Hand-Made Lamb Kofta Kebabs and coleslaw

Taken with a Canon Eos Rebel

Kebabs get a bad reputation as they’re usually a drunken treat to eat while you zig-zag up the wrong road home.  I made kebabs for a couple where one of them didn’t eat mince and the other was pretty much a vegetarian. Went down a treat.  So give these a go because they taste incredible

Kebabs

You’ll need a small pack of lamb mince and a handful of mint for the kebabs. Thrown in a teaspoon of ground cumin and ground coriander, an egg and handful of breadcrumbs (make your own breadcrumbs and store them in an old takeaway box). Mix it all together with a bit of seasoning, shape them around a wooden skewer then leave to the side while you make your coleslaw.

Coleslaw

I hate bought coleslaw. All it is to me is really bitter, raw tasting onion and cabbage in a sea of mayonnaise. However, I do like making my own because you can put whatever you like in it. With kebabs I like to make fennel and ginger coleslaw. I use shallots as well because they’re much sweeter than onions and they don’t overpower the whole side dish. I buy a small thumb size piece of ginger, a fennel bulb, a carrot and shallots and a red cabbage if there’s a small one knocking around the veg aisle, if not I grate beetroot into it for sweetness and colour. Finely slice the shallot and fennel (and the red cabbage if you bought one) then grate the carrot, ginger and beetroot into it. Add as much mayo as you like (I forgot to buy some so I made my own- 2 egg yolks in a blender and some sunflower oil poured slowly in). The good thing about this is you don’t need to measure, if you like onion add some more, if you like carrot do the same, if you hate ginger, leave it out. DO NOT SEASON IT, if you add salt it will draw out all of the liquid and you’ll have a bath of Gaviscon at the bottom of your bowl. Season just before serving.

Cook your kebabs in a griddle pan (like this one) to get the nice lines down the meat. Turn them on all four sides to make sure they’re cooked. Heat some naan breads in the oven for a few minutes until they’re soft and serve with a ramekin of minty yoghurt, the coleslaw and a bowl of grated beetroot.

Homemade Lasagna

shot with a Canon Eos Rebel

I say homemade because I made the lasagna pasta too. Now this wasn’t my intention but when you’re half way through making the lasagna only to find out you don’t have any pasta sheets in the cupboard you tend to have to think on your feet. (The astute amongst you will ask ‘why didn’t you just have spaghetti Bolognese?’ Well believe it or not I didn’t even consider that as an option) to make your pasta follow this link, I don’t need to write it out again.

I always find that people put too many ingredients into the Bolognese sauce, you don’t need courgette and mushrooms, and I’ve seen sweetcorn and broccoli in there before as well, no need. All you need to do is finely DICE a carrot, a stick of celery and a couple of shallots or an onion, I say dice because it works a lot better when everything is all the same size. Brown off the veg in olive oil with seasoning and sugar to help the onion along, also give the tomato some extra sweetness later on. When that’s done remove it from the pan and fry the mince with a beef stock cube to bump up the flavour and then add the veg back in. use a carton of own-brand passata from the supermarket (it costs less than chopped tomatoes and it’s thicker) add a small glass of water and let it cook out for 30 mins to an hour on a mid to low heat.

For the cheese sauce, if you haven’t made one before you can use a packet but seeing as I went to the trouble of making my own pasta I’m pretty sure you can boil three ingredients. Heat about 25g of butter in a pan till bubbling then add 25g of plain flour and mix. You’ll need to cook the flour into a paste (a roux) and keep cooking it or your sauce will taste like flour and nothing else. I find it’s best to keep it on a low heat and lightly whisk it from time to time. After about 4-5 mins you need to add three quarters of a pint of milk. This can go two ways, some people prefer to add a little bit of milk at a time and whisk continuously, others tend to add all the milk and whisk to make sure there’s no lumps. Either way works fine but you’ll find the longer you keep it on the heat the thicker it will get so keep it on a low heat and keep adding milk if you need to then add a handful of grated cheese (your choice) and whisk again.

Layer up your sauce, pasta, cheese sauce, pasta, sauce, etc until the last layer is cheese sauce and grate some cheddar over the top. If you’ve used fresh pasta you need to bake it for about 10 mins, if you’ve used lasagna sheets give it 35mins to be safe. 

word to the wise - Supermarket value pasta has the same ingredients as the expensive pasta so don’t spend more than you need to, it's all the same. Pasta simply means paste a.k.a flour and water.