A Spicy Delicious Lamb Recipe

I am not posting so often meaty recipes, but lately, I've fall in love with lamb and its rich texture and tastes, therefore, it was a great experiment to test a couple of delicious spicy matches. As usual, the mixture between sweet and savory is one of my favorite combinations, therefore, expect a lot of unusual matches in this recipe. Unfortunatelly, for various - very serious reasons - I did not keep any picture of the ready meal...As for now, you should believe my genuine words.

Ingredients

450 gr. lamb

100 ml. lime juice

50 gr. grated ginger

150 ml. honey

2 tablespoon Ras el Hanout spices from Spice Kitchen UK, part of the Brand Ambassador Programme

50 ml. walnut oil

9 medium-sized walnut cloves

150 ml. red wine

Directions

Rub the lime and the ginger on both side of the meat. It will help to diminish the unpleasant lamb smell which is obvious especially when the meat was deeply frosten before being used. Rub the honey on both sides and the Ras el Hanout spices. 

In a pan, add the red wine, the walnut oil and the cloves.

Heat the oven at 250C.

Turn the meat on both sides every 45 minutes. If you want it throughout, it will last at least 2h30 until perfectly ready.

As lamb is a bit difficult kind of meat, you better eat it warm, shortly after preparing it. After heating and reheating for a couple of times, the meat will most likely have the texture of a plastic sponge (unfortunatelly).

As a side dish, roasted potatoes with rosmarin, plus a fresh tomatoes and cucumber salad will be a very good choice. A glass of red wine with an aromated fruity texture is the best match, with add-on to the wine-soaked meat.

Serves: 4

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 3 hrs.

Bon Appétit!

Spicy Sweet Potatoes with Onions and Zucchini

It started as an experiment: I was trying to match my heavily spicy hamburgers. Although an easy tomatoes and cucumber salad would have been enough, I was ready for some more spices. This time, added to my plate of veggies.

Ingredients
- 3 big sweet potatoes, peeled
- 3 scallions, chopped
- 1 big zucchini, cut into rounds
- 1 medim-size white onion, finelly chopped
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon Ras el-Hanout from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program
- 2 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions
Preheat the oven at 250C, at least 10 minutes before starting the baking. Add the baking paper to the pan. Add one by one the veggies, and mix them well. Sprinkle the oil, the salt, pepper and the spices. Let it cook until ready, turning the veggies on all sides every 20 minutes or so.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1h30

I've personally found this mix as a great addition to my meaty plate, but it can also be served as an individual dish. The eclectic Ras el-Hanout - the crown of North African Spices, which includes at least 30 ingredients as diverse as cardamom, anise, ginger, turmeric and nutmeg - adds a complex taste to the dish. It balances the sweetness of the potatoes and diminishes the strong flavor of onions, with a sweet, mild note. Especially recommended to spices' lovers, but also to anyone looking to experiment rich, new flavors. 

Bon Appétit!

Corn on the Cob with Ras El-Hanout, Salt and Butter

Many autumns ago, corn used to be my main meal for the final weeks of August and mid-September. Mostly eaten as corn on the cob, it only involved salt, and a lot of time spent in the boiling temperature of the kitchen while boiling corn after corn. It was all what I was eating for lunch and dinner and the natural sweetness of the corn was what I needed for that part of the year. 

Meanwhile I grew up and my tastes become more complex. Many years I just avoided corn on the cob, because too proletarian for my newly acquired preferences. Also, it was not so easy to find that countryside corn sold in the farmer's markets in the old country. A new world was opening to me and it was no place for that past any more.

However, once I settled up and diversified my life and food experiences, the old recipes and life stories were just another opportunity to share an unique story. My story.

Therefore, why not using them as a basic for just another spicy experience?

Ingredients

- 2 normal size corn
- 1 tablespoon salt for boiling the corn and another tablespoon for smear it on all sides of each corn
- 1 liter cold water
- 2 tablespoons butter, one for each corn

- 1 tablespoon Ras El-Hanout

Directions

Preheat the water at 250C. When almost boiling, add the corn and let it boil for at least 45 minutes. If the corn is too ripe, you can wait as long as one hour. When ready, take them out of the water and smear the butter all over each of the corns. Add salt and the Ras El-Hanout, spreading it all over the surface. You can use a cooking easel if you want an almost perfect coverage.

Serve it warm or at the room temperature. Reheat, if necessary, in the microwave.

