The Spring BBQ

The Spring BBQ, house warming and 65^th Birthday Party

This bit of a knees up had been in the planning for a couple of months and so with great expectations we went for the open-air, outdoor option, with a BBQ and also a bit of oven cooking as well. We had originally thought about a totally Turkish event, but then when the menu planning and then buying of the victuals’ we decided that the pork neck steaks and spare ribs did look very nice.

But I went along the road of making my own Kofta buying the mixed mince (lamb and beef) from the local Turkish butcher (we have found a very good one in the centre of the Altstadt in Lübeck), we also bought a very nice leg of lamb and some mutton chops, yes real mutton chops, I haven’t seen those for many a long year.

We also bought the chicken legs (Linda insists that “the girls like chicken”, that means, “she likes chicken”).

So without further ado lets get on with making then Kofta.

I had read various recipes for Kofta both online and in Turkish and other East Mediterranean cook books. I then went my own way. So to do it my way you shall require:

20 soaked kebab skewers (I used the bamboo satay ones)

1 kg of mince 50% lamb, 50% beef

3 medium onions diced fine

3 cloves of garlic crushed through a garlic press

1 tbsp of chopped mixed fresh herbs (I used parsley, mint and coriander in proportions of 50% - 30%- 20%, keep the stalks)

Juice of 1 lemon

2 tsp of tomato puree

1 tbsp of Cig Kofta Baharat spices (buy in any Turkish grocery store)

2 tsp of cardamom powder

2 tsp of dried oregano

2 tsp of Marigold vegetable powder

2 tsp chilli flakes (you can use fresh but we brought some back with us from out Turkish Hols)

Put the mince into a large bowl, and add the garlic and onion and give it a good mixing, I always think that it is best done by squeezing it through your well scrubbed pinkies. When the garlic and onion is well blended add the chopped herbs and again work it in with your hands. Add the lemon juice and tomato puree and again mix well, next add the Kofta spices and then the cardamom, dried oregano and marigold powder. Give it all a good mixing before finally adding the chilli flakes, next heat some oil in a frying pan and make a small patty and fry it, this is to test the seasoning, as once made that’s your lot. We tasted and the general consensus was it could take a bit more lemon a touch more chilli, so we upped the lemon by another ½ tsp and the chilli by 1 tsp. Fried another patty and then covered and put into the fridge to allow the herbs and spices to do their work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About ½ hr before ready to BBQ, I formed the Kofta into the traditional cigar shape around the skewers, put onto an oven tray, covered and put back into the fridge until needed.

Grilled Mutton Chops

While at the Turkish butchers, I enquired about lamb chops, pointing at a pile of chops in the chilled counter, he said that those were mutton chops but he could cut me some lamb ones, I replied no way, give me the 20 mutton ones (I much prefer the taste of mutton to lamb, but it is almost impossible to get in Germany).

So I sprinkled them with some Turkish lamb spices that we had, yes you guessed it, brought back from out Turkish holidays. Chopped some mint and sage and sprinkled this on them making sure it went on both sides drizzled them in olive oil and lemon juice. These I layered in a pyrex bowl until all the chops were used up. Lid on and into the fridge to await to great event.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Slow roasted Oriental spiced leg of lamb

1 leg of lamb (ours was just over 2kg)

2 cloves of garlic cut into 20 slivers

20 sprigs of rosemary

20 pieces of anchovy filets

2 tbsp of Turkish lamb spices

1 tbsp olive oil

 

For bed of aromatics and the sauce

 

1 large carrot diced

2 slices of celeriac diced

1 small leek cut into rings

1 large onion diced

2 cloves of garlic crushed

The squeezed lemons that you used for the Kofta

The herb stalks kept over from the Kofta

2 Ltr of made up marigold stock

If the leg still has the shank attached get the butcher to saw this off, it will make a great slow cooked meal. Cut any excess fat off, with a small sharp knife cut small slits in the leg (about 12 on the meatier side and 8 on the other side). Insert a piece of anchovy, a piece of garlic and a sprig of rosemary into each of the slits. Sprinkle it all over with the lamb spices and sprinkle it with the olive oil, rub it well into the leg.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Add the root vegetables into the base of a deep roasting pan along with the lemons, herb stalks and stock into the roasting pan,

