Lamb Chops with Pistachio and Mint Pesto

Two weeks of hard work, respectable clothing and no alcohol in Bangladesh left me extremely excited to get back to Bangkok this weekend. All the more so because my friends had bought me a ticket to a boat party that would cruise us up and down the Chao Phraya river all night.

And as well as all the cocktails, I also managed to take in some of the sites by night, like this one.

Wat Arun, even more beautiful by night

It was so much fun and we partied until it docked at 3am.

Boat party fun

On Sunday morning however, I didn't feel quite so awesome. There are two ways to deal with a hangover. Option one is to lie down and succumb to its almighty power, feeding it greasy, salty food. The other is to stare it bravely in the face and say “No. I will not eat bad food. And you will not take my Sunday”. I was brave and went for the latter. I forced myself into the bright sunlight for a swim, during which I came up with this recipe. I set the table and served this up with a nice glass of merlot.

Mint and pistachio are a match made in heaven. The pesto is so rich and creamy. I served it with spiced roast potatoes and coriander and lime aubergines. The lime in aubergines gives some acidity and the roast potatoes seem so happy in amongst it all. I also served up a little yoghurt with mint on the side.

Serves: 2 hungry people

Rating: A little effort

Time: 1hr 30 mins

Ingredients

6 lamb chops (3 per person. Remove any excess fat and trim the meat from the ends of the bones)

For the pistachio and mint pesto:

100g shelled pistachios (about 180g with shells on)

1 bunch mint (about 20 g), leaves only

½ teaspoon ground cumin

2 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

For the aubergines:

1 large aubergine (300g)

2tbsp olive oil for cooking

Salt & pepper

Juice 1 limes

Small bunch (10g) fresh coriander

1 tbsp olive oil

½ tsp sugar

½ tsp salt

For the potatoes:

500g potatoes

Generous slug of olive oil

Salt

Pepper

½ tsp ground tumeric

1 tsp chilli flakes

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Peel the potatoes with cut them so they’re all an even-size. Rinse them in cold water to get rid of excess starch. Put them in a large saucepan, cover with cold water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and cook for 6 to 7 mins, so that they’re parboiled.
3. While they are boiling, dice the aubergine into small, evenly-sized cubes. Put in a baking dish with the olive oil, salt and pepper. Stir well and put in the hot oven to cook for about 20mins or until soft, taking out to stir occasionally.
4. Back to the potatoes. Once parboiled, drain and leave them to steam dry for 3 minutes. Put them back in the pan, put the lid on and give it a good shake. This helps increase the surface area of the potatoes and so will make them crispier. Transfer to a baking tray and add the olive oil, a good pinch of salt and pepper, and the turmeric and chilli flakes. Make sure they are all evenly coated with oil and seasoning. Put your potatoes in the hot oven and cook for 30 minutes until lightly golden and three quarters cooked.  
5. Remove the aubergines from the oven when done and transfer to a small dish and allow to cool.
6. Now for the pesto. In a blender or mortar and pestle, grind the pistachios until they are very fine. Then add the mint leaves, cumin, salt and pepper and olive oil. Add 2-3 tbsp water and blend/grind until you have a fine paste. Add a little more water if needed so that you have a paste that mixes well.
7. Cover the lamb chops with a generous coating of the pesto on both sides.
8. Next make the dressing for the aubergines. Finely chop the coriander leaves. Add the olive oil, lime juice, sugar and salt. Pour all over the aubergines and leave to marinate.
9. Back to the potatoes. When they have roasted for 30 minutes, gently squash each potato with a potato masher to once again increase the surface area. Return them to the oven to cook for a further 30 minutes until really crispy.
10. When the potatoes are almost done, set the grill to a high temperature. Place the lamb chops under the grill and cook for about 5-6 minutes on either side (for medium – cook for another minute or two on each side for well-done). They should be nicely browned but still a little pink in the middle.
11. When the chops are done, remove from the heat and allow to rest for a minute. Serve up with the potatoes and aubergines.

Cooking ahead? You can make the aubergines several hours or even the night before and leave in the fridge to marinate. The pesto can also be prepared the day before and kept in an air-tight container in the fridge.

