Recipe: Spiced Lamb Burgers, with Chargrilled Aubergine and Coriander Yoghurt

Yes indeed folks- another yoghurt recipe! This time in the form of a creamy herb yoghurt, to dollop on top of sizzling spiced lamb burgers! I love those chargrilled antipasti things you get in jars/packets- aubergines, courgettes, peppers- whatever! I figured because of the moussaka link, that chargrilled aubergines would go well with the lamb. What is also nice in this is a tsp of red onion chutney spread on the base if you fancy it.

Spiced Lamb Burgers, with Chargrilled Aubergine and Coriander Yoghurt (serves 4)

Burgers:
500g lamb mince
1 egg
30g breadcrumbs
2 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp garam masala
1 green chilli, deseeded and diced finely
2 banana shallots, diced finely
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
Generous amounts of salt and pepper

Yoghurt:

180g Greek yoghurt
4 tbsp finely chopped fresh coriander
Salt and pepper to taste

4 toasted sesame buns

4 slices of chargrilled aubergine (from deli/or antipasti jar)
Salad and fries to garnish

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Mix together all the burger ingredients, shape into 4 large burgers, and put into the fridge for about 10 minutes to firm up. Put a griddle pan onto high heat, and fry the lamb burgers for 2 minutes on each side.
2. Transfer these burgers to an oven tray, and put in the oven for 8 minutes, to fully cook through (if cooking these on a barbeque, just transfer them to the lower heat part of the barbeque, and turn them occasionally until cooked in the middle).
3. Meanwhile, mix together the yoghurt, herbs and seasoning. Lay a slice of chargrilled aubergine on the base of the buns, top with the hot lamb burgers, and with a dollop of the herb yoghurt. Serve, with salad and fries if desired!

Recipe: Greek Roast Beef with Spicy Courgettes and Potatoes, and a Dijon Mustard Yoghurt

Feels like it's been ages since i've posted up a recipe isn't it? Since my last recipe post, I have gone to Penzance, gone to Glastonbury, moved house, won a competition and got a new job! In fact, this recipe is the first one i've posted from my new home- I love my new flat with my new furniture in it and my lovely boyfriend! Yay. As you guys know, i won a month's supply of Total Greek Yoghurt, and so i'm finding out creative ways of using this surplus of yummy dairy products! This is a really interesting dish- it's like a sunday roast beef dinner- Greek style! I really like this Greco-Anglo Fusion dish, and the flavours work so beautifully together. Za'atar is a middle eastern herb/spice blend (and my lovely friend Emily brought me a jar of it back from Israel!) , but if you can't find it anywhere, use a mix of oregano and cumin instead.

Greek Roast Beef with Spicy Courgettes and Potatoes, and a Dijon Mustard Yoghurt (serves 2)

Beef
1 Scotch beef joint for two (from Co-Op)
500ml lager
1 tsp za’atar
Pinch salt and pepper

Courgettes + Potatoes
50g wild garlic butter (or use 50g normal butter + 2 garlic cloves)
1 red chilli, finely chopped
2 courgettes, halved and sliced
4 medium potatoes, peeled and quartered
1 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tsp za’atar
1 rounded tbsp tomato puree
500ml beef stock
Salt, pepper and sugar to taste

Mustard Yoghurt

200g Greek Yoghurt
25g Dijon mustard
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 200C (Fan Oven 180C). Rub the beef joint with the za’atar and a little seasoning. Put into a roasting dish with the beer, and put into the oven for 40 minutes (for medium well). Take out half-way through cooking time and baste with juices.

2. Meanwhile, fry the chilli, courgettes, potato, sesame seeds and za’atar in the garlic butter on a high heat for 6 minutes, stirring often. Add tomato paste and cook for a further two minutes.

3. Add the beef stock, and cook for a further 20 minutes on a medium heat, stirring occasionally, until the potatoes are fully cooked and the sauce is thickened.

4. Remove the beef from the oven, and allow to rest for 10 minutes before carving (if there are any extra juices left in the pan, pour it into the courgette mixture). Mix together the yoghurt with the Dijon mustard, and season to taste.

5. Carve the beef, and serve with the courgettes and potatoes, and a pot of the mustard yoghurt on the side.

Competition: Total Greek Yoghurt's Recipe Competition

Hey guys! It's been a while since I announced another competition win isn't it? Well, this week, i won runner up in Total Greek Yoghurt's "Greek Inspired" Recipe competition, winning a months supply of Various types of Total Yoghurt! The winning recipe was my Briam, which you can find on the blog under "greek recipes".