 

place the leg on top and turn the oven up full. When it reaches top heat place the roasting pan into the oven and brown it all over. Turn the heat down to about 150°C cover with a layer of heavy duty foil (or 2 layers of normal) and cook for a good 2 hours checking at regular intervals and add more liquid as and when required. The meat will be falling off the bone and succulent, carve it from the shin end to the thigh in thick slices. Pour the liquid out of the roasting pan through a sieve into a saucepan and skim off the excess fat that rises to the top, boil down to make a thick rich lemony sauce to serve along with it.

Serve with rosemary potatoes

Par-boil 2 kg of small new potatoes (or larger potatoes cut into bite size pieces), drain and pour into a roasting pan, sprinkle with olive oil, chopped rosemary and a good sprinkling of Salt and pepper. Place into a hot oven to brown and finish cooking.

And a warm green bean, tomatoes, onion salad.

1 kg of young green beans (topped and tailed, if you have a daughter handy get her to do this)

2 large onions (diced)

2 cloves of garlic (crushed)

1 large tin (800g) of diced tomatoes, you can used fresh ones but you would require a good kg and then skin, deseed and chop about 1 kg and as my daughter had had already topped and tailed the beans she may have been a bit peeved.

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 tsp of chopped herbs (I used rosemary, thyme and oregano, but the choice is yours)

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste (I used chilli sea salt)

Boil the beans in plenty of boiling salted water, but just until they are a-la-dent (still got a bit of crunch) and strain. Heat 1 tbsp of oil and soften the onions (translucent) add the garlic and also fry briefly together, add the tomatoes and then the beans, mix well together and pour over the remainder of the olive oil add the chopped herbs. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, serve warm.

A few chopped black olives go very well with this, but as Janice had used these for the village salad, I didn’t have any left.

 Village Salad

1 large cucumber Skinned, deseeded and chopped

1 red pepper cut into sticks

6 large tomatoes deseeded and chopped

1 large sweet onion chopped

2 pkts of sheep cheese (I used Bulgarian from ALDI)

1 handful of pitted black olives

1 handful of chopped parsley

1 tsp of oregano (fresh if you have it or dried if not)

A few leaves of basil ripped into pieces

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp of red wine vinegar

Pepper and salt to taste

Mix the cucumbers, red peppers, tomatoes and onions together (I like a quite chunky salad), mix in the olives and cut the cheese into dice (there are some that will slice it and place it on top) and add this, mix the lemon juice and vinegar together with the herbs salt and pepper pour this over and mix well (I find that if the cheese breaks up it adds to the taste).

Lemon Chicken legs

10 chicken drumsticks (the bottom parts, that are about 3 bite sizes)

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp of olive oil

2 tsp chopped fresh thyme

1 tsp course sea salt

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Place the chicken legs in a bowl. Mix the lemon juice and zest, olive oil, thyme, salt and pepper together in a small jug. Pour over the legs and rub in well, place on a shallow baking dish, pouring over any remaining marinade, cover and allow to stand in a cool place (refrigerator) for about an hour. Remove from the refrigerator and place in the oven and bake at 180°C until cooked through,  turning regularly and ladling over the juices from the bottom of the dish. You can either stop before they take on colour and finish off on the BBQ or turn up the heat and brown in the oven (this is what we done as space on the BBQ was at a premium.

Linda had made a vanilla cream sauce, it should have been a pudding but didn’t set, but went well with the defrosted (last years harvest) black berries, gently warmed through with a sprinkling of  cinnamon and a splash of port.

Our cookery club and friends had decided, nay been instructed to bring desserts, and they really did go to town, we had a fantastic Tiramisu, poached pears, poached rhubarb, raspberry torte, the recipes for these shall follow later.

