Scotch Lamb: Minted Lamb Koftas and Spiced Lamb Pittas

I'm always up for messing about in the kitchen, I don't think it's a secret that my wife is not the world's most confident cook, so faced with the bulk of the food prep in the house I tend to gravitate to things that I enjoy: a lot of the time that's red meat. Perhaps surprisingly then, lamb is not something that we often eat at home. I'll often have it at an Indian or Thai restaurant but I didn't eat much lamb growing up and Blondie was pretty convinced that she didn't like it at all. So when Scotch Lamb asked if I'd like to do something for them I was pretty keen to try something I don't normally do, as well as convince her that we should eat it more often!

I think the obvious thing to do with lamb would be some kind of stew or hotpot, so in an attempt to do something a bit different I made one dish which I cooked outside on the barbecue and one "inside" dish. Possibly my favourite thing about the challenge was that, as well as having two very good meals, I discovered an amazing butcher. I picked up the meat from S. Collins and Son in Muirhead, it's a fairly short drive from the city centre (just past the Crowwood Hotel) and I can't adequately describe how amazing it is. I've already been back inside a week and I'll be a regular visitor from now on!

For my outside recipe I made:

 Minted Lamb Koftas

1kg lamb mince

3 large cloves garlic

2 slices stale bread

1 tbsp cumin

1 small green chilli

15g fresh mint leaves

Zest of one lemon

Salad leaves

Yoghurt Sauce (recipe below)

Salt

Pepper

 1) Season the mince and knead

 

2) Pulse the bread, cumin, mint, lemon zest, garlic and chilli in a food processor until a fine crumb and season season with salt and pepper.

 

3) Mix with mince and knead until evenly mixed.

 

4) Form into sausage shapes and skewer. If you have flat metal skewers so much the better. I didn't and the round wood ones just tend to spin in the meat, unless you do what I did and use two per kebab. This means you can turn the meat much more easily and it breaks up less on the barbecue. I made 8 large kebabs from the 1kg but they could be sized however you like.

 

5) Preheat barbecue to a medium-high heat, we want the outside to be crispy and a little charred.

  

6) Once the outside looks crispy all the way round (2 mins each side-ish) then turn the heat down to medium and cook for a further 8 minutes, turning halfway through. If you make them smaller, obviously they'll cook quicker.

 

7) Check that the koftas are cooked through and serve with salad and yoghurt sauce. I make the meat a little spicy with the green chilli, so I like a cool sauce with them but it could just as easily be some kind of chilli sauce. I made them as the main part of a meal but at a large barbecue I would make smaller ones and serve them as finger food.

The meat mixture could make a really nice burger if formed differently. I think next time I might try using the same spicing and making burgers, maybe topped with halloumi and the same yoghurt sauce.

 

Inside the house I made:

Spiced Lamb Pittas

Half leg of lamb

2 tblsp curry powder

2 tblsp smoked paprika

2 tblsp dry coriander

2 tblsp cumin

1 tblsp chilli powder

1 tblsp garam masala

1 lamb stock cube

2 green chillies

1 pepper

1 onion

4 pitta breads

salad 

Yoghurt sauce (recipe below)

Here is my delicious half leg of lamb. I think most often people would roast it whole, so what I'm about to do to it may seem like sacrilege...

 

1) Cut off the external fat, debone and dice it (leaving the internal fat on). Yes, it's a pretty expensive cut to dice and the recipe would probably work just as well with shoulder but using leg make it so damn good. The meat will be stay in cubes, not flake and it will be melt in the mouth tender at the end. It's definitely worth it. Your butcher would probably dice it for you but I wanted to do it myself.

 

2) Mix the dry spices and dredge the meat until covered.

 

3) Add a little oil to a saucepan and heat to a medium-low heat. Add the chopped chillies, meat and crumble the stock cube over the top.

 

4) Cook at a low heat for 1-1 1/2 hours. The lamb will release quite a lot of liquid and in an ideal world that will be all the moisture we need. Unfortunately, we don't live in an ideal world so I checked every 15 minutes and topped up with 1/4- 1/2 a cup of water at a time so there was just enough so that it didn't dry out.

 

5) About an hour in we should have something like this. The lamb should still be solid pieces but it should pull apart pretty easily.

 

6) Add tomato puree until you have the consitency of a curry sauce. Add chopped peppers and onions and cook for another 10 mins, I prefer veggies to still have a little bite so stop before they go soft.

