Spicy lamb kebabs

Spicy lamb kebabs, tomato salsa, cucumber raita and salad...all served up with a warmed tortilla.

I started off by making the salsa and raita this afternoon as both need time in the fridge for the flavours to meld.

For the salsa I skinned, de-seeded and then finely chopped three largish tomatoes.  Into a large bowl with a red onion, a couple of cloves of garlic, a red chilli and a handful of fresh coriander; all finely chopped.  A good lug of olive oil and the juice of a lime, a decent pich of sea salt and a healthy grind of black pepper.  All mixed together, covered in cling film and popped in the fridge until ready to serve.

For the raita I used half a cucumber which I peeled, took out the watery middle and then finely diced.  Into a bowl with a couple of teaspoons of chopped mint, a pinch (or more to taste) of ground cumin, some sea salt and enough natural yoghurt to make a nice loose mixture.  All stirred, clingfilmed and bunged in the fridge with the salsa.

I also made the kebabs earlier so they had time to chill prior to cooking.  For these I used 500g of lamb mince and, more or less, the same sort of ingredients as the salsa.  I finely chopped and then sweated in a little vegetable oil a small red onion, a couple of cloves of garlic and a red chilli.  Once soft this was set aside to cool.  Into a large bowl went the mince, onion mix, a teaspoon each of ground cumin and ground coriander seed, a handful of chopped fresh coriander, sea salt, black pepper and an egg yolk courtesy of the girls...it was a five egg Friday today so they're all pulling their weight!  All well mixed together using nature's fleshy spoons and then formed into small balls.  I got eight from this amount of mince.  Clingfilmed and in the fridge.

We like our lamb pink so, when ready to cook, I took the meatballs out of the fridge, flattened them slightly into a thick burger shape (ok so it's lamb burgers but kebabs sounds posher!), fried them for about a minute on one side in a little vegetable oil, turned them over and popped them into a pre-heated 180* oven for about five minutes.  Out of the oven and onto kitchen roll to get rid of the excess grease.

Served on a tortilla (or in - it's your dinner!) with the salsa, raita, some sliced tomatoes dressed in good olive oil, sea salt, black pepper and some chopped thyme from the garden and a bit of salad.

We had two each, Sam pinched on on his way out and I polished off two more.  One left in the fridge for the Rock Chick if she gets the munchies later on. 

These are great on the barbie as well...if we actually get any sun that is!