I had been very lucky and got 1 case (12 bottles) of very fine red wine from friends that because of ill health couldn’t come to the party but never the less sent the case per post, thanks Marga and Ewald. Added to this was 6 bottles of Portuguese Weissherbst, 6 bottles of Pinot Grigio, 6 bottles of Sekt (German sparkling wine) and 6 bottles of prosecco (the girls like this, or so Linda said)

We had also got in 20 Ltr of beer in 5 Ltr barrels (Krombacher), a dozen bottles of Hefe Weizenbier. We now have a drinks cabinet that is full to over flowing, so we shall not need to buy any replenishments for the foreseeable future.

I think all had a great time even though the weather was terrible and I BBQ’d on the balcony and used the kitchen almost to its full potential (just need to get the second oven running). We also had a great evening watching the European football final, pity about the result.

The Kikoklu, Janice, Heike and Birte also had a full British breakfast on Sunday morning before departing for Kiel and in the case of Janice Berlin, that was ever so nice, very traditional, bacon, sausages, scrambled eggs, black pudding, baked beans (Heinz of course), grilled tomatoes and sautéed mushrooms. Fresh coffee and/or tea, toast, orange marmalade (sorry Kalle if I had known I would have asked you to bring some of “your” own make). 

 

So that was our House Warming and my 21st oops I mean my 65th Birthday all rolled into one. Pity the weather could not have stayed nicer, but you can't have every thing in life, well not all at once, we had good food, good beer, good wine and most of all great guests.

Stuffed Leg Of Lamb cooked in Guinness

St Patricks Day and a stuffed leg with a drop of the Black Stuff

I had been considering doing something for St Pat’s day (Sunday 17 March) so where better to start than with a piece of lamb and a bottle of Guinness. Now getting the lamb in Germany is difficult but is easier than getting the Guinness, I popped into my local Turkish butcher (the best place to get lamb in Germany) and staring me in the face was a nice piece of the top end of the leg, it was just over 1 kg with the bone in, so would do me for two meals.

I then had to traipse the supermarkets and Getränkemarkts (off licences) and was giving up hope of finding a few bottles of Guinness, when I thought about a small one just around the corner from my house, I could have saved myself a lot of heart searching if I had thought of it first.

So it was to be stuffed leg of lamb in an onion and Guinness confit sauce, served with French beans and Champ. Well that is what it should have been, but though I had bought the potatoes I had forgotten the scallions, but I had bought some young leeks so these made a fine substitute.

The quantities can be upped to suit  the number eating, but this would have done two just fine.

1kg of fillet end of a leg (you can get your butcher to debone it, but doing it yourself isn’t difficult)

¼ packet of sage and onion stuffing

250ml marigold vegetable stock

1 large shallot (diced)

3 cloves of garlic (crushed and diced)

3 sprigs of rosemary

6 large leaves of fresh sage

2 large onions

Small handful of freeze dried soup vegetables (or fresh if you have them)

Salt and pepper

Olive oil for frying and sautéing

2 bottles of Guinness

So first debone your piece of lamb, slit along the length of the bone, open it out and work your knife along the bone releasing the flesh, (you could use the bone to make stock, but as I had some I didn’t need too)

 

Make your sage, rosemary and onion stuffing, I used a packet with additional shallots, sage and rosemary. I made up a cup of vegetable stock, added this to the packet sage in a bowl and left to soak while I chopped the herbs and sautéed the shallot and garlic, added these and allowed to swell.

Open the meat out skin side down on a board and butterfly it, by making small incisions so that the piece of meat is flat, salt and pepper the meat and I put a sprig of rosemary into the centre.  I then filled the centre with the stuffing and rolled, binding together with kitchen twine, pinning another sprig of rosemary under the twine.

 

Switch the oven on and set to 220°C.
In the mean time I had finely sliced the onions and another couple of garlic cloves, heated a couple of table spoons of Olive oil into my trusty cast Iron casserole (one of the best buys from Aldi ever) and slowly softened the onions allowing them to take on a little colour. 

 

Removed from the casserole and added some more oil, heated up high and browned the lamb all over, turn the heat down and return the onion and garlic to the casserole. 

