Pit Cooking - Lamb in the Ground

I have wanted to experiment with cooking something in a pit in the ground for a long time; a lamb or a pig, out in the wild... surrounded by nature, digging up beautifully cooked meat, grilling lovely vegetables on the fire... I watch Francis Mallman on 'Chef's Table' with envy, and make plans to light fires, cook whole venison and river trout at the top of a deserted valley with friends and family one summer. I'll send out invitations with just a little map; everyone will walk for miles to the delight at the end, maybe no one will want to come, but I will! However, if I'm ever going to actually attempt that I needed to practice; because that's not just going to fly on the first attempt!

So a few weeks ago we set off to the lakes with a big leg of lamb and a vague plan. I read various websites and put together an idea of what I might do. In short, dig a hole in the ground, fill it with stones, burn a fire until the stones are red hot, put the lamb in, cover with soil and turf and hope for the best...

I settled on a cooking time of 12 hours, various times were mentioned on line but this allowed us to leave it in all night, get it out in the morning, and have time to rescue it if needs be before guests arrived for lunch. So we had to forgo the 'big reveal' of digging it out of the ground to the waiting crowd, but it seemed like the sensible thing to do as I had read reports of joints being burnt on the bottom and raw on top and various other disasters...

The hole in the ground needs to be deep enough to accommodate a layer of large stones at the bottom, the lamb in the middle, more stones on top and then a layer of soil and turf, so we ended up with a pit about half a metre deep, measuring about the same in width and length.

We collected stones from the river, going for pretty large ones, as they need to retain the heat for a long time, about the size of your head I read, I chose slightly smaller ones as I had to carry them! The idea is to heat them as hot as possible, burning a fire around them for a good few hours, letting your fire eventually disappear , leaving you with stones that are about 200/300 degrees.

We lined the bottom and the edges of the pit with the stones, then placed a few more in the middle that we ear marked as the ones that we would then lift up and put on top of the lamb when it went in. Then covered the whole lot with kindling and logs and got going with the bonfire, gradually adding more logs as it burnt bigger, building it up to heat all of the stones. I think we burned it for about 3 hours in the end. It was very enjoyable sat round faffing about with the fire, a glass of wine in hand, excited to put the lamb in and wondering what on earth was going to happen.

I marinated the leg of lamb in garlic, rosemary, lovage, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and left it out to come up to room temperature while we got the fire going. Before it goes in it needs to be wrapped up very tightly in foil, do this carefully as you don't want all the lovely juices to leak out, I used quite a few layers. Then wrap it in an old damp towel or a damp burlap sack. This creates a barrier between the lamb and the red hot stones and prevents burnt spots.

The fire burnt and burnt, we moved the logs around so every stone was enveloped with heat and slowly we let it burn right down, pushing the embers away into the gaps between the stones, until it had all but disappeared and we were left with red hot stones. It took about 3 hours in the end; it is worth taking your time over this bit as if the stones haven't heated right to the core they aren't going to be very good at cooking your lamb for 12 hours. Obviously this is a difficult thing to assess, testing the middle of stones, but I figured a long, long fire was the answer. 

Then the parcel of lamb is placed in the middle. We had big fire proof gloves to lift out some of the stones, put the lamb in place then put some stones back over the top, so all surfaces were covered. It was starting to get dark at this point and the heat was so intense, it was a bit of a frantic getting everything into place... Then dig the soil back over the top, covering the whole thing so no little jets of steam and smoke are escaping, finally placing the square of turf back over the whole thing and stamping it down, you shouldn't be able to feel any heat coming out at all. Almost as if nothing had happened.

Night had begun to fall and we were shoveling soil back into the pit by the light of an iphone, anyone passing may have thought we resembled a scene from Midsummer Murders... It was all very exciting to see what we would find in the morning!

It was a really cold night and there was a icy dew covering everything when I went outside at about 9am and you could see your breath. I could see patches of dry soil and around the edge of the turf top, and the ground felt warm when you put your hand to it... joy! it had actually stayed warm overnight, so something must have happened... We carefully lifted the turf lid then began to dig away the soil, slowly uncovering the lamb bundle. It was a warm bundle when lifted out, and unwrapped the lamb was actually cooked! Lovely smells wafted out as I unwrapped it, finding soft, cooked, aromatic lamb, actually cooked!

It was pretty anaemic looking, it doesn't colour at all as it is basically steaming in its little bundle, so there's no great 'wow, look at that transformation' moment, it's just cooked. But it felt pretty good that we'd managed to actually cook it with just some stones and a fire. For lunch I put it in the oven to heat through and crisp up, it was very tasty sat at the long table next to the pit with the carved up lamb, big salads, bbq potatoes and vegetables, a smoky aubergine yoghurt, mint syrup, spicy tomato sauce and everyone tucking in.