 

7) We should then have something like this. Toast the pittas in anticipation of the upcoming feast.

 

8)Fill the pittas and serve with salad and the yoghurt sauce. (same one, recipe below)

 

The lamb is spicy but not too spicy and hopefully by using the leg it will be so soft and tender as you won't believe. Having said that by substituting shoulder for leg the cost would reduce substantially and it would be quite a decent option for a cheap midweek meal.

Both meals were a pretty big hit in our house. Like I said lamb hasn't been an integral part of the meal rotation in our house for a while but now that I've shown what I can do with it I'm expecting it to be featuring much more in future.

Yoghurt Sauce

I use this with everything from Greek and Mediterranean spiced food to Indian, including my infamous Greek Nachos (which would also be delicious with lamb, that's now my next project!) It's piss easy to make but tastes amazing.

200g Greek yoghurt

15g fresh mint

A lemon

1/4 cucumber

1) Zest and juice the lemon. Chop the mint and mix it together.

 

2) Add in the yoghurt and mix until combined. Finely chop the cucumber and mix in.

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Transatlantic Blonde were provided lamb for the purpose of creating these recipes but all opinions and creations are our own.

Sodastream Review and Giveaway!

This post is brought to you by NotBlondeHusband. I wish Blogger made it easier to tell who the author of a post was! I love our SodaStream Drinks Maker but NBH is the one with fizzy history.

To me SodaStream conjures up memories of childhood. I never had one but I remember friends who did and I also remember greatly coveting one, although never quite managing to get my parents to succumb and get “busy with the fizzy”. I was slightly worried that admitting to remembering it may show my age but given I also remember when most people in Scotland had fizzy drinks delivered to their door on a milk float so I decided SodaStream is probably the least of my worries.

Despite the fact that I considered it somewhat of a sevnties/ eighties throwback SodaStream never really went away. It’s always been popular in Europe where apparently more than 1 in 5 households in Sweden own a machine, but it seems to have somewhat reappeared in the UK recently, so when we were offered a chance to test one out I was keen not only to right my childhood wrongs but also to see where the growing move back to SodaStream had come from.

First off I was surprised how easy it is. We tried the “pure” drinks maker. It doesn’t need plugged in, just a work surface to sit on. Initial set up was a doddle and afterwards it’s just a case of screwing on a plastic bottle and pulling a lever. You then add your syrup of choice and hey presto, 1l of fizzy goodness. A 500ml bottle of syrup costs around £3.49 and makes 12 litres, so the savings that can be made on even supermarket own label soft drinks are pretty good.

Aside from fiscally, SodaStream also makes sense environmentally. The bottle used in the machine is reusable, so instead of piling up mountains of empty 2 litre bottles and throwing away drinks cans that we intended to recycle but just never got round to, the SodaStream has reduced the amount of rubbish we create, which can’t be a bad thing.

My main concern about SodaStream was the flavours. When it comes to soft drinks I’m a label whore, supermarket brands are not an option. First time around I remember SodaStream having name brand flavours like Vimto, Tizer and Irn Bru, now it’s all made in house. I needn’t have really worried, the fruit flavours are great and there’s a surprisingly large range of other drinks, clear flavoured waters, natural options and even energy drinks (I found the Red Bull-esque Xstream particularly good). I’m not going to lie though, for me the cola flavours don’t stack up to the name brand equivalents. We started with a sample pack which let us try without buying a full bottle of the syrups. The root beer in particular was a huge success. We’re all root beer fans in our house and as it’s generally imported into the UK it tends to be expensive. £3.49 for 12 litres with SodaStream is a bargain. It’s not hard to find the syrups either. We’ve bought some in both Tesco and Asda, as well as ordering from the full selection on the SodaStream website.

I think the main reason my parents were anti-SodaStream in the eighties was that they were worried that it somewhat relied on a novelty factor, that we’d all be excited to make our own fizzy drink once or twice and then we’d put it in the back of a cupboard and forget about it. So far that’s not been a problem for it: three months on it’s still in the kitchen and we still use it, both for knocking together soft drinks and soda water. In fact we like it so much that I’m pretty sure that it’s a permanent feature.

The SodaStream Drinks Makers are available to buy at most major grocery stores or online via the SodaStream online store starting from £55.99.

