Spices, meat, rice! To me that’s the basics of comfort food you’ve got spice for flavour, meat more flavour and texture and then the flavour carrier, in this case rice. It’s a combination that fills you with excitement and nostalgia! Smell brings up memories better than all other senses, so when you smell something, you can often easily place where you last smelt it. This meal smells like home! My mum is a great cook, and Middle Eastern cuisine was something she was very good at and we all loved. Even to the point where specific brands became a must. So now I give you a spice-y (not spicy) meal for the whole family (my one year old spent about an hour eating this joyfully).

Ingredients (Serves 4): 

1/3 Cup Olive Oil
600g of diced Lamb – I get a roast piece and cut it myself, I’m pretty good at this, you can practice, but you don’t have to, feel free to use something easier, even leftover roast lamb that isn’t heavily seasoned.
1 Cup of Basmati – The best rice ever.
1 3/4 Cups Chicken Stock
2 Bay Leaves
3 Cloves Garlic
1 Large Onion Finely Diced
3 Tsp Cumin
3 Tsp Curry Powder
1/2 Cup of Sultanas
1/3 Cup chopped Parsley
1/3 Cup chopped Mint
1/4 Cup Lemon Juice

Optional, but are they? 🙂 You’ll thank me if you splurge: Dollops of Greek Yoghurt, 80g Pistachios, Pomegranate Arils, 200g Feta – crumbly stuff.

Method:

In a bowl toss lamb in half of the oil and half of the cumin and curry powder.

Heat a large pan to medium heat add half , toss in onion and garlic, cook until softened and lightly browned.

Add rice, bay leaves and half of both the cumin and curry powder. Stir to coat grains of rice.

Pour in stock, reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Leave for covered for 12-15 minutes or until rice has absorbed all liquid. Remove from heat and stand for 10 mins. Stir with a fork to fluff it up.

Heat another pan to a high heat. Add lamb that has been marinating. If reheating pre cooked lamb, cook for about 2 mins. If cooking from raw go for about 5-7 until it’s brown with some char on it, but still tender and pink in the centre.

In the last 2 minutes add sultanas, this just opens them a little and gets the sweetness of them through the dish.

Add meat mixture to a large bowl, add rice, mint, parsley and nuts. Toss through with lemon juice.

Serve with generous amounts of yoghurt, feta and/or pomegranate arils.

Enjoy, and then post your feedback! Love hearing what you think ’bout me tucker.