Braised Asian Lamb Shanks with Shitake Mushrooms and Sweet Potato & Coriander Mash

A few strange things happened to me this New Year. Firstly, I went out. Not just to the pub across the road or a friend’s house but properly out. We joined the crowds of young, trendy and beautiful people of Bangkok to head up to the 39^th floor of a hotel for a rooftop party. The following day something else strange happened to me. I woke up feeling really nostalgic for London. Somehow I actually missed being cold. I love living in the tropics so found this quite unsettling. Nonetheless, I decided to indulge my cravings and cranked the air conditioning up to Arctic, put on a jumper and set about cooking some proper hearty, warming comfort food. But with a twist of course.

I learned to cook lamb shanks about this time last year, in my flat in South London. Back then, I made them with a red wine sauce and a creamy parsnip mash. Now in Thailand, I am using Asian ingredients which lend themselves amazingly to this dish. The sauce is delicately flavoured - I didn’t want it to be too overpowering that would mask the distinctive flavour of the lamb, which comes out so tender from the slow cooking. The mushrooms after all that time in the sauce are like little flavour grenades. And the mash is so tasty - it had my boyfriend scraping out the pot for the last dregs (though he refused to let me take a photo for the blog). I’m still using the local variety of sweet potato, hence why they look a little green not orange but I’ve got used to that now.

The dish did the trick. I went to bed full and happy and the next day reset the air-con to normal and embraced the sunshine.

Time: 2hr 15 mins – but don’t let this put you off, most of this is cooking time, the prep is minimal.

Rating: Easy. The flavours and the oven do all the work on this dish and the accompaniments are very straightforward.  

Serves 2

Ingredients:

For the lamb shanks

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 lamb shanks

2 shallots

50g shitake mushrooms

1 inch knob of ginger, peeled

4 garlic cloves

2 small red chillies (medium spicy)

1 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

1 lemongrass stalk

500ml stock (beef is fine)

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp Chinese five spice powder

1 tbsp fish sauce

Juice 1 lime

For the sweet potato mash

350g sweet potatoes

20g butter

1 small red chilli

Small bunch fresh coriander

2 tbsp milk

Salt and pepper

A couple of handfuls of pak choi

Method:

1. Heat oven to 170C.
2. First, prepare the condiment vegetables: remove the outer stalks of the lemongrass. No need to chop but bruise using a rolling pin or something else heavy. Peel and halve the shallots. Cut the chilli in half lengthways and deseed. Cut the ginger in half. Trim the stalks of the mushrooms and leave them whole.
3. Then you need to seal the meat. Firstly, season the lamb with salt and pepper. Then heat the vegetable oil in a casserole dish and fry the lamb shanks for 2-3 minutes, turning regularly until browned all over.
4. Remove the lamb and add the onions, garlic, chilli and mushrooms. Fry them for about 1min. Then add the five spice powder and stir again for about 30 seconds. Then add the soy, fish sauce, lime juice, balsamic vinegar and sugar. Heat gently, stirring constantly for another minute or so. Finally add the stock, ginger and lemongrass.
5. Put the lamb back in, cover the casserole with a lid and cook in the oven for 2 hours, until the lamb is really tender, almost falling off the bone. All ovens are different so it’s hard to be exact on the timing. Check on your lamb a couple of times and judge the timing for yourself.
6. While you’re waiting for the lamb to finish cooking, start on the mash. Peel then cut the potatoes into large, fairly even-sized chunks. Bring a large saucepan of salted water to the boil, tip in the potatoes and cook for 15 minutes, until tender but not slushy.
7. While the potatoes are boiling, deseed and very finely chop the chilli and the coriander leaves.
8. When the potatoes are done, drain well and return to the saucepan.
9. Push the potatoes to one side of the pan and put the butter into the space. Return the saucepan to a very low heat and let the butter melt. Start mashing the potatoes with a masher.
10. Now add the milk and mash the potatoes vigorously, until smooth. Then stir in the chili, coriander, salt and pepper. Take off the heat, put the lid on and keep warm until you’re ready to serve.
11. Five minutes before you are ready to serve, bbriefly steam or stir fry the pak choi. Don’t overcook these – you want the leaves to have just turned from crunchy to soft, but not mushy.
12. Plate up: start with the sweet potato mash. Either spoon this out carefully or for a neater presentation use a pastry cutter to get a perfect circle of mash. Next place one lamb shank and a few greens on each plate. Fish out the mushrooms from the pot and place a few on each plate. Finish by gently spooning some of the sauce over the top. Try not to serve up the chilli, lemongrass, ginger or garlic as their work in this dish is done.