Lamb and Goats Cheese Gozleme

Filled bread is always a winner in my house and this recipe is no exception...a traditional Turkish food tweaked a little and absolutely wonderful for a picnic, lunch or to accompany a dinner for a crowd...perfect :))

Lamb and Goats Cheese Gozleme

Dough

250g strong white bread flour

7g fast action yeast

1 tsp caster sugar

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp olive oil

175ml Luke warm water

Filling

500g minced lamb

1 onion chopped 

2 garlic cloves

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp mild chilli powder

50g raisins

Zest of a lemon

70g toasted pine nuts

100g soft goats cheese

In a bowl add the flour, salt, sugar and yeast and then add the olive oil and water and mix to form a dough. Knead for about 8-10 minutes and place in an oiled bowl and set in a warm place for about 2 hours until doubled in size

Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and add the onion and fry until nice and soft. Add the garlic and the spices and cook for a further minute. Add the raisins and stir in.

Add the minced lamb and stir through until cooked. Add the lemon zest and toasted pine nuts, stir in and set aside.

Knock back the dough and divide the dough into 4 (makes large gozlemes) or 6-8 (small individual ones) and roll out into rectangles about 3mm thick.

Spoon some of the lamb mixture onto one side of the rectangle leaving a 1cm border round the edge (to seal) and add a little of the goats cheese on top of the lamb mixture and fold over the other side of the rectangle dough to cover the lamb mixture and pinch down around the edges. 

Heat a dry frying pan on a medium high heat and place the gozleme in the frying pan and cook until golden and then turn over and repeat on the other side.

Remove from the pan and place on a plate and cover with a tea towl to keep warm (and to stop them from drying out) while you continue with the remaining gozleme. 

Serve with a Mediterranean salad or salsa and a light dip. 

They last a couple of days in the fridge and still taste lovely :))

You will probably have some filling left over, but can be frozen to use again.

Some Easter Lamb recipe ideas :)

It's tradition to eat Lamb around Easter so here are 4 different ways to have your lamb...all extremely tasty and perfect family meals :)

Lamb 4 Ways

Sweet and Sticky Marinated Lamb

4 Lamb steaks

Marinade
4 tbsp Honey
Zest of 1 Lemon
2 heaped tsp dried Rosemary or 2 large sprigs of fresh rosemary
2 tbsp Olive oil
3 large Garlic cloves (crushed)
1 tbsp wholegrain Mustard

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the lamb steaks and leave to marinade for at least an hour preferably longer.

Once your ready to cook them, bast them again with the sauce so they ate completely covered.

You can either BBQ the steaks, fry them (keeps them sticky) or you can grill them.

(This marinadeaalto works well with beef steaks)

(recipe by Jose Pizarro)

Roast Lamb

I leg of lamb joint
4 or 5 garlic cloves (peeled)
1 tbsp dried rosemary

Prepare your leg of lamb by making incisions into the meat, large enough to accommodate a garlic clove.
Insert the garlic clove directly into the meat and continue with all the cloves
Drizzle some oil over the meat (you can use olive oil or garlic oil) and then sprinkle over the rosemary cook to your liking.

(We like our medium rare so it's normally 20 min per pound and 15 min resting time)


Saffron, Chilli and Lime Lamb Skewers

1kg lamb cubed
Salt and black pepper
3 medium tomatoes
60ml olive oil
1 onion, very finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp saffron threads
Zest of a lime and some of the juice
1/2 tsp mild chilli flakes (more if you like it spicy)
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp caster sugar

Heat the oven to 200C/180c. Season the lamb with a quarter-teaspoon of salt and some black pepper, then spike the cubes of meat on to skewers. Arrange these side by side in a roasting tray just large enough to accommodate them and set aside.

Coarsely grate the tomatoes into a bowl (so most of the skin stays in your hand), and discard the skin.

Heat the oil in a medium frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, fry gently for a couple of minutes, then add the garlic, saffron, lime Zest, and a squeeze of lime, chilli flakes, cardamom, sugar, salt and pepper. Cook for a minute, stirring once or twice, turn off the heat and then stir in the tomato flesh.

Spoon the mixture evenly over the lamb skewers, so that all the meat is coated. Cover with foil and roast for 15 minutes. Lower the temperature to 150C/140c and cook for two more hours, basting once, until the meat is very tender.

Place skewers on serving plates, spoon over the thick sauce from the bottom of the tray and serve at once. If there's quite a lot of runny juice left in the tray, transfer the skewers to a warm plate, cover and keep warm. Pour all the juices into a sauté pan, place on a high heat and cook until reduced and thickened.

(adapted for a yotam ottolenghi recipe)

Mediterranean Lamb

6 Lamb chops

New potatoes cut into wedges

Zest of 1 lemon and juice
Zest of 1 lime
1 tsp dried mint
1 tsp chilli flakes (more if you want it spicy)
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
5 garlic cloves (skin removed)
A good glug of garlic oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Pre heat oven to 180/170c

Place the lamb chops and the potato wedges into a roasting pan.

Add the zest of both the lemon and lime, dried mint, chilli flakes, fennel seeds and the whole garlic cloves, pour over a good glug of garlic oil, juice of the lemon and some salt and pepper

Place in the oven for around 1 hour

Serve with fresh bread as the sauce is divine to dip into.

(adapted from a nigella lawson recipe)

Nutty Lamb Koftas

Tonight was a help yourself kind of dinner...which I must say is my favourite. I did Nutty Lamb Koftas with Halloumi Flat breads, salad, mint yoghurt and toasted cashew and pine nuts. I put everything in the centre of the table and we all tuck in and enjoy! The lamb koftas are wonderful with the extra wowness from the pistachios. I am a huge nut fan so added the cashew and pine nuts to the wraps but that's personal taste :)

Nutty Lamb Koftas

Ingredients

500 g lamb mince
1 tsp thyme leaves (dried thyme is fine)
1/2 tsp dried chilli flakes (add more if you like them with a kick)
2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp mint (dried or fresh)
grated zest of 1 lemon
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 large handful shelled pistachio nuts

You can cook this on a griddle like I did or a grill is fine.

Place the lamb in a food processor with the thyme, chilli, cumin, mint and lemon and salt and pepper and all the pistachios. Mix until all incorporated, pistachios are chopped and its all bound into a ball.
Divide the meat into 8 equal pieces and get yourself 4 skewers. With damp hands, push and shape the meat around and along each skewer.
Grill the kebabs until nicely golden on all sides.

Serve with a salad and flatbreads (I did halloumi flatbreads and halloumi and olive flatbreads). Mix some mont leaves into the yoghurt to drizzle in the wraps.
Also toast some cashew nuts and pine nuts to also sprinkle in when making up your wraps.

Time to enjoy :))