Harissa Turkey Burgers

We're just back from a fantastic holiday on the Suffolk coast. The weather was unseasonally wonderful - we ate lunch outside, picnicked on the beach and have even come home with slight suntans. Incredible! We took advantage of the row of fishermen's huts on the beach at Aldeburgh to feast on deliciously fresh fish each night and enjoyed every minute. I'll be sharing one or two of our fishy feasts later in the week, but today I want to tell you about the turkey burgers we enjoyed with our Greek Salad a few nights before we headed off.

We love burgers in all their forms but, in an attempt to be healthy-ish, we try not to indulge ourselves too often. We are always on the lookout for healthier alternatives to some of our favourite dishes and this prompted me to make some burgers from turkey breast mince. To spice these up somewhat, I added a generous dollop of harissa which gave these burgers a fantastic, exotic flavour. Paired with crisp little gem lettuce leaves and a smear or coriander-flecked yoghurt, these were extremely tasty. My only criticism would be that they were perhaps a little on the dry side - the downside of opting for a leaner meat.

This is what I did....

Harissa Turkey Burgers
Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients:

450g turkey breast mince

1 red onion

1 generous tbsp harissa

Burger buns, rolls or small ciabatta
Iceburg lettuce
4 tbsp plain low-fat yoghurt, creme fraiche or mayonnaise (or more, if you like)
Generous handful coriander

1. Place mince in a large bowl. Grate the onion into the bowl, add the harissa (use more or less to taste) and stir together thoroughly. This is easiest done with the hands, if a little messy.

2. Shape the mixture into burgers, brush with a touch of oil and grill, griddle or BBQ for around 15-20 minutes until cooked through.

3. Meanwhile, chop the coriander and mix into the yoghurt (or creme fraiche or mayo). Make more if you feel like it - there were just two of us. Toast/warm the buns and split in half.

4. Assemble the burgers! Layer them up with the lettuce, burger and coriander yoghurt mix. A big slice of tomato wouldn't go amiss either.

Greek-ish salad

I call this vibrant salad a Greek-ish salad as I have zero Greek credentials and everywhere I look there is debate and criticism on what a Greek salad really is. It seems that a number of Greeks get quite hot under the collar about this, perhaps their most famous national dish. Some insist that the salad should be onion-free whilst others say that finely sliced red onion is a vital component (and that this is the way their mother/grandmother/great-grandmother made it). Controversy also surround the use of cucumber which, to me, has featured in all 'Greek' salads I've ever tasted. There is also disagreement about herbs - fresh or dried? Dressing - plain olive oil, olive oil and lemon juice or something more elaborate?

My take on all of this is that there is no such thing as a truly 'authentic' recipe. There are recipes. There are variants. All are valid. There is no such thing as a 'wrong' recipe. There are many ways of creating a good 'Greek' salad. This version is mine and it contains the things that I love and the combination of flavours that work for me.

I served this alongside some harissa turkey burgers (recipe to follow) and it was a real hit. Wonderfully fresh, vibrant and crunchy and beautifully colourful too. If you can get those knobbly, hard-skinned cucumbers for this salad, so much the better. You'll definitely need to peel them and cut out the seeds but they are crunchier and (in my opinion) much more flavoursome. Obviously this salad is all about the quality of the ingredients - it would be miles better when tomatoes are actually in season. I was lucky enough to find some on-the-vine tomatoes with plenty of flavour in my local supermarket but I know this would have tasted much more wonderful with fresh-from-the-garden tomatoes, still warm from the sun! Go for the best feta you can afford too - there is quite a difference in flavour.

My Greek-ish Salad

Serves 2 as a side dish

Ingredients:

Half a red onion

1small  lemon

4 good-sized tomatoes

Half a long cucumber or a whole knobbly, crunchy one

100g good quality feta cheese

small handful Kalamata olives

4tbsp good quality extra-virgin olive oil (Greek, if possible!)

1 tsp dried oregano

salt and pepper

1. Half an hour before you want to eat the salad, slice the onion very finely and place in a bowl with the juice from the lemon. This will soften the onion and take away some of the harsh flavour of raw onion.

2. In a small bowl, measure out the olive oil and sprinkle in the oregano with a good sprinkling of salt and pepper. Set to one side.

3. Chop the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces and remove the seeds and mushy middle bit (unless you love seeds and mush, in which case feel free to leave them in!). Peel the cucumber and remove the seeds/fleshy core. Chop the crunchy flesh into small pieces. Cut feta into small cubes and olives into rough quarters.

4. Assemble the salad just before serving. Throw tomatoes, cucumbers, feta and olives into a bowl and mix gently to combine, season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle softened onions over the top and pour over most of the lemony juices over the salad. Use your judgement here - I found I used just under the juice of a whole lemon! Finally pour over the oregano oil which will mingle nicely with the lemony juices.

5. Devour and mop up the gorgeous juices with crusty bread!

This salad would be great with so many things - a side dish at a barbecue, alongside some simply-grilled fish or chicken, a summery lunch time dish, with grilled and marinated lamb chops....