They've sent me LOADS of stuff as well, the fruity yoghurts i'll most likely just be having for brekkie and with my packed lunch, but all the plain natural stuff, i'm sure i'll be coming up with inventive uses for it, many of which will be recipes i'll post up on this blog. Cheers Total!!

Recipe: Lemon and thyme roasted chicken, with Mediterranean butterbeans and sweet leek gravy

Hey guys. Now this is, I must admit, a bit of a lengthy recipe, but then again it is a proper gurt lush roast chicken dinner, with a properly made gravy (no bisto here!) so it requires perhaps a little more effort than a lot of my quick-fix recipes. My housemates loved it, as did I. I've really perfected this roast chicken recipe, i've tried "lemon thyme" chicken's before, but theyve always ended up too lemony! Basically, don't chuck a lemon up the chicken's jacky, nor squeeze a load of the lemon juice onto the chicken/ into the roasting dish. Again- too sharp and lemony! I made a leek gravy in the end because I didn't have any onions/shallots and it's just what i had in the house- use onions instead if you fancy. Cooking time of the chicken of course depends on how big your chicky-bird is, just generally roast until you can put a knife into the thigh cavity of the bird and the juices run clear.

Lemon and thyme roasted chicken, with Mediterranean butterbeans and sweet leek gravy (serves 4)

The Chicken

30g butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 clove garlic, crushed
Handful fresh thyme
Zest of 1 lemon
Salt and pepper
1 rasher smoked bacon
1 small/medium raw chicken
2 shallots
2 celery sticks (plus another celery stick for trimmings stock)
150ml white wine
150ml water
1 bay leaf

The Butterbeans

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
6 spring onions, sliced
1 rasher bacon, finely chopped
1 tsp herbs du provence
2 tins butterbeans, drained and rinsed
2 tbsp diced roasted red peppers (from a jar)
200ml water
Juice of ¼ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Leek Gravy

1 tbsp butter
1 large leek, finely sliced (the dark green ends kept for chicken trimmings stock)
1 garlic clove, crushed
Pinch sugar
100ml white wine
400ml chicken stock (made from the chicken trimmings)
1 tsp corn flour, mixed with water

1. Preheat the oven to 180. Soften the butter, and mix it with the olive oil, 1 clove of garlic, thyme, lemon and seasoning. Prep the chicken- cut the strings tying it together, and chop off the wing tips, the bottom of the legs, and part of the tail. Put these trimmings in a pan, with a the green bits of the leek, a celery stick, a crushed garlic clove, a bay leaf, a sprig of thyme, and some seasoning. Fill this pan up with water, bring to the boil, and cook for 30 minutes (to make a temporary stock) and set aside.

2. Put 2 celery sticks, a garlic clove, and shallots in a deep roasting tin. Place the prepped chicken on top of this. Rub all over with the garlic/herb/lemon butter, and put a rasher of bacon on top. Pour the wine and water into the roasting tin, and put in the oven for about 1 hour/ 1 hour and a half (depending on how large the chicken is). Remove the chicken from the oven half way through cooking, remove the bacon rasher, top up with water/wine if necessary, and put back in the oven.

3. In a medium saucepan, fry the spring onions and bacon for 5 minutes. Add all the other ingredients and cook on a high heat for a further 5 minutes. Season to taste, and set aside.

4. Remove the chicken from the oven, lift it from the roasting tin onto a plate, and cover it with foil to let it rest. In another saucepan, fry the leek, garlic and sugar in butter for 5 minutes, stirring often. Add all other gravy ingredients and all the scraped juices from the roasting tin, and cook on a high heat until thickened (takes about 10 minutes). Season to taste.

5. Carve the chicken, and serve this with the hot butterbeans and gravy.

Recipe: Mediterranean Potato Bake

Again, sorry for not posting for a while, but it's been a hectic few weeks. I promise from now on you will be inundated by many mant entries, and I will definitely be trying to get more entries and yummy recipes on the blog this year compared to other years. This is a really nice and simple bake i made for me and my boyfriend the other day- pretty tasty and fairly healthy for a potato dish. I served it as a side dish along side a pork loin chop, but it's hearty enough to be a main course in itself, if you so wish.

Mediterranean Potato Bake (serves 4 as a main course, 6 as a side dish)

2 kg potatoes, peeled and sliced thinly
1 red bell pepper, seeded and diced
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 white onion, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
200ml vegetable stock
Salt and pepper
Fresh basil leaves (for garnish)

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. In a large baking dish, layer the sliced potatoes, and the diced red pepper. Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the sliced onions for about 5 minutes, or until browned.
2. Put fried onions on top of the potatoes with the oregano, vegetable stock, and plenty of seasonin. Cover with aluminium foil and bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Remove from the oven, remove the foil, garnish with fresh basil leaves and serve!

