Anyway, I worked hard today and fancied a nice dinner...any excuse! I got some lamb cutlets from the butcher on Saturday and wanted something nice and colourful with them to compensate for the miserable weather. Decided on cous cous with roasted vegetables - kind of Middle East meets Mediterranean. Maybe they eat roasted veg in the Middle East, I shall have to ask my friends who live out there.
Anyway, I digress. My grill is a bit funny hence the weird layout of the cutlets below. The gas doesn't tend to reach the outside panels of the grill so I have to face all the fat towards the centre. Can't wait to get my kitchen done...
For the roasted veg, I used courgettes, orange and yellow peppers, red onions and some vine tomatoes. I roasted them on 220 degrees for about 40 minutes but didn't put the tomatoes in until about half way through. I like them to retain some shape and texture for this recipe.
For the cous cous, I chop onion, peppers, chilli, garlic and coriander (love coriander, my favourite herb by far). I use the coriander root mainly but also chop some leaves for sprinkling on at the end.
In some olive oil, fry half a teaspoon of harissa paste and add the onions. Fry for a couple of minutes then add the peppers and chillies. Fry until softened then add the crushed garlic (don't burn it!). Add the coriander root and fry a little longer then add a generous chunk of butter and some black pepper and salt if required (I didn't bother in this as I used a stock cube so salty enough - wish I'd made stock from the chicken carcass last night, d'oh). Take off the heat until later. You need enough chicken stock to your cous cous - for two of us (plus plenty left for lunch the next day) I use 200g of cous cous and 300ml of stock.
Grill the lamb cutlets to preference - I like my meat pink but I like the fat to be crispy, and tonight the fat wasn't quite crispy enough. Not a bad thing for the Watson collective waistline though, we don't eat non-crispy fat, but Colin was more than happy to take it off our hands. The trick is a very hot grill for a shorter time but my grill is pants.
When you are around 8 minutes away from cooking time, put the pan back on the heat and add the cous cous. Take off the heat, add the stock, stir and put the lid on the pan (make sure the stock is hot, microwave it if you have to). Leave to stand for around 5 minutes. Once done, add some chopped coriander leaves and fluff up with a fork.
Voila! I like a little port and redcurrant sauce on the side (Tesco Finest, can highly recommend it with lamb).
Now that's what I call a decent Monday night dinner and let's face it, there's not much else that's good on a Monday so you may as well eat well :)
Tomorrow will probably be a bagel and a banana, wish me luck at my weight pump class or whatever it is, I'll need it!
Ciao for now.
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