Friday, 21 March 2014

Moroccan Lamb with Feta & Pomegranate Salad and Harissa Yoghurt

At first glance this may look pretty complicated... it's sooo far from. Yet again, the oven is the hero in this so break your meat buying moulds and hop on the lambwagon, because this summer delight is packed full of beee-autiful flavours.



Firstly you want to get yourself a shoulder of Lamb from the butcher/supermarket. This should cost you around £15 (bear in mind it'll comfortably feed 8 or keeps very well for lunches). Ideally you want to prep the next step and marinade overnight but no biggy if not.
 Chop around 4 cloves of garlic, slice one lemon and grab 2 or 3 sprigs of Rosemary. With a small knife, stab the lamb a load of times all over the meat and stuff in the Rosemary leaves and Garlic as much as possible. Drizzle the whole thing with Olive Oil, squeeze over the Lemon juice and sprinkle about a teaspoon each of Cumin, Turmeric, Salt & Peps. With both hands, really massage and work the flavours into the meat.
Put in the oven at 130°C for 4 hours.
Now, what's going with the Lamb is a really simple, peeled raw courgette salad. Peel the Courgette down until you get to the feeble middle bit then twist around and start from the top again. You should be left with a squared middle which can be binned. You want about one courgette per two people. 

Crush a clove of Garlic, squeeze the juice of half a lemon and drizzle some Olive Oil into the bowled Courgette. Give it all a little mix with your hands and set aside.

 Spoon out 6 or 7 spoons of Yoghurt into a bowl and add 2 - 3 teaspoons of Harissa paste. Mix.  
Boil the Quinoa/Cous Cous as per packet instructions then cool down in a sieve with cold water. 
Chop the 3 or 4 sprigs of Mint, 3 Spring Onions, a fresh red Chilli and slice your Pomegranate down the middle. 
When your Lamb has had it's 4 hours, whip out of the oven, cover with foil, and sit it on a rack for an hour. This is key to it falling apart and for most of the fat to run off.
Place a frying pan on a medium heat and dry fry a large handful of pine nuts until golden and toasted. Keep shaking the pan every minute as they're prone to burning easily.
 In a large mixing bowl, combine all of the salad ingredients with your hands. 
 Crumble in half a block of Feta with your fingers. Place the Pomegranate half, seed side down in a loose fingered hand and smack the back with a spoon until all the seeds fall into the bowl. You'll only need half of the Pomegranate so have the other half with your leftover yoghurt in the morning for brekkie. 
Put some pittas in the toaster for a minute just to warm through, not crisp up.
 Unveil your Lamb from it's foil and pull apart with a fork. This should be reeealllly easy due to the low temp we've cooked it on.
 Take your warm pitta and slice the top side down the middle to open it up. Watch out for deadly pitta steam. Set a bottom layer of Lemony Courgette, build next with the Rich spiced Lamb and finish with a healthy helping of Harissa yoghurt. MMhhmm.


Ingredients:
1 shoulder of Lamb
500g Greek Yoghurt
3-4 Courgette's
1 fresh Red Chilli
1 Pomegranate
1 Lemon
1 block of Feta
Garlic
Harissa Paste (Belazu is the nuts)
Pine Nuts 
Pitta Breads or Flatbreads
Rosemary (not mandatory)
Mint (absolutely mandatory)
Cumin
Turmeric