Oven Baked Lamb Burgers in Mediterranean Sauce

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Maybe more of stew than a sauce

This recipe was started off by catching a wiff of barbecued burgers in town whilst having a drink. So it was decided - some juicy tasty burgers for dinner - oh yes! We picked up all we needed on Mary Street, from the Asian food company - one of my favourite shops in town.

IngredientsFor the burgers
3/4 pound of minced lamb
1 white onion - finely diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
 a good grate of fresh nutmeg
2 tablespoons of ketchup
1 slice of bread - crumbed

For the sauce
3 mini aubergines (cause they're cute) finely sliced
1 white onion diced
3 cloves of garlic sliced finely
1 large green chili - seeds removed
1/2 red pepper - diced
1/2 yellow pepper - diced
1/2 courgette - diced
8 large tomatoes roughly chopped
1/2 litre vegetable stock
2 tablespoons fresh parsley

Start by making the burgers. Basically mix all the ingredients together in a big bowl - you’ll have to use your hands for sure. Then form into 6 burger shapes, and place in an oven proof dish and refrigerate while you make the sauce.

For the sauce fry the aubergine in a  little olive oil until it starts to colour a little - add in the onion and some more oil if needed and cook for another few minutes before adding the garlic and chilli. After another few minutes add in the peppers and courgette. Cook these until the soften ever so slightly - then add in all your chopped tomatoes. Bring to a gentle simmer and cover until the tomatoes begin to beak apart. Then add in about 1/2 little of vegetable stock. Allow to simmer for a few minutes, then remove from the heat and pour over your burgers in an oven proof dish - the sauce should cover the burgers - remember it will cook down in the oven.

Bake at gas mark 6 for about an hour. Serve with a sprinkle of parsley and some oven baked chips (ours turned out tasting of lemons, so Delo ran to the chipper - weekend boldness!) 

The burgers came out wonderfully moist and the vegetable mixture cooked down to produce a rich, sweet and dense sauce. I don’t want my burgers any other way! They would be equally as tasty with beef mince, I’d have added some harissa to the mixture if I’d had some to hand for sure. Endless variations possible here - with different vegetables and meats.  Tonight I’ll eat the leftovers in a fresh floury bap - looking forward to it already.

Very Full Tart - by Yotam Ottolenghi

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Very Full Tart - by Yotam Ottolenghi

Yotam Ottolenghi write the 'new vegetarian' in the Observer on Sunday, I love his recipes, they always full of flavor and colour. This recipe was good if a little time consuming - not quite sure why it took me so long! Maybe roasting the veg for differing amounts of time did it. The blind baking the case, the baking the whole thing.

I've just included the link to the recipe as I followed it pretty much to the T - except I used a large yellow squash that came in our Fruitfellas box - in place of the aubergine - either would be great I'm sure.

This tart was bursting with flavor - the thyme is essential to the overall flavor - and the nice mixture of the ricotta and feta is wonderful with a crumbly pastry casing. Perfect  to bring along to an outdoor Sunday spring/summer lunch. This pie once baked - it was carried bicycle style across the city to Delo who had been working hard on a college project all weekend - mobile dinner - could turn that into a business maybe - what do you reckon?

Ratatouille

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Last of the holiday posts I've prob written enough about my holiday now, and lord knows I've been back a month now and only just catching up on the posts now..... Ratouille seems like a very simple thing to post, but this tasted so good and satisfying. It's the most wonderfully satisfying veg stew there is and topped with some grated emmental and drowned in red wine it's no wonder. Makes a perfect side dish - or can be served on pasta as a main meal in itself. 1 onion
1 red pepper
1 courgette
2 cups red wine
6 tomatoes - diced
Salt
Pepper
Fresh parsley
3cloves of garlic - sliced super thin
Olive Oil

Heat up your oil, fry your garlic for one minute before adding in the onion, Cook till translucent, then add in your peppers and courgette, fry these for about 3-4 mins, then tip in your tomatoes, and allow to cook for two mins before adding in the wine. Simmer for about 10-15 mins - it might seem like a while, but I find it takes that long to cook up together. Sprinkle with parsley before serving, oh yes and some cheese. Check out the action shot of the sausage cooking Delo got - very clever

