Greek-to-Thai rebrand

On the weekend I popped over the river to Campsie and had my Chinese butcher butterfly a leg of lamb for yiros. But rather than go straight to a mini Greek feast (I didn’t have my kids last weekend), I turned my mind to what else I might do with marinated, medium rare, barbecued strips of lamb.

Re-enter the Bachelor Food principle of rebranding or, in this case, pre-branding!

In the recipe below, I pan fry a fillet of lamb. Last Sunday, I sliced from my freshly barbecued lamb prepared, the remainder of which was set aside for school and work lunches, and yiros dinners - including sliced onions, lemon juice and sumac - but that is another story.

For this recipe, strong, well-defined tastes are what you want. Use fresh herbs, not dried. For instance, I would normally use lemon grass, but had run out, so, instead of using dried lemon grass, I substituted chopped leaves from my lime tree.

Recipe: Thai lamb larb (warm lamb salad)

Serves 2 as a main, 4 as an entree

Ingredients

• 300g lamb backstrap fillet
• 2 tablespoons peanut oil
• .5 cup chopped roasted, unsalted peanuts
• 2 cups shredded baby cos lettuce leaves
• 1 lebanese cucumber roughly chopped
• 1 thinly sliced red onion
• 2 thinly sliced radish
• 1 carrot julienne
• 2 tablespoons chopped coriander leaves
• 375g rice noodles

Sauce

• .25 cups ground, dry fried rice
• 1 tablespoon peanut oil
• 3 tablespoon fish sauce
• Juice 1 lemon
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• Chopped fresh herbs, about a teaspoon each: Kaffir lime leaves, mint (or lemon grass, shallots, coriander - whatever is fresh!)
• 2 birds eye chilies, chopped

Method

Heat rice in a dry frying pan, and cook until golden brown. Remove from pan and crush with a mortar and pestle.

Combine lettuce, onion, radish and carrot.

Place peanut oil, fish sauce and lemon juice in a small saucepan and heat, but don’t boil. Add sugar, crushed rice and chopped herbs and chili.

Heat peanut oil in a frying pan on medium-high heat. Fry lamb fillet two minutes on each side, then let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. Slice into thin strips. The strips should be browned and slightly crispy on the outside, and lovely and pink, but not bloody, in the middle.

Place the lamb strips into the sauce.

Boil water in a saucepan and add noodles. Rice noodles cook very quickly, about two minutes should do it. Strain.

Arrange on plates or bowls: first noodles, then salad vegetables, then lamb strips, then sauce, and last garnish with crushed peanuts and chopped coriander leaves.

Barbecue salad!

A beautiful summer morning. 20˚ now, 30˚ later. Fire up the barbecue for a late lunch.

This includes a moral dilemma. I reserve the grill for meat and the plate for veggies out of courtesy to my veggie friends - but this time I want to cook bacon on the plate. WHAT CAN I DO?

I take out a baking tray and give a good dose of olive oil. This will sit on one side of the BBQ plate, leaving the other side to crisp up the bread.

Recipe: Barbecue salad with crispy bread, bacon, and 2-minute egg

Ingredients

• Double handful English spinach
• 1 ripe tomato
• 1 rasher bacon
• 1 piece Lebanese bread
• 2 eggs
• 8 Calamata olives
• several sprigs basil and parsley

Method

Heat BBQ, placing oiled baking tray on the hot plate.

Place eggs in a saucepan of cold water. Bring to a steady boil, turn heat down to a gentle boil, and cook for 2 minutes. Place eggs in a bowl and refrigerate.

Using tongs, dip the piece of Lebanese bread into the oil, then place on the hot plate. About a minute each side. Remove to a plate.

Slice tomato in half, and place cut-side down on the tray. Lay out rasher of bacon on the tray. Cover with BBD hood. Turn each after 3–5 minutes.

Place tomato and bacon in the fridge with your eggs.

[Now it is time to get on with your morning. Go shopping, go for a cycle, take the kids to the pool, whatever]

Peel the eggs and slice them. They should be soft in the middle, but not runny.

Break off bits of the Lebanese bread and distribute evenly around a salad bowl. Toss in torn spinach leaves.

Cut tomato and bacon into small pieces, and add to bowl. Add olives. Garnish with basil and parsley.
I didn’t use a dressing on this, because I figured the tomato juices would do the job. And they did!