The fabulous people at SodaStream are giving you the chance to win a SodaStream Drinks Maker! If you live in the UK leave a blog comment and follow the Rafflecopter instructions to enter.  Competition ends Friday, January 11th at 4am (see widget for hours remaining). See Rafflecopter widget for full Terms and Conditions.
GOOD LUCK! Competition CLOSED.

a Rafflecopter giveaway
Transatlantic Blonde was provided a SodaStream Drinks Maker for review and one for a prize but all opinions and stories are our own. I don't know about yours but my husband only does and says things he wants to say!

Vax Rapide Ultra Carpet Cleaner

I don’t  think anyone would be likely to call us house proud. Don’t get me wrong, our house isn’t dirty but despite being less than three years old we’ve managed to build up an impressive level of scuffing, staining and general baby/ toddler/ dog related dirty marks on our house, which somehow we never get round to finding the time or the inclination to fix. Our carpets are no different. A potty training toddler, a mucky dog and an amazing propensity to spill red wine, Irn Bru or pretty much any beverage which stains will take their toll on carpets in a relatively small time, particularly if the carpets in question are a rather fetching light beige colour.

As far as I was aware, carpet cleaners were giant industrial units that you rent and then spend a full weekend wrestling with in a vain attempt to rejuvenate your tired floors. Even when we got the opportunity to review the VAX Rapide Ultra 2 carpet cleaner, I was sceptical. I assumed that that a cleaner which you could purchase and keep in the home wouldn’t get the results you would get from an industrial type cleaner and I was sure shampooing carpets would be a huge amount of effort. Balancing a little boy who loves attention, work and general household chores takes up most of our time, spending what little free time we get shampooing our carpets is not my idea of good fun.

In actual fact cleaning carpets with the Rapide Ultra 2 is no more effort than hoovering. The unit looks like a bagless vacuum. It comes with a spray wand which you use to pre-treat the carpets: think watering a lawn but indoors. A general spray of the solution, plus extra on any heavily stained areas took us a few minutes. After leaving for 15 minutes you can use the unit itself much in the same way you use a hoover. There’s a trigger on the handle, when you pull this down the VAX is putting cleaning solution on the carpet, take your finger off and its sucking up all the water and dirt and grime which comes with it. It was really easy to get the hang of: trigger down while you push the VAX away, washing the carpet, trigger off when you bring it back to you sucking up all the mess. It really was as quick and as easy as running a vacuum over the carpets. One look at the reservoir which collects the dirty liquid and you can tell that it’s working. Depite our carpets not looking *that* bad, they produced and impressive dark brown liquid which had more than a passing resemblance to Coca Cola. Impressive but a little gross to think of all that grime sitting in your carpets.

The results surprised me too. The carpets looked noticeably brighter all over and the more heavily stained areas faded after one use and were gone after two. Spilled Coke and Irn Bru weren’t a problem, neither were muddy dog’s paw prints or little marks left by a toddler who didn’t quite make the toilet in time. We first used the VAX a few months ago and we’ve busted it out a couple of times a month since then, since it’s so quick and easy. The carpets look as good as they have since they were brand new, now we just need to find a magic machine for peanut butter stains on our couches and crayon marks on the walls. We live in hope anyway…

The Rapide Ultra 2 comes with a 2 year guaruntee and retails for £299.99.

Transatlantic Blonde was provided this product for review but all opinions are our own. You should know by now we only speak the truth!

What I Wore Wednesday: NotBlondeHusband's birthday

Last week was NotBlondeHusband's birthday! The lucky birthday boy got two dinners out but I of course forgot to take a picture on his first night but I did manage to get him to take a photo on his actual birthday before we went to Scott's in Troon. If you've not been before and you are in Ayrshire I totally recommend it as it has amazing views of the harbour.

I'm still in a bit of a funk so I focused more on my hair than anything else and attempted to try and make it something other than just straight and hanging there. The last time I used my curling tong I gave myself a nasty burn on my eyebrow so I'm pretty happy I ended up with sorta cute hair and no major injuries this time!

Ruffled Black Top- HM
The Flirt Jeans-Old Navy
Swarovski Tennis Bracelet
Black Sparkly Flats-Chinese Laundry

I've always really liked Holly Madison and Bridget Marquardt's hair where it is loosely curled at the ends so this is my vague attempt at that. Not perfect but not that bad!  I normally complain that NBH will only take one photo of me each week; well this week he went all paparazzi on me and the result is what you see below.

