Today we are sharing another recipe from Meze: Snacks, Small Plates and Street Food from the Middle East, by Sally Butcher, one that hails from her mother-in-law Afi. A minced lamb casing is wrapped around two different fillings, one being whole eggs, carrots and herbs, and the other a mix of spinach, walnuts and dried fruit. These are lightly floured and fried to seal, before being baked in a saucy coat of tomato paste, lemon juice and chicken stock.
By now, we hope you’ve read our cookbook review of Meze and bookmarked yesterday’s recipe for Aubergine-Wrapped Chicken?
Afi’s Lamb Roulade
Ingredients
For the casing:
- 1 kg (2lb 4oz) minced ground lamb
- 1 large onion, grated
- ½ tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
- salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the fillings:
- 8 baby carrots, scrubbed, topped and tailed
- 4 eggs
- 1 bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro), chopped
- 1 big bunch spinach
- 100 g (3 1⁄2 oz /1 cup) walnut halves, crumbled
- 125 g (4oz) pitted dried sour cherries or prunes
For cooking:
- Flour (Afi uses chickpea flour, but plain / all-purpose flour will do
- splash of oil
- 2 tbsp tomato paste
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- 400 ml (14fl oz /1 3⁄4 cups) chicken stock or water
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6.
- Firstly, mix the lamb and all the other casing ingredients together, working the meat to blend all the flavours.
- For the first filling, boil the carrots whole so that they are a bit more than al dente.
- Hard-boil the eggs (10 minutes with a splash of vinegar works for me) and peel them. Take half the roulade mixture and form it into 2 fat sausages. Split them lengthways and arrange the whole carrots, whole eggs and chopped herbs in the cavity thus created so that every bite and slice will look pretty. Mould the meat back to cover the hidden filling.
- For the second filling, steam or stir-fry the spinach for just a few seconds. Take the rest of the minced mixture and, again, make it into 2 fat sausages, this time filling it with spinach, walnuts and fruit.
- Roll each of the mince sausages gently in flour, then fry them in a little oil just to seal them. Next place the lightly browned roulades in an oven tray tin. Blend the tomato paste with the lemon juice and stock and pour it over the roulades: they should be half covered with sauce.
- Cover the dish with foil and bake for 45–50 minutes. Slice thickly and serve. And there you go: Persian meatloaf – a perfect midweek supper.
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Recipe extracted from Meze: Snacks, Small Plates and Street Food from the Middle East, by Sally Butcher with permission from publisher Pavilion Books. Image credit to Yuki Sugiura. Currently available from Amazon UK (at time of publishing) for £9.56 (RRP £12.99).
Please leave a comment - I love hearing from you!2 Comments to "Afi’s Lamb Roulade"
What an absolutely stunning plate of food. I can only hope it looks that good when I make it…
What a stunning dish, so packed full of flavour. I love pairing lamb with Middle Eastern flavours, the result is always good. This recipe has me inspired, I think I’ll make it on Sunday.