I'm keen to try it again as soon as possible. There are some things I would like to improve on. When we took it out of the ground it was warm, but not hot, and would have needed a blast of heat from an oven or bbq regardless, so I think I left it in a bit too long, or, the stones could have been hotter to start. The lamb doesn't fall apart as it would in an oven braise, you had to carve it into slices, and I think perhaps it didn't reach a high enough temperature for long enough, so again, perhaps heating the stones better at the beginning might improve this. That said it was a pretty satisfying day all round! I'll report back on take two...

Beef Meatballs with Broad Beans, Lemon and Herbs

I spent some time in London last week... It was a flying visit to catch up on what was going on down there in shops, restaurants and galleries. Have a look at some new pop-ups, architecture, interiors, handbags... I was quickly calculating how many meals I could fit into the short time I was there. I loved Upstairs at the Ten Bells, my favourite of the weekend I think, elements of secret dining above a packed Spitalfields boozer, amazing food, lovely people, beautiful cosy dining room... tick.

Other highlights were Ducksoup in Soho, a seat in the window and a glass of red wine saw me in holiday mode pretty quickly. They had a turntable by the door, daily hand written menus and lovely booze list on wipe down white ceramic tiles - octopus with paprika and capers was great, a duck egg you had to peel with mayonnaise and sumac to dip was cute and tasty... Venison with potatoes, olives and aioli at the Canton Arms in Vauxhall hit the spot for lunch, and a piece of morcilla with soft red peppers and a little fried quail's egg at Morito would do me right just about now...

Before stuffing myself silly in London I had been immersing myself in Ottolenghi's book Jerusalem, much like every other food blog I read it seems. But these meatballs were just a bit too lovely to not tell you about for the sake of being different... Delicious fresh, lemony and herby, a nice contrast to my usual lamb meatballs, cooked in a lovely fragrant broth with broad beans, garlic and spring onions. Definitely my best Jerusalem experiment so far...

 

These amounts will serve 4 people. Start with the meat ball mix; 300g of minced beef and 150g of minced lamb, I got mine from Charlotte's Butchers, a cute little butchers newly opened in Gosforth. Add the mince to a bowl with a finely diced medium onion, 120g of breadcrumbs, 2 tablespoons each of chopped parsley, mint, dill and coriander. Add 2 cloves of finely chopped garlic, 1 tablespoon of ground cumin, 2 teaspoons of chopped capers, 1 beaten egg and 1 tablespoon on Baharat spice mix. You can buy this or you can make it...

 

I made myself a little jar by bashing together a mix of spices in a pestle and mortar: 1 teaspoon of black peppercorns, 1 teaspoon of coriander seeds, 1 small cinnamon stick, ½ teaspoon of cloves, ½ teaspoon of ground allspice, 2 teaspoons of cumins seeds, 1 teaspoon of cardamom seeds and ½ a teaspoon of ground nutmeg. Grind it all to a powder...

Roll the mix into meatballs the size of a ping pong ball and then fry them in batches in hot olive oil, until they are brown all over. I did mine in 2 batches for about 5 minutes each. Then remove them all from the pan and wipe it clean and add 2 tablespoons of fresh olive oil. Then sauté 4 sprigs of thyme, 6 cloves of garlic sliced and 8 spring onions cut into 2cm pieces for about 3 minutes. The recipe calls for 350g of blanched broad beans, half shelled and half unshelled, I couldn’t get any so added a tin of broad beans at this point. Also add 1 ½ tablespoons of lemon juice, 80ml of chicken stock, ¼ teaspoon of salt and lots of black pepper and cook for ten minutes on a low heat.

 

Return the meatballs to the pan and add another 420ml of chicken stock and simmer for 25 minutes. I found the meatballs soaked up a lot of the sauce so don’t worry if it seems a lot. You can also cook them to this point and reheat them later if needs be. Just before you serve them add a handful of chopped mint, dill, parsley and coriander, a tablespoon of lemon juice and a handful of fresh blanched peeled broad beans if you have them.

I served the meatballs with some steamed rice, they are delicious and sticky with a fresh tasty broth full of lemon and herbs. It is a lot of ingredients as Ottolenghi recipes often are, but is definitely worth the time and effort, I'll be making them again asap.