We had a really nice dinner out (a new Cars magazine, colour changing Ramón and iPhone apps thanks for entertaining Blondie Boy) and the birthday boy was even treated to a sparkling fountain in his Baked Alaska! I'm not sure which boy enjoyed it most!

Three words for Valentine's Day

Best Husband Ever

What I Wore Wednesday: Family Photos

So technically I am cheating because I wore this in October but I've only got the photos back this week so in my mind that counts! This week's outfit is three for the price of one! It is what we wore for our family photos when we were home in Ohio.


The ridiculously talented Geri Ciulla took our photos and I couldn't have been happier with how they turned out. I don't think you should get professional photos taken without professional make-up (trust me on this one) so the fabulous Mollie from Brideface gave me that defined eye I love so much without making me look like I just tripped off the Rock of Love Bus. Blondie Boy and NotBlondeHusband are gorgeous as is so they just rolled out of bed and turned up.


The photos were taken in Eden Park, one of Cincinnati's many stunning public parks, which overlooks the Cincinnati River, Kentucky and part of the Cincinnati skyline. It was a fabulous location for photos and I'm so glad Geri suggested it! Now on to the clothes!

NotBlondeHusband:

Pink Polo: Ralph Lauren

Black Trousers: Nautica

Brown Shoes: Sketchers

Blondie Boy:

Grey Cable Knit Crew Sweater: Next

Jeans: The Gap

Black High Top Sneakers: Converse

Kilt: Bare Knees

Blondie:

Black Feather Earrings- Monsoon

Black Ribbed Zipper Dress- M&Co

Black Leather Biker Jacket- John Lewis (Oasis Concession)

Purple Tights- Tesco

Black Boots- Sketchers

I listed kilt but Blondie Boy isn't wearing one you say? Hell yes he had a wardrobe change!

A teeny, tiny sporan? I die. Here are a few of the other photos from that day Geri has so kindly shared but I can tell you there were SO many more amazing ones! I think we did a good job of matching without being too matchy-matchy?

NotBlondeHusband's 99 Problems

(because Blogger does't make it clear until the bottom, this was written by NBH)


On a recent trip "down South" I found myself, to absolutely nobody's surprise, in a bar. In an other unsurprising twist the men gathered at the bar early on while the ladies crammed the dance floor.


The music was good, late 90s/ early 00s dance and R&B but I found myself thinking about the language in music when Jay-Z's 99 problems came on. Don't get me wrong, it's a nailer of a track and I definitely wouldn't expect the women present to leave the dancefloor in protest but I did raise an eyebrow watching twenty or thirty twenty to thirty year old women chanting they had "ninety-nine problems but a bitch ain't one".


It would be easy to criticise the language used by rappers, probably too easy. It can often be sexist and demeaning. But for me, worse than the fact that Jay-Z apparently thinks it's acceptable to characterise women as bitches, is the fact that women think it's O.K. for men to talk about them that way. In fact, it's not just acceptable, it's repeatable.


I find it hard to picture men allowing themselves to be stereotyped in such a way. I've got 99 problems but an arsehole isn't one? I've got 99 problems but a macho-man shit with a small prick isn't one? I don't think it would A) be published or B) be accepted by men.


The language men often use about women is problematic. Does a young man thinking it's acceptable to call all women bitches make that young man more likely to rape or otherwise harm women? I'm not sure. Does a young man thinking it's acceptable to call all women bitches lead that young man to objectify women? Certainly and that can certainly lead to far more serious problems.


As an English and journalism major, it's probably not surprising that I believe strongly in the power of words. I try to use words to make people feel good about themselves and others, to quell violence and to avoid sexism, sectarianism and racism but words can hurt; they can incite violence and instigate all of the things that are terrible about society. When people choose to use hurtful, demeaning words you should be free to tell them they are just that, whether it's some arsehole in a bar or whether it's a multi-platinum selling musical genius. If you choose to ignore, or worse condone, this language, then you can't be surprised when they use it again, or when someone else uses the same language, or when the language incites behaviour in them that causes negative action.


So I while I wasn't surprised that people out to have a good night didn't leave the dance floor, I would have preferred they hadn't chosen to join in. I know I didn't.


Objecting to negative language, whether about yourself or others, whether sexist or racist, isn't about being a killjoy or being militant about political correctness, it's about pride and self worth. The language you choose to use about yourself defines you and the way others see you. Don't sell yourself short.

