Leftover roast lamb - Jamie to the rescue

"Lamb leftovers are slightly trickier to use up than beef or chicken. The meat is very fatty, which makes it unctuous and flavoursome when hot, but too greasy to nibble as a cold snack or use in sandwiches and salads." Henry Dimbleby

So fry it - as shown here by Jamie. And I will come to that.

Last night we had roast lamb which used up the leftover mint chutney from Sunday's Indian feast. I basically just slathered it all over the lamb and the potatoes, with a little extra oil, leaving a bit behind with some of the water from the par-boiled potatoes, to be used for the gravy. But, of course there are only two of us, and although it was just a small half leg, there is still a lot of meat left. Too much for the inevitable shepherd's pie, so I had to think about what else I could do with it.

First stop was, of course, Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall, and his book Love Your Leftovers, who had various suggestions - the most tempting of which for me at the time were some lamb and onion bhajis - but this is not a meal. Lancashire hot pot, was just a bit too similar to the promised shepherd's pie and I didn't fancy curry, or couscous or salad. I'm with Henry Dimbleby on cold roast lamb.

So I looked a little further online and found that lots of people thought pilaf and biriyani were good ideas but I didn't feel like that either. The fat soaks into the rice and makes it flavoursome apparently.

Of course I had already considered things like pies and stir-fries, but was feeling like finding something new, so I turned to the net and the very first thing I found, is what I'm going to make - these Leftover lamb flatbreads which Jamie Oliver demonstrated in a 5 minute Facebook video - almost in real time in fact. I reckon it might take you 10 minutes rather than the 5 it takes online. Because there wasn't a lot of extra time-taking stuff that wasn't shown - maybe a bit longer in the actual cooking.

I was also so impressed, not just by the simplicity of it all, and the very quick time, but also by the way he shows you little tricks along the way. Here are some of them.

The flatbread - he used a shallow ceramic dish - or a plate with a high side in which he mixed the dough with a fork. Which is almost brilliant - I have seen him do it on the bench itself, and have tried that, but when I do it the water runs everywhere. Doing it in a shallow dish or on a plate with curved sides prevents that. A bowl is good too of course, but a dish is better I think. More room to wave your hands around. Self-raising flour too, so no waiting for a yeast dough to rise.

Then we move on to the slaw and an actual demonstration of him grating his vegetables, but also an implied little bit of suggestion from the bowl from which he selects his veggies for this particular occasion, of what you could use.

As he says, it looks gorgeous - and no painstaking julienning of vegetables by hand, or dangerous use of a manndoline. Not that you can't grate your fingers on a box grater if you're not careful, but then he didn't grate anything down to the last piece of the vegetable in his hand.

Grating done you sprinkle the veggies with lemon juice, salt and pepper and perhaps a dash of olive oil but you don't mix it up.

While you're doing this your frying pan is heating up, so that by the time you've finished preparing the slaw ingredients, the pan is hot.

Then you roll out your dough, before plonking it in your hot pan. Cook your bread on one side - obviously this process was cut a little short in the video, but it doesn't take long to cook a flatbread - he said another 30 seconds, having used up about 30 already. And so far, everything else has been done in real time. And while the bread was cooking he chopped up his meat - any old how. I have to say his meat was a bit pinker than mine, so my lamb may not be so succulent.

The bread was turned and then the meat was dressed with some ground coriander - I think I might use Ottolenghi's expensive Sweet and Smoky spice mix, some dried oregano, lemon zest, a sprinkle of olive oil, and salt and pepper. Obviously this is where you can play with the herbs and spices. By now the other side of the bread was cooked, taken out and set aside.

Which is when the lamb is thrown into the pan and tossed around with some lemon juice and a teaspoon or so of honey. We did not see how long it took to get the lamb looking like this, but it would not have been very long.

And then came his next trick. When the lamb was cooked to his satisfaction he plonked the bread on top, pressed down on it and rubbed it around the pan briefly, before quickly turning the pan over as he dumped the lot on his serving board. It was actually quite reassuring to see some of the lamb falling around a bit on the board, and not the bread. But quickly rescued.