Recipe: Gigantes bean and Vegetable Gratin

This is a gorgeaus dish that my boyfriend invented recently, that I thought was so nice i asked him for the recipe to put up on here. I was quite surprised really that Nick came up with this sort of dish, as normally if i ever cook him anything vegetarian he's moans "what no meat??". Fairly healthy as well I suppose. I love those jarred greek gigantes beans in tomato sauce that you get in delis/ the "world" section of supermarkets. The brand we used is called "Odysea Baked Gigantes Beans". About the chilli- last weekend we went to the food market that is held regularly in Green Park station in Bath, and we bought this yellow chilli from a small stall selling bits and bobs. We mainly bought it because the vendor said to Nick how horrifyingly spicy it was and of course Nick had to take up that challenge. If you cant find any yellow chillis about just put a whole red one in there instead.

Gigantes bean and vegetable gratin (serves 2)

355g Jar of baked giganti beans in tomato sauce and olive oil
1/3 of a large leek, sliced
1/4 red onion, diced
Clove garlic, crushed
1/4 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 a yellow chilli, diced finely
6 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp tomato chutney
2 ripe fresh tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tbsp grated parmesan
15g grated cheddar
15g grated cheshire
2 tbsp breadcrumbs

1. Preheat the oven to 180C. Tip off oil from top of the jar of butterbeans jar into a saucepan (or just use a splash of olive oil). Fry onions, leeks, garlic and chilli, and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add mushrooms and cook for a further 5 minutes. Mix in beans, chutney and chopped fresh tomatoes. Season to taste and transfer to baking dish and cover with the grated cheese and breadcrumbs.
3. Bake for 25 mins.Remove and serve!

Recipe: Griddled Peach and Feta Salad

This is frankly the most GORGEAUS salad recipe I have ever made!!! It's got so much oomph, such zingy flavours, really well paired ingredients- basically it's just fab! If you cant get raspberry vinegar (i'm not actually sure how readily available it is in this country- the raspberry vinegar I have was a nice foodie buy from France this summer) then just use cider vinegar. You can also use nectarines or apricots in the place of peaches if you want. The nice dish i've presented this in was a present my mum brought back to me from Mexico- very pretty isn't it??

Griddled Peach and Feta Salad (serves 2)

Salad
2 ripe peaches
1 tsp raspberry vinegar
½ tsp sugar
Salt and pepper
100g mixed leaves (preferably peppery Italian leaves)
100g feta, diced
Salt and pepper

Dressing
1 tbsp raspberry vinegar
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp Dijon mustard
Salt, sugar and pepper to taste

1. Put a griddle pan onto a high heat. Stone the peaches and cut each one into quarters. Brush each quarter with raspberry vinegar (or lemon juice) and sprinkle with sugar, salt and pepper.
2. Put each seasoned peach quarter onto the griddle pan, one of the flesh sides facing down. In 2 minutes, turn it onto it’s other side, and then after another minute, turn it onto the skin side (making sure the peach “wedges” are griddled all over).
3. Put the leaves into a big serving dish. Top with the feta, and the still warm griddled peaches. Whisk together the dressing ingredients, season to taste and pour over the salad. Serve!

Recipe: Rice and Feta Stuffed Peppers

This is a nice recipe I rustled up as I had peppers, risotto rice, and now a load feta to use up suddenly- I had a big 1kg block of feta left over from Widcombe Rising, which (unopened) lasts until 2013 something, but SOMEONE (i'm pointing at you boyfriend!) drunkenly (or more worryingly, in his sleep, like sleep-eating!!) opened the pack of feta and had a nibble, so over the next month probably almost every recipe on here will include feta in some shape or form! I'm wondering whether it would be wise to make a big spanakopita filling (feta, ricotta, dill and spinach) and freeze it, to make spanakopitas at another time, but i'm not really sure how well feta freezes. Any way, this is a very pleasant healthy lunch for two, and very cheap to make.

Rice and Feta Stuffed Peppers (serves 2)

2 large or 3 smaller green peppers, halved and seeded
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 knob of butter
1 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, crushed
½ tsp mixed herbs
100g Arborio rice
400ml vegetable stock
1 large ripe tomato, diced
Handful fresh basil, roughly chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
80g feta diced

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Lay the halved peppers in a roasting dish and drizzle with 2 tbsp of the extra virgin olive. Season with a little salt and pepper, and roast in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, sauté the onions and garlic in 1 tbsp of the olive oil and butter for about 10 minutes. Add the mixed herbs, rice, and stock and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the chopped tomato and cook for 5 more minutes. Add the basil and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season the rice to taste and spoon into the roasted pepper halves. Top with the cubed feta, and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. Serve with some mixed green salad!