A girl walks into a bar with her Mom...

Eight years ago today I met NotBlondeHusband. People often ask how we met, how I became and expat so for those who don't already know here, in all it's glory, is how we met. It's much better told in person with my Mom butting in every two seconds to give her version but this will have to suffice.

I was interning in Washington DC at Choice USA in the summer of 2003 when my Mom and sister came to visit for a weekend.  One night my Mom and I went out for a drink and decided to go to Georgetown, but my Mom didn't want to walk far because she had on high heels, so we went to what I thought was the first "acceptable" bar on M Street, Garrett's. Anyone who's lived in NW DC will know what I'm talking about; there are bars before full of old coke heads and after Garrett's M Street begins to incline steeply so not ideal for hoofing it in heels.

When we walked in I noticed a cute guy and two friends sitting at the bar, normally I'd have headed to the upstairs bar, but I sat downstairs instead. I went to sit next to said guy, but my Mom insisted she didn't want to sit on the corner and plopped down next to the hottie in a Barcelona strip.

Not one to be deterred, after striking up conversation about their gold Elvis sunglasses (no matter how much my Mom tries to tell you she picked them up) NotBlondeHusband, the cute guy, and I got to talking and when my Mom went to the bathroom I took her seat next to him. Several Jaeger shots, discussions of hetero-life mates and ditching of my Mom and my friend I'd called in for back up later and I was hooked.


He was over on vacation with his two friends and for the remaining 4 days of his trip we spent every day together hanging out and getting to know each other. That's the good thing about working in a small female only office; when true love snogs you while your Mom's back is turned they let you have a few days off.

We visited back and forth across the Atlantic for 9 months and then NotBlondeHusband moved to live with me in DC for the summer of 2004 and that September I moved over to Glasgow with him.

I remember being really upset when he left and one of the Directors at my office said "you are going to marry him and have beautiful babies one day." Now this was a feminist organization so she wasn't just babbling. That being said I don't think I knew just then just how right she was.

3 Years Of Wedded This, I Mean Bliss :)

But long as there are stars above you
You never need to doubt it
I'll make you so sure about it
God only knows what I'd be without you 

All images © White Imagery

Silent Sunday

Things I "learned" on Holiday

-I can live without regular internet, but I don't want to live without regular internet access. I like not being on the laptop but I missed talking to my friends and family and knowing what's going on in the world. There has to be a happy medium between too much and none.


-I don't really like wine. Sure it tastes nice sometimes but I'm never going to be that person who tweets about how they can't wait to get home to a glass of wine or who sniffs corks and all that. 


-When it's toddler skull versus adult face, face will always lose. A headbutt to the nose (which left me vaguely concussed) left my nose swollen for two days and then Blondie Boy tripped on NBH and landed noggin first on my cheekbone. Cheek is just now starting to be less tender. I can only foresee more child inflicted injuries in the future since the two of us are both accident prone and he's a wild ass.


-I not as much of a fat ass as I think I am. I'm not skinny but I'm not as big as I think I am in my head.

-I've got an amazing husband. I still can't believe he found sunglasses for my birthday based on me saying I tried on awesome "diamanté Karen Millen shades" at Manchester airport. He got the EXACT ones I wanted and that's just the tip of his awesomeness.


-It must be so frustrating to be Blondie Boy and only have some words and signs to communicate what he is thinking. My French is appalling and while I could ask for baguettes and pastries at the boulangerie and ask if something had egg in it, that was about it. It was really frustrating knowing that I couldn't communicate exactly what I wanted to say.


-I really want to move some place someday with proper summers. When I lived in the US I always wanted to live somewhere with an outdoor pool; I used to sneak into the apartment complex next to mine and layout at their pool. Having our own pool at the villa just reignited my desire to have a pool and to do so we are going to have to move some place warmer. I was a major pool rat growing up and Blondie Boy loves the water as well. Indoor pools are nice, but nothing beats swimming in the sunshine.

-I've got amazing inlaws. NotBlondeHusband and I were able to spend time in the pool together as my mother-in-law would take Blondie Boy when he'd had enough and dry/shower/dress him. Having BB's Grandma, Auntie Katie and John around to help play with or sit in the house while he slept was amazing. I can't imagine what a vacation just the three of us would have been like.