165: Lamb-filled flatbread, p238

High praise from T, "You've certainly learnt how to cook lamb well during this [recipe challenge foolishness]" as he inhaled one of these wraps... :)

Wraps, or flatbreads? I was initially thinking of flatbreads as went with the taramasalata recipe last month, or perhaps pitta breads, until I read the recipe through and found that the last direction is to 'roll up' the flatbreads. Wraps! Or tortillas! Not flatbreads, surely? I used sandwich wraps. But think pittas would have been good too. 

Couple of pieces of lamb shoulder fillet, marinated in garlicky loveliness and then griddled on each side for a few minutes, before resting - leaving it beautifully pink inside and super tasty on the outside. With simple lemony rocket leaves, garlicky herby yoghurt sauce, and the meat, wrapped in tortillas and served. Messy (I can never work out how to fold these - I know the theory but in reality I always either tear them or they just keep falling apart and dribbling meaty juices and yoghurt all down ones front), but delicious. The sweetness of the meat, and the acidity of the lemon and peppery leaves, refreshing sharpness of the yoghurt, lovely jubbly, and a very nice Friday night supper.

147: Slow-roast lamb with chickpea mash, p62, and 148: Cheese-smothered potatoes, p17

Tescos delivered lamb shanks instead of another leg of lamb (as the recipe says) the other day, but the shank is part of the arm of the shoulder, and includes part of the leg, so that's not that far from being a leg of lamb, right?

Three and a half hours of roasting and I was worried they were going to be wrecked, as they'd got rather crispy on the outside inspite of the hourly basting with the juices - the juices were starting to disappear in the ether so there wasn't that much to baste with towards the end. But luckily it was just the outside, the layer of fat over the meat and the spice rub over it, and the meat underneath was  perfectly tender and the cartilage and connective tissue had melted away just as it should - much better than the last time I cooked lamb shanks...

Served with the cheese-smothered potatoes, which were easy peasy, and must have been virtually calorie free... not... and the chickpea mash, which T described as 'revolting', and refused to eat after trying a teeny bit. I kinda had to agree with him on that, it wasn't very nice... glad I divided the recipe in half so we didn't have enough for six... :)

133: Roast lamb with cumin and fresh mint, p198

Monday night treat! I made the spice paste in the morning before work and left it to marinade in the fridge all day, and all the garlicky cuminy minty loveliness soaked into the meat, and after 45mins in the oven this evening, it was absolutely delicious and most, and still a little pink (I always overcook lamb by accident...). Can't beat a gravy made entirely out of meat juices and white wine either. Why don't more people make their own gravy - it's sooo easy, so tasty, and cleans the roasting tray at the same time. Genius!

66: Chickpeas with harissa, basil and ham, p153

Mmmmm, another scrummy salad of sorts - again, no leaves! Except the basil, which again, damn, I forgot :( I also only used one tin of chickpeas - the tomatoes and aubergine roasted down to a really small volume and two tins would have made the dish mostly chickpea (one can definitely have an excess of chickpeas...), so took the executive decision to use just the one.

Tasty tasty roasted tomatoes and aubergine, with lovely oily cuminy juices. I think a little more chilli would have been a good idea, maybe roasted with the vegetables, or maybe my pot of harissa paste isn't a very strong one? Definitely too much oil for the amount of vegetables, at least twice as much, but the crispy prosciutto on top - mmmmm!! Lovely jubbly. And enough for lunch tomorrow!

43:Dal and pumpkin soup, p4, and 44: Spiced roast potatoes with yoghurt and mint, p42

Dinner party with another set of girlie-friends tonight - and one is a vegetarian, whilst several of the others quite like to eat veggie food, so thought it would be a good opportunity to get some of Nigel's veggie curries out of the way - esp since T doesn't really consider a meal without meat to be a meal, or much like curries...

This soup made a very easy starter which went down well... I made it a few days before so just heated it up before serving. A deceptively mild start with a tangy kick to it, with the ginger and a little chilli not blowing your socks off, and the sweetness of pumpkin (butternut squash). Bit naughty of me but I did miss out the fried onion topping, as I had so many other recipes to juggle tonight - the kitchen is tiny, and with hardly any worksurface, so it all got a bit frantic...

The potatoes were super - lovely yellowy mildly spicy roasties with crispy oniony, garlicky, chilli bits on top, and a drizzle of homemade yoghurt and sprinkling of mint leaves on top. Definitely worth repeating in the future.

Served with the potatoes were two curries and homemade naan breads...

40: Grilled chicken with harissa and mint, p203, and 41: A tomato curry, p292

Had two friends round for dinner on Friday night and even though one brought the starter and the other brought the pudding, I managed to get two recipes in. Think they were initially a bit bemused about the challenge but they liked the idea, and the food was definitely a success. The chicken was very simple - I'd normally marinate the chicken overnight but the recipe said just to roll the boned chicken legs in it before grilling. Yum yum yum. Very simple, but good grub - especially with the simple salad suggested in the book - spinach dressed with toasted pine nuts, lime juice and oil, and the tomato curry on the side. The tomato curry was easy too, and tasty, although it came out a bit more liquid than I expected. If I'd had a bit longer, and I wasn't following the recipe to the letter, I'd probably have reduced it down a bit. I like the idea of adding the fresh tomatoes whole and letting them cook and collapse down by themselves, saves some chopping! Served with some homemade naan breads (not a Nigel recipe, but out of the book for my breadmaker) - another new recipe, and soo easy, and really scrummy. Nearly forgot to take a photo - hence the 'half-devoured' pictures below...

36: Chicken with mustard seed and coconut milk, p110

Another deceptive recipe title - this one is a lovely spicy, creamy chicken curry, with quite a kick to it! I reduced the quantities (a whole, jointed chicken, for a recipe serving three?), so used two red chillis instead of three, but it was still rather fiery. Gorgeous tumeric yellow sauce with chunks of red from the chillis and tomatoes, and dark green from the curry leaves. I used the legs/thighs/wings/the inner fillets from a whole chicken, saved the main breast meat for another day, and used the carcass to make a few bottles of good stock for the freezer (I use empty coke/juice bottles to store stock/thin soups in, fit nicely in the freezer and divides it up into c.500ml aliquots nicely). Apart from the fact there's only two of us, I couldn't fit a whole jointed chicken, plus all the other ingredients for this recipe, into my biggest casserole - a large Denby one. Nigel must have some pretty hefty dishes in his kitchen!

18: Spiced pumpkin soup with bacon, p58

Another easy one, and super scrummy it was too. I don't normally add cream to soups, nor blend them until smooth, but this one will definitely be repeated. No pumpkins around at the moment (even though this is from the February section of the book), could only get hold of butternut squash, but hey, that's close enough :)

Addition of bacon should hopefully make it hubbie pleasing too...

Update: And it did!