Lamb Kofta and Homemade Tzatziki

I decided I wanted to make this a few weeks ago, so I wrote this weeks shopping list around it – surprisingly it was much harder to find lamb mince than I had thought it would be. After popping into pretty much all of the food shops on Nicolson Street I did find it though, and it was worth the little bit of trouble, these kofta were delicious. The spices that I decided to put in are probably not authentically Greek, but I feel that lamb needs quite a lot of spices in it to make it flavourful rather than just a bit bland. The fresh coriander added a really nice lemony freshness, and the paprika made them smoky which made them feel a lot more appropriate for wintery weather. The best thing about them is that I just popped the leftovers in the fridge, so I have my lunch sorted for the rest of the week!

Serves 4
Ingredients:
500g lamb mince
1 large onion, grated
1 tbsp paprika
2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cumin
small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped or torn up
1 tsp salt
2 tsp black pepper
1 lemon, zested
1 tbsp oil

1) in a large bowl, mix all of the ingredients, apart from the oil, you’ll use that later to fry the kofta, and mix them well using your hands. Fry a small piece off so that you can taste the seasoning and according decide if you want to add more spices.

2) shape the mixture into small sausages, cover and pop into the fridge to chill for about 30 minutes. While the koftas were chilling I made the tzatziki.

3) preheat the oven 180c. In a large pan heat the oil and fry the kofta for about 2 minutes on each side until they are browned, then transfer them to a baking tray and cook in the over for 10 minutes.

To serve: I ate my kofta in wholemeal pitta breads with tzatziki, (recipe below) cucumber and rocket

Tzatziki:
350g greek yogurt
1 small cucumber
juice of 1 lemon
mint leaves, roughly chopped
olive oil

1) chop and deseed the cucumber before grating it, the seeds change the texture of the dip completely and make it a bit watery. Grate the cucumber into a sieve over a bowl to catch the excess water that the cucumber will release. Add a bit of salt to dry it out and leave it until it stops dripping water.

2) Add the cucumber, the lemon juice, the mint leaves and a glut of olive oil to the yogurt and mix it all together, adding more lemon and mint to taste. I saw a lot of recipes that added cloves of crushed garlic to their tzatziki, but I’m personally not a huge fan of raw garlic.

Bacon and mushroom risotto

I made risotto for the first time the other day, mainly because there was an offer on Arborio rice at Lidl, and it was a huge learning curve. It was fairly time consuming to make due to the constant stirring, but the risotto that I ended up with tasted so good that I decided it was worth it. Testament to that is the above picture; I couldn’t bring myself to let it get cold while I took a decent picture, so a quick snap in-between mouthfuls had to suffice. I chose not to use cream because I felt that the mushrooms, when they had soaked up the meat juices and stock, made the dish feel luxurious enough. However, I did have to add a lot more liquid than I expected to, due to the omission of cream, just to keep the dish moist rather than unbearably dry and sticky. This version of the recipe is my amendments to the original, hopefully I’ve ironed out all the kinks.

Serves 2
2 tsp olive oil
1 small onion, diced
4 rashers of streaky bacon, chopped
125g button or chestnut mushrooms, sliced
150g risotto rice
2 tsp nutmeg
2 tsp oregano
salt and black pepper
1 litre chicken stock

1) heat oil in a deep frying pan and cook the onion for about 5 minutes to soften, but not brown. Add the mushrooms and the bacon and cook for about another 5 minutes, or until the mushrooms start to release their juices. Stir in the rice and cook until all the juices and oil have been absorbed, constantly stirring. Add the nutmeg, oregano and a generous amount of salt and pepper at this point. While I’m testing to see if the rice is cooked I tend to add more oregano and nutmeg according to what I think it needs, so remember to keep tasting your food.

2) add the stock, a little bit at a time, stirring well and waiting for the stock to be fully absorbed before you add anymore. Keep doing this until all the stock is absorbed and the rice cooked. If the rice is cooked and how you like it and you’ve still got a bit of stock left, just leave it out. Alternatively, if the whole litre has been absorbed and the rice is still uncooked, just add a splash of water whenever you think the risotto is getting a bit too dry. It took me about 45 minutes of constant stirring to get my risotto how I like it.

To serve: I ate mine with just a generous crack of black pepper, but fresh parsley to garnish would also be a nice addition.

What’s in the cupboard

Moving from one country to another for university this September made me realise something I’d vaguely considered before but never fully realised. I was going to have to budget and cook for myself. Like most students, my mother came up to help me move into uni and bought me food to start me off; in hindsight I would have been much more specific when we went shopping, it really hit me how much stuff you need in a basic larder to actually cook anything tasty.

Basic larder:
Onions – they go off slowly and are so useful
Garlic – again, long life and I use it at least once a week
Ginger – if you like Asian inspired food this is pretty much necessary
Tins of chopped tomatoes/passata – even if you’re just making a pasta sauce these are invaluable
Spices – I went out and bought these in my first week and ended up spending about £10 just on spice, I recommend oregano, paprika, cumin, chilli powder, nutmeg, ground coriander, garam masala
Milk – always runs out way too fast
Eggs – omelettes are amazing, the most important thing my mum taught me how to make, but eggs are also really versatile
Bread – I would also recommend taking a toaster to uni, we had to grill our toast in the oven for about a month, and we always forgot it was in there. A flat that smells of burnt bread is horrible. Store it in the microwave or a bread bin.
Tortillas – fajitas are amazing, my flatmates did my washing up for me for a week after I made them for them. Plus tortillas make wraps way more interesting
Cheese – cheese lasts forever, but it’s a bit expensive, so I made my mum buy me a massive slab of cheddar before she left
Butter – I love lurpak, cooking with utterly butterly is really not the same
Olive/sunflower/cooking oil – you just need it
Pasta – spaghetti and various pasta shapes, I bought little glass jars to put mine in, if not definitely get some of those clips to reseal the tops of the packets
Rice – again useful staple food
Potatoes – because carbs
Flour – this isn’t really necessary, but it’s really irritating having to go buy something that lasts forever in your cupboard
Stock cubes/stock pots – I tend to use chicken stock pots and beef oxo cubes
Ketchup and mayonnaise – or whatever condiments that you personally like
Chillis – I like spicy food, if you don’t then you don’t really need these
Tomatoes – good for most recipes
Peppers – they’re just a nice way thing to put in recipes to make them feel more healthy
Baked beans – I hate them but my flatmates seem to regret not making their parents buy them a lifelong supply
Spaghetti hoops – so much better than beans and amazing late night food
Cereal – again, I don’t like it but everyone else seems to
Chicken – the cheapest meat and therefore the most popular in my flat, we have a drawer full of frozen chicken
Minced beef – because nothing is better than bolognese
Bacon – my best day of freshers week was when we compiled all of our bacon to make flat breakfast

First post

Just a quick introduction; I’m an 18 year old student living in Edinburgh. Like most first year students, starting university in September this year marked the start of my first experience of living alone. Unlike my flatmates however, instead of moving about 4 hours  away from my parents, I moved from Dubai where I lived for about 15 years. Having lead what can only be described as quite a cushy lifestyle back in the U.A.E moving to Scotland was a bit of a culture shock, but I’ve actually really enjoyed all of the freedom uni life has brought, especially being forced to cook for myself.