Jul 25 2008
Skewered!
You might think that one of the aims of any flatwarming party we might have had would have been to get through more recipes. In fact, I managed only one.
- Juicy Beef Skewers with Horseradish Dip
In my mind this was sort of two recipes, as the preamble to the instructions contains an alternative route, using lamb instead of beef, and I made both.
I got 1 kilo of rump steak and 1 kilo of leg of lamb from Ian Proudfoot, the butchers near my work. They offered to dice it for me and I agreed, asking for largeish dice. The recipe actually called for 2.5cm dice and most of the bits provided were a bit on the big side- next time I will either know my requirements or do it myself!
The meat marinaded overnight: the beef in garlic oil, red wine vinegar, horseradish cream, rosemary and port; the lamb much the same but with cumin instead of horseradish.
On the day of the party I threaded these onto skewered and griddled them. Nigella called for bamboo skewers, pre-soaked in water; mine were FSC certified wood and specifically indicated that they ought not to be soaked. I was therefore not best impressed when they started burning and falling to bits where they contacted the edge of the griddle pan. It is a tiny wee pan, not best for cooking a large vol of meat (I’d thought about borrowing my parents’ big griddle but never got around to asking) so perhaps it was never going to work out well. It did mean some of the meat was on elegant long skewers whilst some was on stubby short bits!
The dip for the beef comprised crème fraîche, horseradish cream, chives and lemon juice and was yummy and fairly popular. The dip for the lamb was hummous, greek yog, olive oil and a scattering of those damned pomegranate seeds which put all my eaters off. Shame. Whilst I was worried about the kitchen being full of smoke when my guests arrived, the extractor seemed to work well (either that or the open window did) and I (and the kitchen) survived unscathed.
