Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Stir Fried Lamb with Baby Onions and Peppers

THE tallest man in the world is now 30 - which is surprising really because the way he used to jump around the office playing pattacake with the girls I always assumed he was between 6 and 10. Still, it was a good night out on Saturday for Shuttsy's big bash in the Copa. I toddled up there with Paps, Wren and Jarhead (the p*ss artist formerly known as Roberts and The Fugitive) where we then met up with Wathanovski and the teacher, the Prince of Darkness and the wonderful Withers of WoS.
It was a good, relatively sober night until the Prince noticed that the bloke next to him at the bar had ordered a tray of Sambuccas - then it was all hell let loose. Well, not too bad but certain members of our clan certainly felt the affects of the aniseed flavoured shots more than others.
Shutts himself was off to the Prince's favourite club, Six Feet Under, and it wasn't long before the Prince himself, his cuffs flowing in the breeze like some Dickensian character out of David Copperfield, followed suit.
Meanwhile, Wathanovski was dragged off to catch the last train and the remnants of us ended up in the new old O'Neills. There was some decent music going on and the wonderful one was certainly taken by it. He was swaying away to the hip tunes until we realised that he was still swaying when the music stopped. Uh oh, tooth-smashing time!
He kept telling Paps "Am goona fixsh you oop wisha luvvly grill..." pointing at some elephant shaped beauty on the dancefloor. Paps, needless to say, wasn't too impressed. Then the Wonderful One wanted to impress the clientele in Six Feet Under but I had other ideas, on the basis that we were getting fitted for wedding suits on Sunday morning. So as Jarhead went off clubbing, Wren, Paps and I poured our inebriated friend into the back of the taxi and deposited him at his door.

Next day my pal "I can do it, I'll B&Q it" (his name has changed from Gareth the Builder since he went on the straight and narrow and gave up trying to be a self-employed layabout) walked into town where a glazed looking best man was there to greet us. But there was one person missing, my other usher Jarhead. The text arrived soon afterwards "Sorry mate, overslept. Late one last night."
Still, eventually he turned up and a very bossy young lady (fair play she had to be with the state we were in) measured us up for our wedding finery in Slater Bros. A job that would normally take about 30 minutes was closer to an hour as I had to debate the vagueries of which pink my tie was supposed to be. "I think its dusty pink, but god knows what that looks like" I told the patient attendant.
Anyway, the job was finally done and as the Wonderful One disappeared off to news edit the Eggo (relaunch day, an important one really to put an empty headed, recovering drunk in control of I would have thought) Jarhead, Mr B&Q it and I retired to the boozer for a relaxing few pints and Sunday lunch. Not a bad weekend really.

Made a nice little lamb dish the other day so without further ado here it goes...

INGREDIENTS:
8oz lean lamb, cut into strips
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tbsp tomato puree
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp oil
8 baby onions
1/2tsp onion seeds
4 curry leaves
1 1/4 cups water
1 small red pepper
1 small green pepper
1 tbsp fresh coriander
1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

TO DO:
Mix lamb with cumin, coriander, puree, chilli salt and lemon juice. Set aside.
Heat wok and stir fry whole baby onions for three minutes.
Scoop out with a slotted spoon.
Reheat oil and stir fry onion seeds and curry leaves for 2-3 minutes.
Add lamb and spice and stir fry for five minutes, add water, lower heat and cook for 10 minutes until lamb is cooked through.
Add peppers, half the coriander and mint, stir fry for two minutes.
Return baby onions to the wok, heat through, sprinkle over remainder of coriander and mint and serve with brown rice.

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