Increasingly lately, my 15 minute meals seem to be coinciding with running - at some point I may have to do some kind of analysis to see if there is any correlation between distance run and the score that Lolz gives me. Today's run was particularly arduous as I nearly got run over by an Audi pulling out of a driveway. I also encountered more fast runners than normal and so, desperate as always not to be overtaken, my pace was a little quicker than normal. So any effect that running has on my cooking skills was likely to be exacerbated today.
There was no real rhyme or reason for picking todays dish. I've neglected lamb a bit as I've been waiting for it to come into season, but, having landed on this page in the book almost at random, and with winter seemingly never ending, I thought I'd give it a go. No ingredients problems this time either - I was a bit concerned when I couldn't find any bargainous saffron in the Lebanese supermarket, but the guy behind the counter cheerfully whipped out a huge box from under the counter like it was some kind of contraband and handed me a fairly large pot of saffron for just £1.99!
The cooking of the dish passed without incident. One thing that I've come to notice is that in the TV show, Jamie always seems to use far larger quantities of spices and seasonings than it says in the book. A "pinch" is always more like a teaspoon, and a teaspoon is always a heaped teaspoon. With this in mind I didn't scrimp on the garam masala - and really got stuck in in ensuring it was well mixed with the mince. The side salad, meanwhile, once again felt like a bit of an after thought and so we replaced some of the ingredients with those that came in this weeks veg box, and we replaced the tortillas with flatbreads.
It all comes together very nicely. The idea is that the meatballs, sauce and salad all get folded up in the flatbread into a kind of wrap and although it was a bit messy, the crunchy freshness of the salad with the zingy dressing goes really nicely with the deep, rich North African flavours of the meatballs and sauce. Definitely up there with the best so far.
Lolz gave the dish 9/10. Difficulty rating 4/10 - have to watch a couple of pots for burnage.
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