Displaying items by tag: lamb

I never need an excuse to light a fire outside and cook ‘al fresco’ and now it’s officially barbecue season that’s where I’ll be. The golden rule of cooking on a barbecue, or wood fire, is to cook over embers, not flames and to distinguish whether you are cooking something that requires searing rather than slow cooking. So, it’s always best to cook meats that require a fierce heat as soon as the flames have died down, and the embers are still glowing. Then grill ingredients such as fish, which require slower cooking, as the temperature of the fire drops. By mid-summer the herbs in my garden are at their best and plentiful so can be used liberally on barbecued food. Gutsy herbs indigenous/native of the Mediterranean and Middle East work very well in barbecues and include rosemary which adds an aromatic and resinous flavour working very well with fatty and rich meats such as lamb. I like to use the straight, small woody branches for my lamb, onion and rosemary skewers. Oregano and marjoram are both closely related and I still struggle to identify between the two growing in my garden. Oregano has a more pungent and domineering flavour whereas marjoram is slightly more delicate, also faintly savoury and lightly sweet scented. If using oregano then use a little more sparingly. It has a special affinity with tomato based dishes and sauces and works very well when put with lemon and garlic in a marinade. Coriander can be chopped and mixed into natural yoghurt with Indian spices to create a delicious marinade for both chicken and fish. The pungent, slightly citrus flavour marries well with lime zest and juice to make a herb butter which is delicious served on seafood cooked on a barbecue. Dill is often associated with Nordic or Russian cuisine and is used extensively in Persian cuisine. I love it with fish, particularly salmon which barbecues very well. Combined with sumac a Middle Eastern spice which adds tartness and astringency to food it makes a perfect marinade for salmon. Mint adds another dimension to whole grilled courgettes that have been allowed to cool a little and then drizzled with oil, salt and pepper and chopped mint. The same combination is also delicious on grilled halloumi cheese.

Now's the time that the new seasons lamb is at it's best, the sweet, succulent new lamb being perfect roast with a little garlic. Mind you, much of the lamb sold at this time of year will be lamb that was born in the spring of last year. In the trade it's known as hogget and is usually still very tender and full of flavour. Here's my recipe for a satisfying Moroccan Spiced Lamb casserole. Delicately spiced, you can modify the vegetables to suit your tastes or store cupboard. Fresh fennel which is really at its prime at the moment works particularly well. Ras el Hanout spice is a complex mix of spices which includes cinnamon, cardamom, allspice, ginger and often rosebuds and lavender. It is readily available on the spice shelf of most big supermarkets. The meat you choose can be shoulder or leg of lamb. Cooked on the bone is best but if you prefer to use diced meat then just shorten the cooking time a little. The lovely saffron infused ‘gravy’ is not thickened but if you like a thicker sauce coat the meat in flour before frying. If you make the stew the day before and store in the fridge then you can remove any fat that has set on the top. No lamb? Then try the recipe with chicken which works remarkably well.

Lleyn are a Welsh breed of sheep raised by 18 year old Annie Marschalek in the Gipping Valley, Suffolk. Annie bought three sheep four years ago and now has ten ewes and one ram (called Gordon Ramsay)  Clever Gordon and his girls produced 17 lambs in April.  Annie keeps the sheep outside on grass and will be selling the meat towards the end of August.  Half and whole lambs are £8 a kg (half a lamb is about 10kg and you get 2 leg joints, 2 shoulder joints, chops and minced lamb.) This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. And there is more ... Annie's brother Jim raises pigs and her father Rolf raises Red Poll cattle. So you can buy beef too!

• click here for beef price list
• red poll cattle
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