 

Tax Free Pasties

Shortcrust Spiced Lamb and Pine nut Pasties and Filo Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta Pasties

This weekend saw a spot of topical cooking, I made mini pasties, although my 'freshly baked goods' didn’t come with an extra 20% VAT and were perhaps a little bit better for you than a trip to Greggs... I did heat them for the customer, so should have charged extra according to Mr. Osborne... But served them in various states of cooling, so perhaps not according to Greggs chief exec, Mr. Ken McMeiKan. It's a complicated business these days all to do with ambient temperatures. So in winter a warm pasty would be chargeable but last week in our little heat wave when its boiling outside it wouldn’t be...

Thankfully The Blonde and her fella, Boozer and the other characters didn’t have to stump up any cash and everyone tucked in to piles of steaming pasties... There was a modest supply of flat breads to accompany the little hot pasties, along with smoky aubergine dip, toasted cumin hummus, spicy tomato sauce, tzatziki to start... Followed by slow cooked Moroccan lamb, couscous, apricot jam and garlic green beans... and perhaps too much wine...

The limited supply of flat breads was due to a little fire incident as I tried to speedily make my own. I had pre rolled them and left them between layers of grease proof paper, thinking I was being super organised... It turned out that they didn’t really want to come off the grease proof paper and as I faffed around peeling paper and getting stressed I managed to stick some of the said greaseproof paper under the hob that was in use! Thankfully the back door was already open so as the flames leapt up I had to throw the whole lot out of the back door... So we were a few flat breads short on starting, but everyone still had a fine time... It all added to the excitement.

There were two types of pasty, Spiced Lamb and Pine nut in shortcrust pastry and Roast Sweet Potato, Garlic and Feta in filo pastry. The sweet potato ones were so simple. Peel and chop into inch sized chunks 2 sweet potatoes, add to a roasting tin with salt and olive oil and put them in the oven at 200°C, roast for 30 minutes, adding 5 or 6 cloves of garlic still in their skins after 15 minutes. When they are done take them out of the oven to cool, squeeze the garlic out of their skins and mush everything with a fork. Test for seasoning and add some salt and pepper if needed, then crumble in about half a pack of feta cheese. I also added a few cheeky bits of manchego.

I used filo pastry, brushed with melted butter and folded them into little triangles, I made about 20 of them in total, they were voted the favourites by the visitors. But at that point they had survived a kitchen fire and had quite a bit of wine so who knows...

The lamb pasties were a little bit more effort but by no means complicated... Chop an onion and cook in olive oil with a little salt until soft and golden, add ½ teaspoon of allspice, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 teaspoon of sumac. I brought my sumac back from a holiday in Turkey, you can get hold of it here, but it would also be fine to leave it out if you can't find any. Cook the onion and spices for a few minutes. Add 300g of lamb mince and cook until it is browned all over, then stir in 1 tablespoon of tomato purée, add 2 chopped vine tomatoes and 2 tablespoons of lemon juice and cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Mine dried out more than I expected in the oven so don’t cook it away entirely. Finally season and add a handful of toasted pine nuts and a handful of chopped mint, and leave to cool to room temperature.

I then used shortcrust pasty cut into circles and folded over into little crescents with a teaspoon of lamb mixture inside, sealed with a fork and brushed with egg wash. I baked both types of pasties at 200°C for 20 minutes, keep checking them though as they may brown at different rates depending on your oven and you don't want burnt pasties! The spiced lamb ones were lovely with the spicy tomato sauce, and the sweet potato even more delicious with buttery crisp pastry, mellow garlic, sweet potato and tangy melted cheese...

I'm thinking about trying out ones with roast apple and black pudding next perhaps or creamy chicken, capers and bacon...

Shepherd's Pie with Cheesy Potato and Parsnip Mash

Exciting news... I have my very own magazine column, with Appetite magazine, a new North East foodie publication. They featured a lovely piece about this blog and my Autumn Graze market back in October, and I wrote a little piece about Christmas cooking for them in December. This will now be a regular column in every edition!

My first article is about comfort food... What is it, what does it mean to you, what is your favourite comfort food recipe, would you sit in a bath of risotto? I just discovered a new favourite to add to the list this weekend, Cauliflower and Mascarpone Risotto with Chorizo, creamy and delicious with spicy hot chorizo... You can pick up a copy of Appetite in lots of cafés, restaurants and foodie shops all over the North East, including Stewart and Co, Carruthers and Kent, The Broad Chare, Caffe Vivo, Cafe 1901... To name a few...It is full of recipes, interviews with local chefs and suppliers, recommendations, tips and restaurant tales. The latest edition with my little comfort food article is out right now if you want to seek one out...