And here is my lovely Sinbad enjoying the Spring-like sunshine in the garden. Absolutely irrelevant to this recipe, but equally lovely...

Sinbad, the husband and I are off on holiday next week. We're heading to Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. we plan to eat lots of fish and plenty of picnics (probably in the rain, knowing our luck!). Look forward to sharing it all on our return!

Barbecued pineapple with rum glaze

I'm struggling with the weather at the moment. One day it is bright sunshine and high temperatures and the next, there is a chilly wind, driving rain and general greyness. I'm inappropriately dressed at almost all times and my fridge is also often inappropriately stocked. Two nights ago, there was a serious nip in the air and I decided that I'd buy ingredients to make a warming chilli for the next evening. Lo and behold - when I arrived back from work yesterday it was muggy and sticky and I was craving a summery salad. Not very clever!

Today is another beautiful day and I hear that the forecast is good for the weekend too. I'm going to a barbecue on Saturday so fingers crossed that is more successful than our attempts last weekend. After a hectic weekend which involved two weddings at different ends of the country (one on Saturday and one on Sunday), we arrived home on Monday pretty exhausted. We did very little all day and eventually decided that a late-afternoon barbecue would be the perfect way to round the weekend off. I was particularly pleased with this suggestion as barbecuing is the flower-sender's domaine and I was too tired to contemplate even the most relaxed of kitchen activity. He kept it simple with homemade burgers, sausages and vegetable skewers and all was going well as we sipped a glass of rosé in the garden. Everything was ready to eat and then... you guessed it... it started to rain. Typical!

The food tasted just as good indoors as it happens and fortunately, the rain eased off just enough for me to dash back outside to cook this rather good barbecue dessert. Big chunks of pineapple glazed with a sticky rum marinade - the perfect way to utilise the last of the heat from the charcoal and a lovely way to round off the meal!

The recipe came from a terrific barbecue book that I own, written by Eric Treuile and Birgit Erath. This book is packed with fantastic recipes for cooking on and off the barbecue - each one is accompanied by a mouthwatering photograph and there are lots of original and inventive ideas.

I think this would be very impressive served with homemade pineapple ice-cream. I didn't have any, but I had just made some strawberry ice-cream so we served it alongside. Recipe coming up soon!

Barbecued pineapple with sweet rum glaze
Serves 4

1 unpeeled medium pineapple, quartered
2 tbsp dark rum
2 tbsp runny honey
1 tbsp muscovado sugar
1 tbsp lime juice

1. Cut away the core from each pineapple quarter.

2. Make the glaze - in a small bowl, mix together rum, honey, sugar and lime juice. Whisk or stir until dissolved.

3. Brush each quarter with some of the glaze and grill on medium-low coals on the barbecue until hot and lightly charred on each side. You might like to brush with more glaze when you turn over.

4. Serve hot with remaining glaze drizzled over the top.

Sticky, aromatic ribs

Whilst in my late teens, I spent eight months living across the pond. I spent time in various parts of the States and also a few months in Canada. Whilst staying with a wealth of extremely hospitible family and friends (...and friends of friends and brothers of friends of friends etc), I was introduced to all sorts of exciting new flavours all of which I lapped up great pleasure. During those months I developed passions for certain foods that will remain with me until I depart this earth. Peanut butter is one such love. I didn't understand peanut butter until I went Stateside. We just didn't really ever have it at home. I figured that it sounded a bit... wrong. These days I can't actually have peanut butter in the house. I love the stuff so much that I can eat it neat from the jar with such relish that I could finish the pot in one sitting. Dangerous.

Key lime pie is another obsession. I also developed a disturbing addiction to 'Ranch' dressing and maple butter. Perhaps my favourite discovery though was the sheer joy to be had in gnawing on rack of deeply sticky ribs.

I don't really know why it was that I'd never had ribs until I went to the States. Ribs are in plentiful supply over here, of course. But we never had them growing up at home. At school they were never on the menu either. I remember well my first rib experience. I had the lot, in all its sticky, gooey glory. Not just the ribs but also the corn, the 'slaw' (...that's coleslaw to those Brits among us) and even some barbecued baked bean type things. The plateful looked daunting and extremely un-ladylike. I was momentarily unsure how to proceed. I gingerly took my knife and cut into the sticky pork. One bite and there was no looking back. I'd hit the jackpot. Down with the knife and fork, the ribs were in my greedy fingers and banished were all thoughts of being ladylike.

Oddly enough, despite my love of ribs, I'd never cooked them myself. I was sure that I would be unable to perfect the sticky glaze and that I'd be left feeling unsatisfied. It had been playing on mind though, of late, having bookmarked some time ago a post by Wendy about the most perfect sounding plate of ribs. On returning to the post, I realised that I was lacking the key ingredient required to re-create Wendy's dish. I was crushed. I knew that I could get most likely get hickory salt over here (hers came from Peter at Kalfogas, along with the recipe) but I also knew that I couldn't get it in my local shop and that I'd got my heart set on ribs for supper that evening.

