Seekh kebabs are a classic on Indian restaurant menus and typically cooked in the tandoor oven. “Seekh” means skewer, but the truth is you don’t really need skewers for this; just form the meat into long sausage shapes before cooking. You can also form the meat into patties, which will turn them into a “shami” kebab. My version uses great flavourings such as fenugreek, fresh mint and garam masala.
The trick to achieving a good seekh kebab is to finely mince the lamb. Minced lamb from the butcher or supermarket is typically too coarse. Use a food processor to pulse the lamb giving a finer texture. By doing this you won’t need any binding ingredients such as egg or flour. Don’t go crazy with the food processor, you don’t want purée!
Serve with naan bread, salad and raita.
(Note: you could also add a small pinch of red food colouring, as the restaurants do, but you really don’t need it.)
Ingredients
- 450g minced lamb (I used minced lamb shoulder)
- thumb-sized piece of ginger, grated
- 2 cloves garlic, grated
- 2 green chili peppers, very finely chopped
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp dried fenugreek leaves
- 1 tbsp tomato pureé
- 1 tsp salt
- handful fresh mint
- handful fresh coriander
- juice of ½ lemon
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 200°C.
- Run the lamb mince through your food processor to achieve a finer texture, as described above. Place in a mixing bowl.
- Add the rest of the ingredients and mix well before shaping, use metal skewers if you have them.
- I like to use a grill pan to cook this in the oven. This means a lot of the fat can cook out of the meat, but it will still be succulent. Place on the grill pan and cook for 15 minutes.
Serves 4 as a starter, 2 for a main course.
This recipe produces meltingly tender meat and a rich, deeply-flavoured sauce. This recipe also scales easily, so adjust the amounts to fit the number of diners. I like to use a cast-iron casserole for this, searing the meat and braising in the same pot. It allows me to de-glaze the casserole with red wine and take advantage of the delicious brownings left by the meat. Serve with pommes dauphinoise and minted peas.
Ingredients
- 2 lamb shanks
- 2 small onions, chopped
- 2 sticks celery, chopped
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced
- sprig fresh rosemary, finely chopped (about 2 tsp)
- 250ml red wine
- 100ml water
- 1 tbsp tomato pureé
- salt & pepper
Method
- Season the lamb shanks with some salt and pepper, then dust with plain flour. Heat some olive oil in a cast-iron casserole and fry the shanks over a high heat until browned on all sides. Remove the shanks and set aside.
- Pour off some of the oil if it seems excessive. Now the fry the onions, celery, garlic and rosemary until they colour and start to “catch” at the edges. Pour in the wine and de-glaze the casserole, scraping at the meat brownings. Bring the wine to the boil and add the water and tomato pureé. Mix well and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Return the lamb shanks to the casserole along with any juices that have collected from the meat. Spoon over some of the sauce and place in the centre of the oven. Cook for 3 hours until tender.
Serves 2.
I’ll be honest here. Sunday roasts kinda scare me. I normally feel very much in control in the kitchen but there’s something about timing roast dinners (whether it’s chicken, beef or lamb) I find a little daunting. In reality though, it’s about as simple as cooking gets. My downfall is “over-researching”; reading lots of different recipes and stressing that they all differ so much. But, I’ve now settled on this fool-proof method for slow-roasting a leg or shoulder of lamb.
I’ve used the cooking temperatures suggested by Hugh-Fearnley Whittingstall in his excellent “River Cottage Meat Book” - a “half-hour sizzle” at a high temperature, followed by 4½ hours of slow roasting at a low temperature. This method produces a truly delicious joint, soft enough to be eaten with a spoon! As a bonus, you’re also rewarded by a deliciously rich broth.
