Posts tagged pine nuts

Lahmacun Meatballs

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ahmacun is like a Turkish meat pizza which I’ve sampled in my many escapades to my favourite middle eastern restaurants and holiday destinations. Pizza you say? In a very loose sense. A thin dough topped with a layer of spiced minced meat and a scattering of tasty salad. However, I’ve been experimenting with textures and I decided to turn mine into meatballs – maintaining the spices and flavours of a traditional Lahmacun serving them on a warm pillowy nigella seed flecked flatbread and topped with a fresh crunchy raw salad.

This would make an excellent dinner party starter in a mini version or a light meal or lunch.

Serves 4 (Makes approx. 16 meatballs)

Meatballs

  • 500g minced beef
  • 1 small onion, diced finely
  • 1 small red chilli, diced
  • 1tsp (heaped) ground cumin, coriander, cinnamon, smoked paprika
  • 50g toasted pine nuts (dry fry in a hot pan until beginning to turn golden and release a nutty aroma!)
  • Handful flat leaf parsley, chopped

Nigella Seed Flatbreads

  • 250g self raising flour
  • 150ml warm water
  • 1 1/2tbsp nigella seeds
  • Salt and pepper

Salad

  • 1 bag radishes, thinly sliced
  • 1 small cucumber, cubed into 1cm dice
  • 1 small red onion, halved and thinly sliced into half moons
  • Small bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
  • 2 little gem lettuces, chopped (optional)
  • 1/2 lemon
  • Tahini

You’ll need 3 large bowl, one for each component to get yourself started. A large frying pan and preheat the oven to 180°C.

  1. Start by making the meatballs. Mix all the ingredients in your first large bowl and combine with your hands, squeezing the mixture together to ensure all the flavours are dispersed. Don’t overwork or pound the meat however. Season well. Taking golf ball sized chunks, roll into meatballs and place on a plate. Continue until you’ve used up all the meat and you have around 16 meatballs. Cover the plate and chill in the fridge until needed.
  2. Next, make the flatbread dough. Combine the flours, salt and pepper and seeds in your second bowl. Pour in the water and mix with a fork. As it comes together, get your hands in and combine into a dough. It shouldn’t be dry but nor should it be sticky. Depending on the texture, add a tough more water/flour to enable you to roll into a smooth ball. Knead for 2-3 minutes on a clean floured worktop. Set aside in a floured bowl and cover with cling film and leave to rest for  about 20 minutes or so.
  3. Assemble the salad. Combine all ingredients in your final bowl except the tahini and lemon. Season and then set aside until ready to serve.
  4. Begin the cooking – remove the meatballs from the fridge! Heat a splash of vegetable or light olive oil in a frying pan over a high heat and fry the meatballs on all sides until they are golden and a nice crust has formed on the outside. Line a baking tray with foil and add the meatballs (the rest of the cooking can be done in the oven). Scrunch up the foil around them to keep them sealed ask they cook and stay moist. Place int he oven for 15 minutes.
  5. Meanwhile, fry your flatbreads. Heat a dry frying pan over a high heat (you will likely need your extractor fan on here)  Take your dough, divide into 4 balls. On a floured surface, use a rolling pin to roll out into a small saucer size about the thickness of a 10p piece. When the pan is hot, add one flatbread at a time and fry on both sides, turning when beginning to brown and char in places. The dough will ideally bubble up and create air pockets but it doesn’t matter if not.
  6. As you fry and complete each one, wrap them in a pile in a clean tea towel to keep them warm and soft until needed.
  7. Once the flatbreads are toasted and the meatballs are ready, remove them from the oven.
  8. Dress the salad with the lemon juice and toss to combine.
  9. To serve, top each flatbread with 3-4 meatballs. Add a large handful or salad over the top and drizzle with the tahini if you like.

(A lime and mint yoghurt would also go down well here instead of tahini if wanted)

Enjoy!

 

Bream and Herby Quinoa

 

Simple, healthy, super quick and will hit the spot for flavour. I live off suppers like this throughout the week as they can be made within half an hour and grains and pulses like quinoa are so versatile to play with depending on whats in your fridge. My fridge this evening included bunches of fresh herbs, half a red onion and a fading packet of lonely pine nuts. Feel free to add whatever you have to hand: Chorizo, leftover chicken, stray vegetables or some lemony crumbled goats cheese….

