ next week, where I’ll cut the chicken thinly and add it a bit earlier. My mate Nielly P says that if you dust them in cornflower first, the chicken will go slightly silky and tender, so I’ll give that a shot when I do that.
Roll the lime on a hard service with the palm of your hand to break it up a bit, cut it in half, add the juice and serve (remembering to take out the stabbed chilli thing). Sprinkle some more coriander on top and some chopped chilli if you want it hotter.

Sorry about the mess, photo was between Try 2 and Try 3 and I didn't clean up between them (it was only 5 minutes while i nipped to the shops to stock up again)