Recipe: Greek Salad

Hey guys. So "Widcombe Rising" is Bath's biggest street festival, it is a big mish mash of art, drama, music, food, drink and festivities- and my boyfriend Nick and Natural Theatre Company director Ralph Oswick organise it every other year . An estimated 8000 people visit Widcombe Rising on the day, and it is always fantastic and fun filled. This year,since it was all "Olympiad" themed, i decided to have my own stall selling Greek salads! I did really well actually, and reckon i would have sold out if it hadnt have rained a bit on the day. This is the recipe that i used to fill my greek salad pots, it's a main course sized portion for 1, that can of course easily be multiplied to feed a family, or to make a fab side dish. In the picture i've just used red peppers (because i ran out of green, lol) but it's always good for appearance sake to use different coloured peppers. Also, this dish is so healthy- each portion makes up 3 of your five a day!!

Greek Salad (serves 1 as a main course)

100g tomatoes, sliced into wedges (or halved cherry tomatoes)
5 black olives
20g thinly sliced red onion
¼ (50g) peeled and sliced cucumber
30g (1/4) red pepper
30g (1/4) green pepper
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp white wine vinegar
Salt and pepper
50g feta (diced into cubes)
Pinch dried oregano

1. Combine all the ingredients except the feta and oregano together in a mixing bowl. Plate up the Greek salad, top with the feta, and sprinkle the dried herbs over the top. Serve!

Recipe: Lamb and Courgette kebabs, with Red onion and Walnut Couscous

Well I told you i'd be writing up less recipes up on here- and I was dead right! I told the guys at Cosy Club that I was happy to do anything from 15-40 hours (see- nice and flexible!), and this week i've done over 45, and i'm pretty sure i might be doing the same next week. I mean, i am very much thinking about all the money at this point, which is why i am battling with myself whether i should moan about it really. On one hand the more money= the better, and even on 30 hours a week i'll have more than enough, but on the other hand....its LOTS OF MONEYYYYY. But yeah this is killing me man, full-time chef-ing again. I don't know when my next full day off is- last one was last friday and there aint a free in sight yet.....

Anyway only a few months more Mel, stick with it! Last time I had an evening free to myself, I cooked this dish for me and my boyfriend and we both loved it- very tasty and barely takes any time to prepare. The marinade for the lamb can also be used with bigger cuts of lamb to be slowcooked too- the flavours work particularly well with this type of meat. It isnt in the recipe, but I served this with a herby yoghurt- nom!

Lamb, courgette and red onion kebabs, with zesty cous cous

For the Kebabs
250g lamb leg steaks, cut into bitesize chunks
1 lemon (zest set aside for the couscous, ½ juiced for the marinade)
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1.5 tsp dried mint
1.5 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp paprika
Seasoning
1 medium sized courgette, sliced

For the Cous cous

2 tbsp olive oil
½ red onion, sliced
2 clove garlic
1 tsp sugar
40g walnuts, chopped
130g couscous
200ml hot vegetable stock
Handful coriander stems and leaves chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Extra coriander for garnish

1. Place the lamb in a bowl with the lemon juice, olive oil, mint, rosemary, paprika and seasoning. Mix together, and leave in the fridge to marinade for at least 2 hours. Soak 4 wooden skewers in water for at least 15 minutes.
2. Heat up a fan oven to 220C. Thread the marinated lamb and courgette onto the four skewers. Put onto Bake in the oven for 15 minutes, turning once.
3. Meanwhile, put the couscous, lemon zest, walnuts, and coriander into a bowl. Add the vegetable stock and cover for about 5 minutes.
4. Meanwhile in a saucepan fry the onion, garlic and sugar in olive oil for about 5 minutes. Mix into the couscous, fluff up with a fork and season to taste.
5. Remove the skewers from the oven, pour over any juices leftover in the tray and serve with the cous cous and some more fresh chopped coriander.

Recipe: Greek Lamb Broth

When looking at the ingredients, I'm sure a lot of you will think 'white wine? with lamb??" but seriously, it works really well. Infact my boyfriend says this is his favourite lamb recipe that I make him- and I think it's darn delicious as well! It uses Greek flavours (lemon, oregano, sundried tomatoes) and fresh mint, which of course compliments lamb beautifully. I reckon this mixture of ingredients (minus the stock) would also work as a really good marinade for meats such as beef, lamb or fish, to roast or to barbeque. I serve this with nice warm crusty bread to mop up the juices, around the beautifully lean and tender lamb.