 

Add a bottle of Guinness and the vegetables, lid on and into the oven for 20mins, then turn the oven down to 180°C and forget about it for 1 to 1½ hrs, by this time the lamb will be melting (this is not a rare cooked leg of lamb, that is for another day), the onions and Guinness turned into a fantastic confit, I now removed the meat covered and set aside to rest.

I added 400ml of beef stock, just because I had some, but it could have been any stock or wine or more Guinness. This made a fantastic rich sauce,

 

I had boiled some potatoes, sautéed some finely sliced young leeks, mashed the potatoes with a good knob of butter and a slug of milk, and added the softened leeks.

I had also steamed some green French beans, so there it was St Patrick’s Day stuffed leg of lamb, oops nearly forgot open up that other bottle and pour yourself a glass of the Black Stuff (wine just doesn’t go with this)

 

The Sunday roast a leg of Lamb

Roast leg of lamb

2.2kg of leg of lamb

1 leek white only

2 carrots

1 large piece of celeriac (or stalk of celery)

1 onion

A couple of tomatoes (I used 4 small ones, the last of Linda’s balcony harvest)

10 cloves of garlic cut 2 into 15-20 slithers

 5-6 salted anchovy filets in oil cut into 15-20 slithers

Bunch of mixed herbs

2 stalks of rosemary (picked into sprigs)

1 tsp. capers

400 ml of vegetable stock

100 ml of red wine

Remove the lamb from the fridge and allow to come to room temperature, trim any excess fat.

Roughly dice the carrot, leek, celeriac, onion put this into a deep roasting tin, peel the remainder of garlic cloves, ¼ the tomatoes and put into the roasting tin,

 

 

With a small sharp knife make small slits in the leg of lamb (15-20 depending on the size and how much you like garlic) push a slither of garlic, anchovy and a sprig of rosemary into each slit. 

 

 Chop the capers and add to the roasting tin, add the herbs (you can remove some of the thyme leaves and sprinkle over the  leg of lamb) 

 

 

 

Put the oven on to 225°C to heat.

Make your stock and add the wine, pour the whole lot into the roasting tin. Put the studded leg on top and drizzle all over with olive oil, give it a good grinding of salt and pepper.

Into the oven (rare 12 min per 450g – medium rare(pink) 15 min per 450g), cook at 220-225°C for 20 minutes and then reduce to 180° until it is cooked, if you used a meat thermometer for rare you are looking for 60° at the centre and for pink 65 - 70°.

 

I cannot help you for anything else, I only cook well done meat in a casserole, stew or Eintopf. I always use a meat thermometer when roasting, it takes the guess work out of the roasting process. There are two main types a round analog one with a long steel probe, this gives the oven temperature as well as the internal meat temperature, these are very cheap and well worth the few pounds – Euros investment. Then there are the digital ones, you can pay a hell of a lot of dosh for a real good one (I have an engineering one with about 5 different functions including measuring high temperature flue gasses) but even a simple one is very good and can be used for measuring freezer temperatures as well as oven temperatures

I keep a jug of water to add to the base of the pan in case it is evaporating too quickly (keep having a peek).

Remove the leg of lamb put it into a dish and cover with aluminium foil to rest, the resting process is as critical to good joint of meat as the rest of the cooking procedure, as it allows the juices that have been driven to the centre of the piece of meat to slowly permiate outwards making for a juicy, succulant joint

 

 

Pour the roasting tin liquids and vegetables through a sieve, into a sauce pan, pushing as much of the liquid out of the vegetables as possible.

Add another slug of red wine if you want a stronger tasting sauce, bring to a rapid boil and reduce by half, add 2 tsps. of redcurrant jelly to the sauce and thicken with a buerre manié (made by mixing butter and flour together at a ratio of 50/50).

When it is thickened to your liking, strain once again into a sauce boat. Serve with the lamb.

Traditionally roast lamb is served with mint sauce and we are very traditional.

A jolly good plate of meat.








The accompaniments, Yorkshire puddings, roast vegetables (parsnips, potatoes, beetroot and kohlrabi), glazed carrots and Brussel sprouts.

Linda Has also made a Damson crumble for pudding, I only had a tiny little bit honest Gov.