What a weekend in London. The sun shone continuously and it has resulted in a collective uplifting of souls. On Saturday morning Dave and I told the hangover to get lost and worked on our bikes. Dave (surprisingly handy when he wants to be) greased chains and replaced brake pads while I cleaned and scrubbed the off the rust. We then cycled to Richmond park and had a picnic, watching the deer graze. When I say picnic I mean sandwiches and coffee - definitely not worthy of the blog, but lovely all the same. You forget how much fun the freedom of biking is, it's simple child-like fun that can be enjoyed by adults. And it's a fantastic way to see London - or any city in fact as you can cover a lot of ground but see things you would miss using other forms of transport. Such a good feeling, despite the pain today.
We were heading out to see Les Miserables that night so I thought a bit of a special pre-theatre dinner would be nice. Vegetarians, I suggest you avert your eyes at this point and skip to the carrot salad. I like the idea of being a vegetarian and do try to limit my meat intake but there's just no way I could do without meat entirely. I believe in feeding your body, within reason, what it craves, and at times I crave a slab of red meat. In spring, nothing beats lamb.
I made harissa lamb rack with an Ottolenghi inspired Moroccan carrot salad. Ottolenghi cooks his carrot but I kept the carrot raw and added in some bits and pieces. Served with couscous it was a luscious dinner without being particularly complicated.
Harissa is a spicy Northern African chilli paste. You can use it to marinate meat, fish or to flavour vegetarian salads. You can buy it from the supermarket but it's not too difficult to make. I use Annabel Langbein's recipe and add in some lemon juice.
Recipe - Moroccan carrot salad
4 carrots
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp crushed ginger
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp cinnamon
handful of raisins
2 tbsp toasted pinenuts
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
juice of half a lemon
salt
handful of coriander leaves
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and saute for a a minute. Add ground coriander, paprika, cumin and cinnamon and sizzle. Take the pan off the heat and add white wine vinegar and lemon juice. Mix into a paste. Transfer into a bowl and leave to cool. Once cool add salt and stir in yoghurt to make a dressing. Taste and add more lemon juice if you think it needs it.
If you are lucky enough to have a julienner then lucky you - julienne your carrots! If you don't, I find using a vegetable peeler to make long ribbons is quite effective and looks lovely.
Add the raisins to the dressing and mix in the dressing. It's quite a thick dressing so although it's messy, I found it worked best to use your hands! Finally, add pinenuts and coriander.
Lamb rack
Coat both sides of the lamb rack with harissa paste (see above) and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. Turn oven on to 190. Add olive oil to a pan over high heat. Quickly sear each side of the meat. Transfer to a baking tray and cook for about 12 minutes for rare meat. Cook for longer if you have a bigger piece of meat (mine was quite small) or like it more well done.
Remove from the oven, cover in foil and rest for 5 minutes.
Slice up and serve with the salad and lemony couscous.
Serves 2.
We were heading out to see Les Miserables that night so I thought a bit of a special pre-theatre dinner would be nice. Vegetarians, I suggest you avert your eyes at this point and skip to the carrot salad. I like the idea of being a vegetarian and do try to limit my meat intake but there's just no way I could do without meat entirely. I believe in feeding your body, within reason, what it craves, and at times I crave a slab of red meat. In spring, nothing beats lamb.
I made harissa lamb rack with an Ottolenghi inspired Moroccan carrot salad. Ottolenghi cooks his carrot but I kept the carrot raw and added in some bits and pieces. Served with couscous it was a luscious dinner without being particularly complicated.
Harissa is a spicy Northern African chilli paste. You can use it to marinate meat, fish or to flavour vegetarian salads. You can buy it from the supermarket but it's not too difficult to make. I use Annabel Langbein's recipe and add in some lemon juice.
Recipe - Moroccan carrot salad
4 carrots
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 tsp crushed ginger
1/2 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cumin
3/4 tsp cinnamon
handful of raisins
2 tbsp toasted pinenuts
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
juice of half a lemon
salt
handful of coriander leaves
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
Heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic, ginger and chilli and saute for a a minute. Add ground coriander, paprika, cumin and cinnamon and sizzle. Take the pan off the heat and add white wine vinegar and lemon juice. Mix into a paste. Transfer into a bowl and leave to cool. Once cool add salt and stir in yoghurt to make a dressing. Taste and add more lemon juice if you think it needs it.
If you are lucky enough to have a julienner then lucky you - julienne your carrots! If you don't, I find using a vegetable peeler to make long ribbons is quite effective and looks lovely.
Add the raisins to the dressing and mix in the dressing. It's quite a thick dressing so although it's messy, I found it worked best to use your hands! Finally, add pinenuts and coriander.
Lamb rack
Coat both sides of the lamb rack with harissa paste (see above) and leave to marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. Turn oven on to 190. Add olive oil to a pan over high heat. Quickly sear each side of the meat. Transfer to a baking tray and cook for about 12 minutes for rare meat. Cook for longer if you have a bigger piece of meat (mine was quite small) or like it more well done.
Remove from the oven, cover in foil and rest for 5 minutes.
Slice up and serve with the salad and lemony couscous.
Serves 2.
This looks so delicious, I had no idea you had a blog! I have some reading to do it seems...
ReplyDeleteI am going crazy for Ottolenghi's new book Jerusalem, do you have it?
Lots of love to you and Dave x
Just a recent thing but something I have been meaning to do for a long time. really enjoying it! No - must do that though and go for lunch/dinner at his restaurant! Hope you are well. What are you going to do when the letters run out?! xx
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