Greek Lamb Broth (serves 2)

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 white onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
350g lean diced lamb
1 tsp oregano
1 tbsp sundried tomato paste (or pesto)
Pinch saffron
200ml white wine
250ml chicken or lamb stock
1 tbsp finely chopped fresh mint (plus extra for garnish)
Small Squeeze of lemon with a little zest
Sugar, salt and pepper to taste.

1. On a medium heat, sweat the onion and garlic in the olive oil until soft. Add the lamb, oregano and some salt and black pepper and cook for a few minutes. Add sundried tomato paste and cook for 2 more minutes.
2. Add the white wine and saffron and cook for 5 minutes. Add the stock and mint and cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. Add the lemon and cook for a further 10 minutes.
4. Season to taste, garnish with fresh mint, and serve.

Recipe: Moussaka

I'm not one for blowing my own horn(....allright I am....just a bit!) but this is one of THE NICEST things I have EVER cooked. EVER. I mean, i'm not sure how traditional it is when compared to Greek or Cypriot recipes, but it's still lush. I believe roasting the aubergine off first, in nice thin slices, avoids the aubergine from becoming hard or slimy- a horrible texture you get sometimes in some other Moussakas. Try serving this with a delicious cucumber, tomato, kos lettuce, and mint salad.

Moussaka (serves 3)

1 aubergine, sliced into thin rings
2 tbsp olive oil (plus extra for drizzling)
1 small white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
500g minced lamb
1 vegetable stock cube
1 tbsp concentrated tomato puree
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp dried mint
300g diced ripe tomatoes
30g butter
1 level tbsp plain flour
100ml skimmed milk
15g finely grated parmesan
30g crumbled feta
1 egg yolk
Small handful Fresh parsley, chopped

1. Heat the oven to 200C. Line a baking tray with greaseproof paper, and lay the slices of aubergine on it. Drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt, and roast in the oven for 5 minutes. Remove and set aside.
2. In a saucepan, fry the onions, garlic and olive oil on a medium heat, covered, for five minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase the heat, and add the minced lamb, stock cube, cinnamon and mint. Cook for ten minutes, or until browned.
3. Add tomato puree, and cook for a couple of minutes. If there is a lot of fat, drain some of it away from the pan. Add chopped tomatoes, and cook covered, on a low/medium heat for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Whilst the lamb/tomato is slowly simmering, make the cheese sauce. Melt the butter, stir in the flour, add milk, and once thickened, add the parmesan and feta and stir in. Remove from the heat and quickly stir in the egg yolk. Don’t worry if the sauce is ‘lumpy’, once the dish has cooked in the oven it will even out.
5. Preheat the oven dish to 180C. Pour the lamb mixture into an oven proof dish. Evenly layer the aubergine slices on top of the lamb. Pour the white sauce over the aubergine, and smooth over with a spoon. Put in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, garnish with some freshly chopped parsley, and serve!

Recipe: Briam

"Briam" (Bree-Am) is a delicious traditional Greek potato and vegetable bake. I had this dish loads of times when i went to Crete a few years ago, and completely fell in love with it. It's the simplicity of Greek food that i adore so much. I got a traditional Cretan cookery book, and most of the recipes have a few ingredients, cooked simply, and all of which usually(even the desserts) contain lashing of good olive oil! Traditionally you would crumble a type of mild goat's cheese called "Mizithra" over the top once it's come out of the oven, but I can't find it anywhere in England, so I use Feta, which seems to me to be the closest alternative to it.

Briam (serves 4)

550g courgettes, halved and sliced
550g potatoes, peeled and sliced fairly thinly
4 large ripe tomatoes, 2 squished up, 2 sliced into wedges
1 red onion, sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves, crushed
3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley, plus extra for garnish
1 tbsp cumin
2 tbsp dried oregano
200ml vegetable stock
60ml extra virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper
50g feta cheese, crumbled

1. Heat to 180C. Mix all the ingredients together well in a large bowl. Pour the mixture into a large baking/roasting dish, and smooth over as much as possible.
2. Put into the oven for 55 minutes. Every 15 minutes with a spoon, “pat down” the vegetables as much as possible. This is to make sure the potato cooks. You should not stir the mixture; otherwise it will break down too much.
3. Once the potato is cooked, and the dish looks well roasted, take out of the oven and crumble over the feta cheese and some extra chopped fresh parsley. Serve!