Sharing the meat love - Part II

4kg Leg of lamb

Meat giving festivals!

Sharing food with people during celebrations and festivals is an age old tradition no matter what your religion or beliefs.  Once a year we feast on Turkey at Xmas. At Easter we gorge on chocolate. Then there is Eid twice a year. The most recent Eid festival for Muslims was the Eid that is known as the Festival of Sacrifice. During this occasion many immigrant families pay for the slaughter of a whole animal here in the UK and also back in the villages of the old country. The meat is then divided and distributed to friends, family and the poor in their home villages. This tradition of meat giving is awesome and I was lucky enough to receive a 4kg whole leg of lamb from my parents this weekend!

I researched many different recipes on line and Madhur Jaffrey’s version of spicy yogurt lamb got me excited. I read a few more similar recipes on line and came up with this creation which worked a treat. I would have liked to have marinated the leg for 24 hours but it was too big for the fridge and there were hungry people available to treat and feed!

Cinnamon, Cumin, Black peppercorns, Cloves and Cardamom pods

Garlic, Onion, Ginger

I made 2 marinades. The 1^st was smeared into slits made in the flesh of the lamb and left for an hour before the 2^nd one was applied. Ideally the meat would then be left overnight before slow roasting for 3-6hrs.

Marinade no.1

1 large onion - peeled and roughly chopped into chunks

8 cloves of garlic - peeled left whole

1 small knob of ginger - peeled

Garam Masala[translates to hot spice mix]: you can use powder but if you make your own you get more of a punch

To make your own Garam Masala dry roast the following:

1 small stick of Cinnamon,

10 whole black Peppercorns,

Seeds of 10 Cardamom pods

2 teaspoons of Cumin seeds  

6 Cloves

Then these are ground into a powder along with one or two teaspoons of

Dry red chilli flakes.

Zest and juice of a lemon

2-3 green chillies chopped up

Salt

Pop all of the above apart from the green chillies into a food processor and grind into a course paste – loosen up with a bit of water if it does not whizz up well in the machine. I added some powdered Garam Masala as well and added the chopped green chillies at the end.

Grinding the Garam Masala ingredients with red chilli flakes

Onion, garlic ginger and lemon paste with extra powdered Garam masala

Yogurt, Ground Almond, Tumeric powder, Nutmeg and Brown sugar

Marinade no.2

Ground almonds – 5/6 tablespoons

Plain fat free yogurt – 1 whole pot

Turmeric – ½ teaspoon

Grated nutmeg [very small quantity – just a couple of grates]

Brown sugar – 5/6 tablespoons

Mix all these into a thick paste

The 2 marinades ready

1st marinade on

Score the meat - I put deep cuts into the flesh and used a spoon to get the 1st marinade into the slits. The lemon in this paste will start tenderising the meat straight away. After a 1-2 hours smear it with the 2nd marinade so that the yogurt can get to work. Preheat the oven to maximum while the meat marinades and then cover the meat in foil and pop it in at 200 degrees C for 30min before turning down to 180 C for another 2.5hrs. Rest the meat for 30-45min before carving.

I served this with a Butternut Squash curry, Mashed Green Bean salsa and Parathas. The perfect alternative to a Sunday roast - asian style! 

Needless to say even for 5 of us eating that was way too much meat. The left over meat is going to be turned into a curried lamb saag [spinach] for tomorrow! Joy!