699. Rogan Josh

A while back my family and I went to an Asian buffet restaurant. And by Asian I mean Asian. They had Indian food, Chinese food, Korean food, Thai food, Japanese food and probably a bunch more. There was so much I wanted to try, but I didn’t want to totally overload my plate so I got little tiny bits of everything. One of the curries I got was rogan josh, which is a lamb curry with a rich, red sauce. The meat was chewy (which is why I don’t usually ever order lamb curries unless I know the place is amazing), but the sauce was great.

699 down, 1097 to go

661. Lamb Dopiaza

This was the main course that I served for New Year’s. I made a lamb dopiaza, which is a lamb curry with lots of onions, a saag aloo, homemade onion bhajis and coconut and coriander chutney, all served with rice and naan bread. I got a fantastic Indian cookbook for Christmas so most of the dishes were made or at least inspired, from recipes in there.

661 down, 1135 to go

659. Lamb Shanks

Lamb is one of my favourite meats, but I don’t cook it very often because it tends to be really expensive. To cut the cost for this meal I bought one large shank and shared it between the two of us, then made sure I added loads of vegetables so it would be a really hearty, satisfying meal. I slow-braised the lamb in the oven with red wine, thyme and all the vegetables (potato, carrot, onions, celery and 660. Turnip), then took the foil off toward the end so as to get that yummy combination of juicy, fall-off-the-bone tender meat, with a caramelized crispy outside.

660 down, 1136 to go

606. Lamb Chops

I had these lamb chops when I went out for a big family dinner for my Gran’s 80th birthday, and they were hands down the best lamb I’ve ever eaten. We went to Nicolino’s which is an Italian restaurant in my hometown that always serves great authentic Italian food. The lamb chops were pan-fried and came with a little parcel of spiced minced lamb rolled in aubergine, some potato gratin and a delicious rich wine gravy. Oh my god. Seriously, I said it before but it was really the best lamb ever. It was cooked perfectly, just a little pink, it was tender and juicy and moist and flavourful and sweet and rich and the tiniest bit charred and I could go on and on. And now I’m starving.

606 down, 1190 to go

533. Kofte

So you’re going to have to forgive me with all of these upcoming posts. A lot of them are from back in the summer so they are not exactly going to be seasonal, but let’s just pretend that the weather is still sunny and we can still have barbecues and picnics and it is not actually cold and rainy outside.

I already posted some other foods I ate at my friends’ ‘international barbecue’. Well we also had these yummy homemade koftes, which I like to think of as a lamb burger on a stick. And we all know that stick food is great. These were served with a creamy yogurt dip.

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528. Moussaka

Moussaka (in my mind at least) is the quintessential Greek dish, and so it was the one thing I wanted to eat there the most. Obviously I’ve had it before, but I was interested to see how the ‘real thing’ compared to what I’ve had before, so I ordered it on my very first night. It was actually a lot different. There was no thick tomato sauce, just lamb and eggplant, seasoned with a LOT of nutmeg. Then it was topped with super thick unctuous bechamel. Very good!

528 down, 1268 to go

519. Kleftiko

Kleftiko was one of those dishes that I chose entirely because I saw it on the menu and I knew that I had to eat it for the list. It was our last night in Athens and I hadn’t seen it at any restaurants so far, so as soon as I spotted it I knew that’s what I had (and I insisted that was the restaurant that we all had to go to). As it turned out though, it was also amazing, so it was a totally win-win situation. The lamb is really slow cooked in the oven with green peppers, carrots and cheese, and the meat just fell apart and was completely delicious. It was a huge portion, and I was insanely full, but I had to eat it all anyway because it was so good.

520. Lemonata Potatoes

On the side it had lemonata potatoes - basically potatoes cooked with lemon. They were tangy and a really nice accompaniment to the rich lamb and cheese. I remember my mum making something similar a lot when I was young, but I’ve never made them myself so I might have to give it a try.

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449. Kheema

I made this as a quick easy supper for my friends after we had the miracle berry tasting (long enough after so the effects had worn off, I don’t think sweet lamb would have been that tasty!). If you haven’t made a lot of curries before, this is a great one to try as it is super simple. All you need to do is fry some chopped onions and ground lamb, add in a couple of spoonfuls of curry paste (I would use something like rogan josh or madras paste), then mix in a can of tomatoes. You can pretty much then cook it for as long or as little as you like, and just toss in a handful of peas a few minutes before you want to serve.

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This was the main course of the honeymoon-inspired meal at my friends’ house. Nik roasted lamb with potatoes and served it with a mix of 383. Borlotti Beans and 384. Cannellini Beans. It was very garlicky and made a great accompaniment for the lamb, all in all the whole meal was delicious, though I never expect anything less when I go to eat at their house!

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This is a rather all-encompassing post so please forgive me for not writing a lot about each food as otherwise you would be reading a mammoth essay! Actually a couple of months back now (as you can probably tell from the fact that we are eating outside in the picture…) I went to Pie’s mum’s surprise birthday barbecue. It was a lovely afternoon and I ate all of these delicious listworthy items:

316. Gravadlax, 317. Nasturtium, 318. Rose Petal, 319. Chive, 320. Butterflied Lamb, 321. Jersey Shallot, 322. Insalata Caprese, 323. Classic Green Salad

It was the first time I’d tasted gravadlax and it was totally delicious, much nicer than smoked salmon in my opinion. Especially in combination with the sweet dill sauce. I really want to have a go at making my own so that might be something I will try over Christmas.

I have to say that the flower petals looked better than they tasted, frankly they pretty much tasted the same as regular salad. They look so pretty though that they definitely make a green salad much more exciting.

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