Ingredients
- 1 shoulder(or leg) of lamb
- 3 cloves garlic
- 2 sprigs rosemary
- salt & pepper
- 1 large onion, chopped
- 2 stick celery, chopped
- 1 glass white wine
- 250ml water
Method
- Peel 2 cloves of garlic cut each clove into 4 pieces. Chop one of the rosemary sprigs into 8 piece. Make small incisions in the lamb and stud with the garlic and rosemary. Season the lamb on all sides with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
- Remove the leaves from the other sprig of rosemary and grind in a mortar and pestle, along with the last clove of garlic and some rock salt. Add 2 tbsp olive oil and mix. Smear the flavoured oil over the lamb joint. Place in a deep roasting dish and roast the joint for 30 minutes at 220°C.
- Take the tray out of the oven and set the lamb aside on a plate or board. Pour off some oil from the roasting tray if it seems excessive.
- Add the chopped vegetables to the roasting tray along with the wine and water. Place the lamb on top of the vegetables and cover loosely with foil. Reduce the oven temperature to 140°C and cook for another 4½ hours. You could get away with 3½ hours, but then it wouldn’t be “Five Hour Lamb”, would it?
- After 5 hours cooking, your lamb will be meltingly tender and delicious. You can put that carving knife away, you won’t need it. I rarely bother with thickening the amazing broth left in the roasting dish. But I do like to mash the vegetables into the broth, reduce slightly and strain. The flavour is absolutely amazing.
Serves 6.
Variations
- Jamie-stylee - Jamie Oliver’s second book “The Return of The Naked Chef” includes a recipe entitled, I kid you not, “braised five hour lamb with wine, veg and all that“. Sod grammar, eh? It sounds great though, to be honest. Lamb and veg are all cooked together until the meat is melting. I just can’t get over the fact that the recipe includes an entire bottle of wine. I just can’t…
- Rick-stylee - I remember seeing an episode of Rick Stein’s excellent series, “Mediterranean Escapes”. In this episode, an elderly Majorcan lady braises joints of lamb and vegetables in beer. San Miguel, no less. It looked fantastic and the Rick claims the resulting broth (or caldo) is delicious. I will definitely get around to this one at some stage.
- Leftovers - in the unlikely event of having leftovers, I’d recommend a classic shepherd’s pie.
All of us food bores know that real shepherd’s pie is made with minced lamb. If it’s made with beef, it’s cottage pie. According to the ever-reliable (!) Wikipedia, the term “cottage pie” has been around since 1791, where leftover beef would be used by the poor cottage-dwellers as a pie filling. “Shepherds pie” came along about a hundred years later, as a cheekily-named lamb equivalent.
Shepherd’s Pie is traditionally made with minced lamb left over from a roast. The pie in these pictures comprises not only the leftover lamb, but the leftover gravy too; this gives the pie a rich and deep flavour. I’d go so far as saying it’s worth roasting lamb joint just to make this pie!
Ingredients
- 500g minced lamb, leftover if possible
- 2 medium onions, chopped
- 3 carrots, chopped
- 3 sticks celery, chopped
- 250ml beef stock, or leftover gravy topped up with water
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- salt & pepper
- 900g potatoes
Method
- If you’re using leftover lamb, chop it finely rather than mincing it. This ensures there’s a bit of texture in the finished dish. Heat a little olive in a pan and brown the lamb and onion. Add the carrot and celery and fry for a minute more.
- Add the rest of the ingredients (except the potatoes) and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for about 30 minutes.
- While the lamb filling cooks, pre-heat the oven to 200°C and prepare your spuds. Boil the potatoes until tender, then mash with a little milk and plenty of butter and seasoning. You could also add an egg yolk which will enrich the mash and give it a great golden colour while it browns.
- Transfer the lamb mixture to an oven-proof pie dish. Spread the mash on top and use a fork to make a rough surface. Bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes or until the pie is golden brown. Serve with some piccalilli or some buttered peas.
Variations
- Roast Lamb - Add 2 minced garlic cloves, a teaspoon of finely chopped rosemary and a glass of red wine while you’re frying the lamb. Serve with minted peas on the side. All the flavours of a classic lamb roast in one dish.
- Cottage Pie - Substitute the lamb for beef and add a small bottle of stout and reduce. Some finely chopped thyme would be a nice addition to this also.
Serves 4.