A typical spice for the North African cuisine, usually mixed with couscous, this spice-mix of Ras El-Hanout has at least 25 different ingredients, among which: turmeric, paprika, salt, nutmeg, ginger, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, black pepper, cardamom, sugar, all spice, clalli powder, star anise, cloves, rose petals. Only the mention of each and every one of those ingredients stirs tasty memories therefore you can imagine how does it taste the full combination added on the corn. The butter creates a special fluidity adding a milky note.

You can also use this corn mixture as a main ingredient of a salad, eventually together with tomatoes, onion, avocado and some olive oil. 

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 45 minutes-1 hour, depending on how ripe the corn is.

Serves: 2

Bon Appétit!

Disclaimer: The Ras El-Hanout spices were offered by Spice Kitchen UK part of their Brand Ambassador Program, but the opinions are, as usual, my own. Their Ras El-Hanout was a 2-star great taste award winner in 2017.

Becoming Brand Ambassador for Spice Kitchen!

Spices at the Grüne Woche, Berlin, 2018

I promised this year to be bold and successful, and for me it means also being surrounded, virtually or in my everyday real life, by positive highly motivated people. I always admire small creative companies writing their own story of success.

Spice Kitchen was one of my first collaborations as a foodie blogger, back in 2013. I was quite a beginner in the world of kitchen and tastes, but they entrusted me with a precious bag with their newly launched spices that I intensively learn how to use in my recipes. 

A couple of years back, they are a multi-awarded company, spreading their love for quality spices all over the world, with an over increasing catalogue of products created to accomodate even the most sophisticated tastes. It makes sense to be sucessful, when you 'put your heart and soul' and each and every one of the product you share. 

Besides the traditional collection of spices, they offer exquisite unique mix such as the complete set for mulled wine - especially if you are living in a cold country, it goes all round the year, believe my words, speculaas, or the rare - at least for the European kitchens - Sri Lankan curry powder, sumac and the precious safran. 

As a Brand Ambassador, I will try and test their spices in the next months, in recipes shared with you at least twice the month. For the beginning, I will have a great selection, which includes more or less known spices that I can't wait to feel and smell. I am humbled and honoured to be part of this project and can't wait to inspire other people, like me, the love of cooking and the boldness to try.

Playing with spices (Part I)

The crushed pistachios were added to each recipe

I have a big collection of spices from all over the world at home, and trying to get along with each flavour is part of a daily practice that I want to acquire. The winter time is most recommended for various combinations especially because the weather allows long hours of cooking. 

The two weeks ago Friday evening menu included a delicacy that I cannot find easily here: kosher turkey that was simply prepared in the oven, with some olive oil poured over it and some Indian Garam Masala that gave a special delicious nutty flavour.  

Such a delicious treat needs some side dishes and I was offered another occasion to create a dream recipe I was thinking about for a long time: couscous with raisins. I am not a big fan of raisins, but in the case of this recipe, it goes very well as the taste matches all the other ingredients.
The recipe can be prepared in around 20 minutes and serves 5.

Here are the directions I followed: 

2 tablespoon olive oil and 1 spoon cumin are mixed and fried in a pan heated at 150C, for 5 minutes.
Add 20 crushed pistachios in the pan for another 2 minutes

In the next minutes pour and mix together: 200 ml water, 250 gr. couscous grains, 1/4 tablespoon kosher salt. If necessary and the couscous is absorbing the water too fast, add another 250 ml. water after 10 minutes. 

2 beaten eggs

2 tablespoon raisins

Mix the composition carefully in order to avoid getting too sticky or burned.

To be served cold or hot, adorned with some fresh coriander. 

For the next recipe, I needed to prepare first the oil: 2-3 tablespoons olive oil with 1/2 teaspoon cumin, mixed well. 

In a frying pan add: 6 medium potatoes cut in 8 little pieces, 20 crushed pistachios. Paint the potatoes on all sizes with the  oil and cumin prepared before. Bake them at 250C - around 30 minutes. It serves two and it goes very well with fresh coriander.

I needed also a salad, and the simplest I had in my mind was the following: 250 gr. cherry tomatoes, sliced in 4; 25 crushed pistachios; 3 tablespoon olive oil; 150 gr. corn; 1 generous bunch of coriander. The preparation takes around 15 minutes and it serves two hungry adults. Add some salt on taste if needed. 

I was offered a package of spices to try by Spice Kitchen UK, but the opinions are, as usual, exclusively my own. 

To be continued...