In my despair, I turned for comfort to Nigella. She offered the required words of comfort. The words in question were 'oozy' and 'sticky'. I was sold.

The recipe in all its original glory can be found in 'Feast'. My version has a few adjustments as I was cooking for one and didn't have all the ingredients to hand. The final result was spot on - not only were these suitably sticky but the meat was melt-in-the-mouth and the flavour aromatic and satisfyingly spicy.

As for the number of ribs you want to eat - I leave that to you. The marinade is about right for two people.

Rather good ribs
Serves 2


Ingredients

Baby back ribs (approx 300g per person??)
1 onion
1 star anise
1 small stick cinnamon, broken into shards
1 teaspoon dried red chilli flakes
3 cm piece of fresh ginger, finely sliced
juice and zest 1/2 a lime
2 tablespoons dark soy sauce
1 tbsp groundnut oil (I used vegetable oil)
1 tablespoon molasses
60ml pineapple juice

1. Place the ribs in a large freezer bag and then fill up with marinade ingredients. Chop the onion into eight and throw in along with the star anise, cinnamon, chilli, and ginger. Next mix together the lime, soy sauce, oil, molasses and pineapple juice. Pour into the bag. Tie a knot in the bag and squodge the whole lot together. Pop in the fridge for at least two hours or, ideally, overnight.

2. Pre-heat oven to 200C. At same time, remove ribs from fridge to allow to come to room temperature. Pour entire contents of bag into a roasting tin and place in oven for one hour, turning once halfway through.

3. When nicely browned on each side, you are done. Serve with the obligatory 'slaw'. Homemade is obviously preferable.

Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Anchovy, Prosciutto and Parsley

You simply can't visit North Wales without enjoying at least one meal involving the finest of Welsh lamb (unless you are a vegetarian of course). Driving up to Abersoch, through the mountains of Snowdonia National Park gives you a taste of what awaits. As you drive along the the perilous mountain roads, clattering over cattle grids and marvelling at the fabulous views you see literally thousands of sheep. In fact, you must take care not to hit them as you take in the scenery - they make a point of standing right in the road and refusing to move until you are literally inches away.

As a child, travelling up at Easter and seeing the many gambolling lambs, I used to balk slightly when Larry the lamb was dished up on Easter Sunday. Fortunately the delicious flavour soon made me forget my sensitivities.

After the six hour drive last week I was delighted to be greeted by wonderful lamb chops cooked by my mother and served with leeks in cheese sauce - heaven!



The meat came from Abersoch's excellent butcher - it has been run by the same family for years and everyone is on first name terms. During August, there is a permanent queue snaking out of the door onto the street as holiday-makers stock up on the good pre-marinated barbecue meats, homemade sausages and prime cuts of beef and lamb.


On Sunday I organised a barbecue for family to celebrate my birthday. I ordered a butterflied leg of lamb - so much easier to get it ready-boned from a good butcher. I probably paid a little extra for it but I was a) on holiday and was b) celebrating my birthday. A little laziness never hurt!


I prepared a delicious stuffing of anchovy, prosciutto and parsley - a strange sounding mixture, but one that works really well with the lamb and stands up well to the barbecue. This recipe comes from a book called 'Barbecue' by Eric Treuille and Birgit Erath. This really is a superb book for anyone who wants to venture beyond the 'burger and banger' type of barbecue. It is well illustrated with clear instructions and inspiring ideas.

Don't be put off by the anchovy if you don't like it. It doesn't taste of anchovy at all. The anchovies just give a deeply savoury flavour to the meat. Wonderful.


Ingredients (serves 4-6)


2kg leg of lamb, butterflied

60g prosciutto
6 anchovy fillets
1 handful flat-leaf parsley
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (plus 2tbsp extra for drizzling)


Also need 2 long, flat metal skewers

1. Place the prosciutto, anchovies, parsley and 1tbsp vinegar in a blender and pulse to a smooth paste.


2. Place lamb skin side down. With a sharp knife cut deep slits across the lamb, about 5cm apart. Stuff the paste right into the slits.


3. Insert skewers diagonally from opposite corers through butterflied lamb.


4. Grill over medium-hot coals, turning once, for 15 minutes each side for medium rare (longer for medium), drizzling over balsamic vinegar on both sides during cooking.


5. Once cooked, allow meat to rest, covered in foil, for 10 minutes. Slice and season with salt and pepper.

Notes -

I have made this recipe twice. The first time the lamb cooked perfectly - I did have to cover it with a lid. On this occasion I was impatient and put it on the grill too early, the fat caused the BBQ to flame too much so I place foil underneath the joint. It was a HUGE piece of meat (as you will see from the photo) and was taking ages to cook so in the end I threw it in a hot oven for 20 minutes. It was perfect!

The skewers help keep the meat together and make it easier to turn the meat over on the grill.