Quick Suppers: Spiced Lamb Pinches

These are highly spiced and a great alternative to meatballs.

Preparation time is just 15 minutes and cooking time is for a similar length of time, so whether you have these with a salad or with a batch of savoury or plain rice, this can be a very quick supper.

This quantity should be just right for two people or with a small salad as a base and topped with a little yogurt, just great for 4 starters.

Ingredients:

12 oz (300 grams) of minced lamb
2 tablespoons of dried marjoram and thyme
1 tablespoon of Ras El Hanout
1 finely chopped onion
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 oz of salted butter
2 large tomatoes (cored, and diced)

Take a large bowl and place the dried herbs and spice in the bottom, combined together.

Drop small pinches of the lamb, and drop into the mixture, toss lightly and leave to stand.   The dry mixture should fully coat the pinches.

Heat the oil and butter in a frying pan on a medium heat.  Add the pinches to the pan and brown adding the onion and garlic at mid-point.

When done, toss the diced tomatoes into the pinches and serve.

Slow braised Rabbit with mint and parsley

A relatively simple dish especially good as an alternative to a Sunday roast. 

Depending on the size of your rabbit, portion wise, one saddle is generally fair for each person. 

For four, simply increase all the ingredients by a similar ratio, although the amount of parsley should only be increased by half. 

Marjoram and Thyme are also great additions to the herb mix for this particular recipe and if using either, I would tend to use 15 grams of parsley to 5 grams of either of these herbs; i.e. still maintaining a 20 gram portion of fresh herbs in total.

For two saddles of Rabbit:

• Four dessert spoons of good olive oil
• 10 grams of mint, chopped finely
• Three large cloves of garlic, chopped finely
• Two good pinches of salt
• Two good pinches of caraway seeds
• 20 grams of flat leaf parsley, chopped roughly
• Two large onions, sliced
• 500 mls of good vegetable stock, reduced by half
• 50 mls of good balsamic vinegar

Place your Rabbit in a large bowl.  Add the oil, mint and garlic, the salt, the caraway seeds and the sliced onions and ensure the meat is evenly covered.

Place to one side, covered, at room temperature for 30-40 minutes or, in a sealable plastic bag in the fridge overnight, taking the bag out about an hour before you need to start cooking.

Pre-heat oven to 160c.

Reduce your stock and allow to cool slightly, then add the balsamic.

In a heavy oven dish, scatter a little more oil in the base and put half your parsley/herb mix onto the bottom.  Place the rabbit and onion mixture and the remaining parsley scattered on around and on top.  Add the liquid to the side rather than pouring over the top of the meat.  Cover tightly with oven foil and place in the in oven, for an hour.

At the end of this period, uncover, increase the heat to 180c and cook for a further 25/35 minutes, depending on the size or the number of rabbit pieces you have placed in your oven dish.

Take out of the oven, cover loosely and allow to stand in its juices for 20 minutes. 

Serve on a bed of Spring greens or puy lentils.

If you are serving with roast potatoes and want a thicker gravy, I would transfer the remaining juices into a saucepan and whisk in a little butter and flour, perhaps adding a little pinch of ground black pepper at the end.