Lamb Soup With Curried Cucumber Salad Food

WARM SHREDDED LAMB SALAD WITH MINT AND POMEGRANATE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 250 degrees F.
• On the stovetop, brown the lamp, fat-side down, in a large roasting pan. Remove when nicely browned across its middle (you won't get much more than this) and set aside while you fry the shallots, garlic and carrot briefly. Just tip them into the pan - you won't need to add any more fat - and cook them, sprinkled with the salt, gently for a couple of minutes. Pour the water over and then replace the lamb, this time fat side up. Let the liquid in the pan come to a boil, then tent with foil and put in the preheated oven.
• Now just leave it there while you sleep. I find that if I put the lamb in before I go to bed, it's perfect by lunchtime the next day. But the point is, at this temperature, nothing's going to go wrong with the lamb if you cook it for a little less or a little more.
• If you want to cook the lamb the day you're going to eat it, heat the oven to 325 degrees F and give it 5 hours or so. The point is to find a way of cooking that suits you: you know what sort of pottering relaxes you and what makes you feel constrained; how much time you've got, and how you want to use it. Don't let the food, the kitchen or the imagined expectations of other people bully you.
• With the homily over, about 1 hour before you want to eat, remove the lamb from the pan to a large plate or carving board - not that it needs carving; the deal here is that it's unfashionably overcooked, falling to tender shreds a the touch of a fork. This is the best way to deal with shoulder of lamb: it's cheaper than leg, and the flavor it deeper, better, truer, but even good carvers, which I most definitely am not, can get unstuck trying to slice it.
• To finish the lamb salad, simply pull it into pieces with a couple of forks on a large plate. Sprinkle with more sea salt and some freshly chopped mint, then cut the pomegranate in 1/2 and dot with the seeds from 1 of the halves. This is easily done; there's a simple trick, which means you never have to think of winkling out the jeweled pips with a safety pin ever again. Simply hold the pomegranate 1/2 above the plate, take a wooden spoon and start bashing the curved skin side with it. Nothing will happen for a few seconds, but have faith. In a short while the glassy red, juicy beads will start raining down.
• Take the other 1/2 and squeeze the preposterously pink juices over the warm shredded meat. Take to the table and serve.
• What I do with the leftovers is warm a pita bread in the microwave, and then spread it with a greedy dollop of hummus, then take the chill off the refrigerated lamb in the microwave and stuff the already gooey pita with it. Add freshly chopped mint, black pepper and whatever else you like; raw, finely chopped red onion goes dangerously well.

STRAWBERRY SOUP WITH STRAWBERRY CUCUMBER SALAD

Steps:

• Mix the strawberries and sugar together in a metal bowl covered with plastic wrap and place over a bain marie making sure the bowl doesn't touch the water. Cook over low heat for 1 hour and 15 minutes, at which point the berries will be floating in liquid.
• To obtain the juice, drain the berries over a bowl for 2 hours. Some solids will have passed through the strainer and settled in the bowl. Chill the juice until ready to serve. Save the berries for flavoring ice cream.
• Dice the peeled cucumber and strawberries very finely, like a brunoise, then toss together carefully with the lemon juice and sugar. In the center of each soup bowl, place a pile of the diced strawberry mixture. Pour the garnet colored strawberry soup around it.

CURRIED LAMB AND BARLEY GRAIN

Steps:

• In a skillet, saute lamb, onion, barley and celery in oil until lamb is browned and barley is golden. Add broth and curry powder; bring to a boil. Pour into a 2-qt. baking dish. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 1-1/4 to 1-1/2 hours or until barley is tender. , In a small bowl, combine the salsa ingredients. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Serve with lamb.

CURRIED LAMB IN CUCUMBER CORNUCOPIAS

Steps:

• Cut cucumber widthwise into 3 1/2-inch-long sections. Using a vegetable peeler or a mandoline, slice sections lengthwise as thin as possible, yielding flat rectangular slices. Discard any with seeds.
• Lightly spray a large nonstick skillet with vegetable-oil cooking spray and place over medium-low heat. Add onions and sautee until translucent, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Add lamb, currants, curry powder, cinnamon, salt, and pepper; raise heat to medium high and cook until meat is browned and cooked through, about 10 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in chopped mint and yogurt.
• Form one of the cucumber slices into a cone shape. Fill with 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of the meat mixture and garnish with a mint leaf. Repeat procedure, using all the cucumber slices and lamb mixture, and serve immediately.

LAMB AND CUCUMBER SOUP

Steps:

• Trim off any excess fat from the lamb and discard.
• Thinly slice the lamb into small pieces.
• Put in a shallow dish and add the soy sauce, rice wine and sesame oil. Set aside to marinate for 25-30 minutes. Then discard the marinade.
• Halve the Cucumber piece lengthwise then cut into thin slices Diagonally.
• Bring the Chicken stock to a rolling boil in a wok.
• Add the lamb slices and stir to seperate. Bring back up to a boil then add the cucumber slices, vinegar and salt/pepper. Bring to a boil again and serve immediately.