Serves 2

  • 120g quinoa/bulgar wheat mix (I used this one)
  • Large handful of each: Basil, dill, coriander, parsley, chopped
  • 1 red onion, sliced thinly
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • Zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • Handful pine nuts, toasted
  • 2 sea bream fillets
  1. Simmer the quinoa in water for about 10-15 minutes until ready and soft (follow packet instructions for different types) Drain and set aside to cool slightly.
  2. Heat a frying pan until hot and dry toast the pine nuts until just starting to colour and smell fragrant then remove and leave to cool.
  3. Heat a little oil in the frying pan and soften the onion for about 5 minutes until starting to turn translucent. When soft, add the ground cumin and stir for a few minutes. Remove from the heat and stir this into the quinoa with the pine nuts and herbs.
  4. Season and stir in the lemon juice and zest.
  5. Heat a frying pan until hot. Season and score the skin side of your bream fillets. Add a dash of oil to the pan and fry skin side down for about 3 minutes and then flip over for the final minute to finish the cooking.
  6. Serve on top of your herby quinoa with some lemony or spiced yoghurt if you like!

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Wild Garlic Pesto

 

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Free ingredients feel cheekily delicious. Whether its that buy one get one free packet of salad, that suspect lemon that apparently didn’t scan in the hands of the conveniently incompetent cashier or, in this case, the hand foraged bunch of wild garlic my sensitive foodie nose kindly led me to on a country walk this Easter. Growing in the hedgerow and just dying to be plucked and cooked these leaves are fragrant with a garlic punch.

Wild garlic should be treated more like a herb- a hardier basil. It can be sauteed in butter but not cooked as hard as a cabbage. I decided to make pesto which can be made in a pestle and mortar and I always find this satisfying and a lovely idea where you really can adjust the consistency, taste and vitally the texture to your own preference steadily and carefully. However my solid granite pestle and mortar weights a tonne and after a long day at work and a run home I wasn’t in need of a weigh session or the horrors of having to unsuccessfully scrape my delicious pesto creation into a bowl and wash up my granite weight. So….shamefully the magi mix came out to do the job for me. I bought a beautiful Godess-like pot of bushy Greek basil on the way home today and couldn’t resist adding a handful to the mix as a nod to the classic pesto but go easy as it is punchy and will overpower the beautiful garlic leaves if added too heavy handidly.

Enjoy with – roasted fish, meats, roasted sweet potato jackets, mixed into pasta sauces, stirred into soups, mixed in salad dressings. I served mine here with pan fried seabass and red camargue rice.

Makes a small bowlful (depending on the amount of oil)

  • 100g wild garlic leaves, cleaned if foraged
  • Optional – a small handful of basil leaves
  • 1 garlic clove, chopped
  • 50g finely grated Parmesan
  • 50g pine nuts, lightly toasted (or walnuts)
  • Salt and pepper
  • Lemon juice
  • Olive/rapeseed oil (up to 150ml. See note*)
  1. First, if foraged from the bushes, carefully wash the garlic leaves in cold water and pat dry or spin dry in an old school salad leaf drier.
  2. Place in a food processor with the pine nuts, garlic and basil (if using). Blend until chopped finely.
  3. Add the cheese and season.
  4. Now slowly drizzle in the oil until you get the desired consistency. I think I used about 2 tbsp for mine.
  5. Alternatively, bash the leaves with the nuts in a pestle and mortar before adding the cheese and stirring in the oil.
  6. Add seasoning to taste and adjust with whatever you think it needs, a hint of lemon juice perhaps!

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NOTE* – the amount of oil will depend on a few things but I personally like my pesto thick as its more concentrated and punchy in flavour and healthier as it uses less oil. It will also depend on how long you want to keep it. If you plan on storing in your fridge for a bit, pop into a sterilised jar and make sure there is enough oil to cover and seal it from exposure and oxidation.

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Lamb, Mint and Pea Salad

 

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Leftover lamb never tasted better. Freshly cut herbs from the garden, a cucumber from the greenhouse and some leftover local lamb. A sunny evening called for a fresh cleansing salad to start the week on a healthy note. Although washed down with a large glass of Cab Sauv it probably had the opposite effect!

Not sure the picture does this dish justice but it is extremely tasty, particularly also crumbled with feta or goats cheese as well as or instead of the lamb for the veges.