This Shepherd's Pie formed part of my 'research' it was really hard work getting cosy in front of the tv with a glass of red wine and a bowl of rich meaty, creamy potato delicious Shepherd's Pie. Really hard work I tell you... Apparently it is the nations favourite comfort food, not sure how this is calculated but I enjoyed mine a lot.

I've made quite few Shepherd's pies over the years, I don't have a consistent recipe, but I think this one is perhaps a keeper. My potato topping to mince ratio was a bit out, too much topping, so I've reduced the amount here and yours should turn out perfect...

Simmer a large potato and a large parsnip cut into chunks in salted water until tender. While they are cooking fry a chopped onion and a diced carrot in 3 tablespoons of butter until they are soft and golden. Then add 450g of raw lamb mince to brown, don't stir it too much, just now and again until it has coloured all over, leave it to cook for about 10 minutes. Add 1 tablespoon of flour and 1 tablespoon of tomato purée and continue to cook for another 5 minutes, stirring as it cooks. Then pour in 250ml of chicken stock and add a bay leaf and a sprig of thyme, some salt and pepper and a teaspoon of Worcestershire sauce. Bring it all to the boil and then simmer for 30 minutes.

Pre heat the oven to 190°C and mash the potato and parsnip with some butter and a splash of milk, not too much as you need the topping to be firm. Add the lamb to an oven proof dish and top with the potato and parsnip, add it a little at a time from the centre of the dish, so you get an even spread and it doesn’t just sink in a big lump... Fork the potato into rough peaks so you get good crispy bits when it is cooked and top with a scattering of a grated cheese of your choice... Finally bake for about 25 minutes until golden brown. Leave it to rest for 5 minutes when it is ready, it gets as hot as a volcano in the middle and you just can't appreciate it properly when the first mouthful burns your tongue... Serve with peas or greens, whatever you fancy.

The leftovers the next day are even better I think, if that's possible. I'm currently laid low with a bit of a nasty bug, I think comfort foods like this can cure illness sometimes, or warm you up more than the heating even can, right to the middle... I wish there was some left. I'll have to settle for a new favourite... Haggis and Mash. That should see me right...

Summer Supper

The salami was ready, and the football season was starting with Newcastle playing Arsenal... So it made sense to put a shoulder of lamb in the oven for four hours while we went to the match, invite friends round to join us for supper, and unveil the long awaited salami...

The allotment is offering up courgettes rapidly and I have six large cauliflowers to get to grips with, so we only had to get some lamb and we were ready to go. I made some sweet lemon pastry and picked some blackberries from the Ouseburn the day before, which became delicious Berry and Mascarpone Lemon Pastry Tarts.

We may have got a bit carried away wearing paper masks of Joey Barton's face, at various points before, during and after supper. They had made their way home from the football match with us somehow, and resulted in us tweeting Mr. Joseph Barton photos of ourselves wearing them, and invitations to join us. Bizarrely he didn't show up?

We started with an Elizabeth David inspired olive tapanade with French bread for dipping, and the Homemade Salami. One of which was red wine and walnut, my favourite I think, the other was fennel and garlic, also delicious. They don't look very professional, more like shrivelled wizards fingers, but they tasted really good. I have been feeling apprehensive watching them hanging in the porch, worrying that they were going to be horrible, or worse still, poison me... But they were the right texture and smell, rich, meaty, full of flavour. It feels good to have successfully made them from scratch so I'm already planning the next batch.

The Braised Lamb was a beautiful centre piece, it just falls apart after braising in wine and stock for hours, surrounded by shallots and garlic. To accompany it I made some Mushy Courgettes, simply chopped and stewed with butter and garlic for half an hour. I used all three varieties that I am growing, yellow, standard green and ball shaped ones. I really should find out the name of these instead of constantly calling them 'green ball courgettes'...

The cauliflowers are a bit funny looking, in both shape and colour, but taste very good. I chopped the first one I have picked so far into small florets, and roasted it with cumin, salt, rapeseed oil, sliced red onion and chickpeas. It was lovely, I'm fast becoming a huge cauliflower fan, it was nutty and roasted with cumin, sweet onions and chewy toasted chickpeas. That took care of two cauliflowers, so I still have four more to cook, I had better start thinking...

We finished the evening with a bit more mask wearing, the Berry and Mascapone Lemon Pastry Tarts, some cheese that the kind guests brought, a bit more wine, toasts to Joey, toasts to the the lamb, toasts to the cheese and some impressions of Vic and Bob... I can't think a better way to spend a Saturday evening really...