Saturday 3 February 2024

Lamb with Harissa

It was time I got back into cooking new recipes, so I dug out Rukmini Iyer’s The Roasting Tin and looked for something a little different. I settled on Slow-Cooked Leg of Lamb with Harissa, Roasted Aubergines and Tomatoes. 

Not a cheap meal, but lamb rarely is. I managed to find most of the ingredients in the big Tesco, bar harissa paste (some kind of eastern condiment, not a celebrity influencer from Brentwood). My mum managed to find a jar from some artisan outlet in Saddleworth. My dried mint pots it seems went out of date in 2015 and 2017, so there’s a possibility that the potency was somewhat underwhelming… but it’s a dried herb. What harm’s it going to do? I’d have to throw out 90% of my spice rack if I was going off date. I substituted with dill, something I use fairly regularly. 

Prep time was supposed to be 15 mins. Took me 32. Standard. Overall, cooking time took about 4 hours. Not that complicated, and is mostly oven time. 

Tesco’s vine tomatoes are bigger than displayed in the recipe book, so they were a little undercooked, and the aubergine was cooked through but not slimy as is the risk with this particular vegetable, as I understand. I’ve never cooked it before.

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