Cooking The Books

A Hearty Broth

When it's cold few things beat a good soup.  Here sweet carrot and swede mix with nutty barley and the earthy lamb. It's pretty similar to scotch broth, just missing a couple of things and upping the barley as that was the ingredient I really fancied.  With said barley it's almost a meal in itself but I wouldn't miss the opportunity of dipping crusty bread into flavoursome stock just because of that.  The lamb adds flavour and texture but omitting it would leave a tasty vegetarian soup too.

Lamb, Winter Vegetable and Barley Broth, serves 4

Ingredients

400gr stewing lamb
125gr barley
250gr swede
1 medium carrot
1 medium onion
1/2 a leek
Vegetable stock, I use the Marigold bouillon powder
2 bay leaves
S&P

Method

Brown the lamb then drain the fat then add stock to cover, simmering for an hour until the lamb is nearly tender. While the lamb is boiling simmer the barley for 15 minutes then drain. 

Remove the lamb, take the meat from the bones and chop into 1cm bits.

Peel the swede and carrots and cut into a 1cm dice.  Chop the onion and leek to the same size.

Add the meat, vegetables and grain to the stock, adding more stock until it's well covered.  Add the bay leaves and lots of black pepper then simmer for an hour, topping up with stock if it looks low, till the barley is swollen and toothsome.

All you need to do now is check the seasoning and tear off a hunk of bread.

Mangal Ocakbasi (Rick Stein's favourite)

I don't know about other bloggers but I like to have a little root around in the logs, seeing how many people have visited and especially how they've got there.  At first it was always friends or from food blogs where I'd been shamelessly self-promoting.  After a while you notice people coming from elsewhere though and it was with great joy that I started seeing visitors from search engine results.  Browesrs had been searching for something and Google had suggested me.  

I noticed after a while that people frequently turned up at my blog when they'd been looking for a certain Turkish barbecue restaurant in Dalston that Rick Stein mentioned on his Food Heroes show. When I first moved to Dalston I turned to google to find out the restaurant's name, a query like 'Rick Stein Dalston' probably.  It's funny how search engines index things because at time of writing this blog gets returned 4th for that query, and I've only mentioned the place briefly so anyone clicking that 4th result must be sorely disappointed.

I'm seeking to redress that though with a review of Rick Stein's Dalston favourite, Mangal Ocakbasi on Arcola Street.  Mangal Ocakbasi probably isn't the kind of place you'd find if you didn't know about it, I doubt many people come to Dalston for much and if they do they probably stick to the myriad of Turksih restaurants on Kingsland Road rather than nipping off down side streets like Arcola Street.  It's worth it though, not only can you say you've been to a restaurant Rick Stein likes you get great value, perfectly barbecued meats and the thrifty pleasure of bringing your own beer.  Fingers crossed going forward people now searching for 'Rick Stein Dalston' get sent to this post on my site and get something useful in return this time.

The Shoarma

Whilst we do pretty well for kebab based fast food in this country for some reason the shoarma isn't very popular.  I know of places in Queensway and on Edgeware Road that do them (and I'm sure there's others but in this country the doner and shish rule supreme.  Not so in Holland though where the shoarma wears the crown.  I don't really think of Holland as much of a culinary mecca but when I'm visiting my sister there I do like to grab one of these, chopped tender lamb delicately spiced with (and this is the main deviation from UK kebab flavourings) the warmth of cinnamon popping up in their along with the more usual chili, garlic, cumin etc.

I've found a recipe and will attempt to recreate this at home but until then here's a snap of what they should look like and a recommendation to try one if ever you get the chance.  Plus when I do get around to making one I can see how far away I am from the thing I'm trying to replicate.

Mongolian Crispy Lamb

I first had this dish at a Chinese restaurant in Milton Keynes maybe 15 years ago.  I love the crispy duck English Chinese restaurants sell and this is a very similar experience, the lamb has a crisp outside and tender meat and in the same way you add sticky sauce and batons of spring onion and cucumber.  You wrap it too, only this time crisp lettuce replaces the soft pancakes.

Rumour has it that people are feeling the pinch a bit at the minute and so anything using cheaper cuts has to be good.  The breast of lamb used here, making enough for a couple of people, cost around a £1.50 from Islington Farmer's Market, a place not famed for its cheap prices and where a chicken last week cost me £14.  Lamb breast is fatty and full of bones but if you treat it well - as with most cheap cuts - you're left with something that rivals any cut for eating pleasure.  Here the long simmer in fragrant stock leaves a very tender, delicately flavoured meat that just needs a grilling till crisp to transform it to another level.

The Mixed Grill

I get a lot of my dinner inspiration from food forums.  There''s nothing like chatting about food to make you hungry and once some dishes are in your head you just can't get the out.  One such dish (well meal really) was the mixed grill, discussed earlier today and making it to the top spot in the race to be eaten by me.  I didn't really have an idea as to what my perfect mixed grill was but after reading everyone else's thoughts I settled on this.  Chips came up on most too but the sheer volume of meat seemed enough to me so I made like I was on the Atkins diet and headed to the supermarket.

It's one of those dishes that's a free for all, whatever takes your fancy or fits the theme (a lamb mix maybe?), but here's a recipe nonetheless.  It was a gorgeous meal but with 480gr/1lb 1oz of red meat per person it probably shouldn't be eaten too frequently.