Baked Courgette Fritatta

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In the hope of using up some of the leftover cheese and cream from after the fondue party I came across this recipe on seriouseats

I love it when a good plan comes together easily, and also my friend James was coming over, hurray

1 pound courgette (about 2 large) grated
2 teaspoons salt
3 large eggs
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup Parmesan, grated
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 talbespoons of cream (feel free to omit this for a healthier option - it will work perfectly fine)
olive oil


Preheat the oven to gas mark 7. Grate the courgette. Toss in a colander, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of the salt on top. Let it drain for about 30 minutes. Run the courgette under the tap for a few seconds, to rinse off the salt. Dry it on a towel.

Whisk together the eggs in a large bowl. Add the bread crumbs, cheese, curry powder, and the rest of the salt. Dump in the courgette. Stir well.

Pour the mixture into a 10 1/2 inch baking dish rubbed with oil. Pat the mixture down , until it is flat and smooth. Transfer to the oven and cook for 15 minutes. Remove, let cool for a few minutes, and then slice and serve.

The recipe suggested serving with tomato sauce, which would have been yum! We served it with salad, bread, hummous, baba ganoush, raclette cheese and some French saucisson, just cause that's what was knocking around.....

Lemon Infused Courgette Salad with Red Quinoia

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Summery Salad Confusion

Arriving at my local shop hungry and tired after a long day at work, I collected for myself a wonderful collection of random purchases, with little or no logic as to what I was making for dinner apart from salad. From chaotic beginnings, came a very delicious result - score!!


Quinoa originates from Peru, Chile and Bolivia. It is a complete protein making it a very healthy option for vegetarians and vegans, more info on how wonderful Quinoa is here my blog ain't big enough to fill you in on all the wonders of this little grain! It's delicious and crunchy, with a nutty taste and can take the place of rice, or pasta in many dishes. I prefer the red quinoa as it looks more substantial than it's white counter part which goes quite translucent. A little white sprout comes out of them when the grains are cooked - so don't panic - that's normal.

Ingredients
I large courgette
Juice & Zest of half a lemon
5 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt & Pepper
A small bunch of chives -chopped finely
3 scallions - sliced finely
1 cup of red Quinoa
1/2 cup of sundried tomatoes in oil - drained & diced
crumble of stock cube
1 teaspoon tahini
1 tablespoon of white wine vinegar
Freshly grated Parmesan
1/2 teaspoon of dried oregano

Grate the courgette into thin slivers - I use my potato peeler to do this, it leaves you with an awkward centre piece that you can't grate so I just chopped this into little cubes and threw it in too. Potato peelers are also handy for cutting nice thin slices of cheese I find, and also to julienne carrots. By jullienne I mean slice thinly, cause I'm not sure of the exact meaning.

Toss your courgette strips with the juice and zest of half a lemon, tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper. If you have anything to do for about half an hour, like some gardening or washing, it'd be nice to leave them infuse for a little while, if you're really hungry fear not, it'll still turn out great. Toss well and then pop under a medium grill.

While they're grilling cook some Quinoa in twice it's volume of water - I crumbled in a small amount of stock cube in, for the laugh, not sure it made any difference. Cook till it is soft and starting to brown nicely - give it a bit of a stir around every so often to cook evenly.

To make the dressing put oregano - 4 tablespoons of oil, tahini, white wine vinegar, salt & pepper, and blend well. I'm trying to wean myself of popping a clove of garlic into everything I make, starting with this salad.

Remove courgettes from the grill and allow to cool slightly, drain quinoa and run under cold tap to cool. Put sun dried tomato, scallions, chives, courgette and quinoa, then pop into bowls and top with freshly grated Parmesan, and some black pepper. If you have a food blog - garnish with some parsley to look pretty! I would have popped some finely chopped parsley if I had managed to grow more than 2 sprigs in my garden.

Enjoy outdoors if possible