Now the slaw was tossed with its dressing, scattered over the top of the meat and then scattered with more of the spice, a dollop or two of yoghurt, a few mint leaves, and some chilli sauce. Well whatever you want really. Roll it up, slice it and roll it, or just eat it with a knife and fork like a pizza. Your choice. Dinner anyway. And yes, I'm going to give it a go. I think one the size he demonstrated would be enough for two. I shall cut it in half and let each of decide what to do with it then.

Re the frying of the pieces of lamb, I also found a useful basic template from Henry Dimbleby and Jane Baxter in The Guardian:

"Just fry the pieces in a pan (you probably won't need to add any oil), so that they go crispy at the edges. Toss in some finely chopped garlic a couple of minutes before you take it off the heat, and finish it off with a large handful of chopped green herbs (mint, parsley or coriander all work well) and a good squeeze of lemon juice. This recipe works really well as a pasta topping, or as a salad on the side, perhaps poured over green beans. To make it more substantial, fry some cubed aubergines in the pan before you add the lamb. Then add tomato sauce, fresh mint and some crumbled goat's cheese."

Herbs, spices, sauces- even the gravy from your leftover roast can be added. Or turn it into a stir fry with some other things like spring onions and peppers.

Jamie also had a few other suggestions - Leftover lamb recipes, some of which were a variation of recipes that were originally for raw lamb. Here are some of them.

Lamb and chickpea hand pies Jamie tells: us that you can:

"Adapt this recipe by finely chopping your leftover roast lamb and adding it to the pan at step 3. Pour over the tinned tomatoes immediately, then continue with the recipe as written. Made with turmeric pastry and Moroccan spices, this recipe is just as brilliant when made using already-cooked lamb."

But of course, you can also use it as a template for adding your own spices, sauces, veggies, and so on. Or else instead of small pies, you could make one big one.

Like a Lamb and cheese pie although a very English looking pie to me, he seems to think it's Greek inspired, and I was actually quite tempted, but the pastry is a yeast dough, and I just can't be bothered. The original recipe uses raw lamb, but he tells you how to adapt and simplify:

"Fry up your leftover lamb with fragrant herbs, spices and greens to create this Greek-inspired pie that’s bursting with flavour. It’s the perfect dish to put a twist on a classic lamb dinner to keep your meals varied and exciting, plus you can make it even easier by swapping in shop-bought pastry, rather than making it from scratch."

Then there were two others that appealed Leftover lamb cigars - a very brief Instagram video, but not suitable for dinner as they are really a nibble kind of thing, the major advantage being that the leftover gravy comes in useful as well; and Lovely lamb hotpots for which you just substitute your leftover lamb for the raw kind. However it did include an ingredient that I am sure you can't get here, and which is somewhat mysterious - umami paste. I mean what is that? They look good however, although similar in concept to Shepherd's pie I suppose.

So thank you Jamie. Watching his little videos and his enthusiastic, over the top I suppose, but informative and helpful little commentary, I wondered yet again, and with some frustration, why people don't cook for themselves. Why do they order stuff from Uber Eats, or buy processed foods from the supermarket? I mean it's not difficult, and it's not expensive. All you need are your leftover meat, a few vegetables and herbs, a bit of olive oil, lemons, flour and water - a box grater and a frying pan. Oh and a knife to cut the lamb.

I'll see how long it takes me - I'm guessing around a quarter of an hour tops, by the time I have assembled my ingredients, and done a bit of peeling - because for me I think the slaw will be carrot, red onion, broccolini and cucumber, so the broccolini stalks will need peeling, as will the onion and carrot. The rest of it will be more or less as quick as Jamie's demonstration. And I have no chilli sauce. Maybe a bit of chutney? David wouldn't like chilli sauce anyway. For me though perhaps this is the chance to use that expensive crispy chilli oil.

I really want to test out whether it is indeed as it easy as Jamie made it seem. Will let you know.

YEARS GONE BY

August 22

2024 - A Google doodle - rendang

2023 - Fiddling around with THE cake

2022 - Samosas and/or bhajias for Zoe

2021 - Nothing

2020 - Missing

2019 - Burrata and food fads - a sort of 'a word from ...'

2018 - Unshapely potatoes and other potato wastage

2017 - Nothing

2016 - When is a sardine a sardine?