Serves 3 as a main, 4 as a lunch or starter

Salad

  • 2 little gems
  • 1 romaine lettuce, shredded
  • 1 small cucumber, chopped on diagonal
  • 1 avocado, chopped
  • 1 lemon, juice
  • Handful pine nuts, toasted
  • Bunch mint, leaves picked and chopped
  • Bunch of chives, chopped
  • Leftover lamb, sliced- mine was rare roast butterflied leg but anything works well, shredded etc
  • 250g frozen peas, blanched

Oregano and Lemon Yoghurt

  • 6 heaped tbsp thick yoghurt
  • 1 small garlic clove, minced
  • Bunch oregano, leaves picked
  • ½ lemon juice and zest
  • 1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
  • Salt and pepper

Sun dried Tomato Bread

  • 250g self raising flour
  • 4 sun-dried tomatoes in oil
  • Bunch basil
  • Salt and pepper
  • Warm water
  1. Make the bread first. Blitz the sun dried tomatoes and basil in a processor until fine. Add the flour and some generous seasoning and blend. Pour in enough warm water until the dough comes together in a smooth ball. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for a few minutes before leaving covered to rest.
  2. Mix the yoghurt ingredients and chill.
  3. Keep the stalks on the little gems to hold them together. Half each and cut each half into 3 keeping them together at the base.
  4. Mix with the blanched peas, shredded romaine, cucumber and chopped herbs on a large platter.
  5. Griddle the avocado on a hot oiled griddle pan until warm and charred. Season well and add to the salad. Squeeze over the juice from the lemon, a good splash of extra virgin olive oil and some seasoning and toss gently to combine.
  6. Sprinkle over the toasted pine nuts and finally the lamb.

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7.  Heat a large frying pan. Roll the bread out to the thickness of a pound coin and big enough to fit the pan. Fry in the pan for about 5 minutes each side until toasty and beginning to char and crisp. Turn out onto a board and rip up and serve warm with the salad, dunked in the yoghurt or with some salted butter.

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Turkish lamb-stuffed flatbreads with cacik

These are like a Turkish inspired ‘pasty’ I’ve been meaning to attempt for ages from a long ago copy of Vogue’s ‘Entertaining and Travel’ magazine I picked up on my travels down under. They are like a lamb pasty but with a fresh, vibrant cooling yoghurt, called cacik which is a bit like tzatziki.

Makes 8 small or 6 larger pittas

  • 185g bread flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp dried yeast
  • pinch of toasted and crushed cumin seeds,
  • Extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 500g minced lamb
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 2 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 tsp chilli flakes
  • 50g tomato puree
  • 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses
  • 40g pie nuts, roasted
  • Bunch of coriander
  • 1 lemon, zest and wedges to serve

Cacik

  • 250g Greek yoghurt
  • 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped dill
  • 1 tbsp chopped mint
  • ½ garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 lime, zest and juice
  1. Begin with the cacik by combining all the ingredients with some salt and pepper and chill until needed.
  2. For the flatbread dough, sift the flour, baking powder, yeast, a large pinch of salt and the cumin seed into a bowl. Make a well in the centre and add a splash of oil and 125ml of warm water and mix with a fork to form a dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 5 minutes until elastic. Cover with cling film and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
  3. To make the lamb filling, heat a few tablespoons of oil in a pan and cook the onion until soft. Add the lamb and cook until browned. Add the spices, tomato puree, pomegranate molasses and 2 tbsp of water and cook for a few more minutes until fragrant.
  4. Add the pine nuts and a large handful of chopped coriander and the zest of 1 lemon.
  5. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
  6. Divide the dough into 6 or 8 pieces and role thinly onto a floured surface into a rough circle shape.
  7. Place 1/8 or 1/6 of the mixture onto one side of the dough and brush a little water around the outside. Fold over and press the edges together gently to seal, squashing the pitta down to flatten it if you can without breaking it. Repeat with the remaining mixture to make about 6-8 ‘pasties’.
  8. Heat a frying pan over a medium-high heat and heat a splash of olive oil. Fry the stuffed flatbreads, about 2 at a time, until golden. Place in the oven to keep warm and to heat through while you finish the rest.
  9. Scatter oven some extra coriander and serve with the cooling cacik and lemon wedges.

Made really small, these would make a great little canape or starter!

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