If you thought Scotch lamb was just for Sunday dinner then think again. A recently held Scotch Lamb Street Festival in Glasgow showed just how easily different cuts of lamb can be cooked and how well it works with different cuisines. With an invitation from Scotch Lamb I was keen to find out just what the city’s street food chefs would be cooking and headed along with the hungry food loving Gillon boys in tow. These boys love their food and when it comes to good street food hot and spicy is what they look for.
The food was organised by Glasgow’s popular and successful Street Food Cartel and like all their events this was top notch street food with a difference. First thoughts on the combination of lamb and street food might conjure up thoughts of the ubiquitous donner kebab, but, I’m glad to tell you that these guys did so much more with Scotch lamb and produced some outstanding food. With influences from around the world, Moroccan, Mexican, Italian and Thai, the boys were happy to eat their way around the festival.
Some of the delicious street food served up at the Scotch Lamb Street Festival. Pics by Food and Drink Glasgow
Scoop in their well known Silver Bullet served up a favourite of mine (pic top left), braised neck fillet of lamb, ras el hanout with pomegranate and sultana couscous. I love these Moroccan flavours and having visited the country recently this was a really well flavoured authentic dish. I also liked the use of neck fillet in this dish as it’s a cut that’s very often overlooked by shoppers. Maybe one to try next time you’re buying Scotch lamb.
Pad BKK served a lamb massaman curry with jasmin rice, prawn crackers, crispy shallots, peanuts and herbs (botton left) and this was another crowd pleaser. The lamb worked really well with the Thai flavours and overall it was super tasty sweet and spicy dish.
So La Ti Dough, the sister company of Scoop treated us to lamb shoulder, slow roasted in the wood fired oven, with vine tomatoes, rosemary and garlic (pic bottom right). This was such a delicately flavoured dish and didn’t overpower the sweetness of the lamb. The thick slices of lamb were served on focaccia, making this a really hearty and filling dish.
The final dish was Mexican inspired and was served up by Antojito Cantina. Being lovers of chillies and Mexican food the boys made straight for this and were not disappointed. The Barbacoa lamb served in soft taco’s with sour cream, guacamole and pico de gallo ticked the spicy box for them. I cook Mexican food regularly and this was another great example of being creative with lamb, breaking away from the usual chicken, fish and beef as the main ingredient.
2014 Scotland Food and Drink Ambassador and chef patron of The Sisters Restaurant, Glasgow, Jacqueline O’Donnell, was in charge of the food demonstrations and as usual Jacqueline’s very relaxed style made it easy to see how the food she was cooking was something you could do at home. If you’ve seen Jacqueline in action before, you’ll agree that she’s one of the best when it comes to cooking with Scottish produce, and her Scotch lamb dishes were no exception. Her demos are always more than just cooking up a recipe; she always gives lots of tips on cooking meat, how to get the best flavour and what cuts to ask your butcher for. Jacqueline’s three dishes used different cuts of lamb, loin, shoulder and mince, and each one showed how incredibly quick and easy it is to to produce great family meals with Scotch lamb. I loved all three and I’ve included her ideal street food food recipe, sizzling lamb kofta for you try at home. I’ll add Jacqueline’s other Scotch Lamb recipes in the near future.
Chef Jacqueline O’Donnell
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These sizzling lamb koftas are a joy - as soon as they come off the grill they are rolled in smashed nuts and spices, before being wrapped up with pickles and crunchy veg in a soft tortilla. They're super simple to make, filling, and in various ways have been the ultimate street food for hundreds of years.
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- 1/4 red cabbage very finely sliced
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- 1 tbsp caster sugar
- 50 g shelled pistchachios
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1/2 iceberg lettuce sliced
- 50 g stale bread
- 400 g minced Scotch lamb
- sweet chilli sauce
- 4 small tortillas
- 8 radishes
- Fat free natural yoghurt to serve
- Add the very finely sliced cabbage to a bowl along with the vinegar, sugar and a pinch of salt and pepper. Gently scrunch with your hands and set aside.
- Blitz the pistachios and fennel seeds in a food processor until fairly fine, sprinkle over a chopping board and set aside.
- In a food processor, blitz the bread into breadcrumbs and add to a bowl with the minced lamb. Season well and mix together. Divide the mixture into 4 pieces and mould each into a sausage shape. If cooking on a BBQ, mould each kofta around a wooden skewer that's been soaked in water.
- Heat a griddle pan on a high heat and when hot add the koftas and cook to your liking, ensuring that they are cooked all the way through. Remove from the heat, brush with chilli sauce, then simply roll in the nuts and spices until well coated.
- Briefly warm each tortilla on the griddle (give it a quick wipe first), then add the lettuce, a kofta, radishes and a dollop of yoghurt. Squeeze the excess salty liquid from the pickled cabbage and add a small handful of cabbage to each tortilla and serve.
With so many different cuts of lamb, it’s good to have some knowledge of what to ask your butcher for and to know what works well with a particular recipe. The Scotch Lamb Club Butcher on hand was the very person to ask and along with his demonstrations there helpful advice on what to look for and how to choose different cuts. A butchery lesson also gave some of my fellow bloggers the opportunity to get hands and learn how to butcher and bone a leg of lamb.
Butchery demo
Even watching the lesson was helpful and I’m sure with a sharp knife I’ll feel more confident if I ever have to trim and bone a leg of lamb.
Many thanks to Scotch Lamb for inviting us to the street food festival and the Street Food Cartel for such great food. If you would like to find out more about cooking with Scotch Lamb, check out Quality Meat Scotland’s Scotch Beef and Lamb, Scotch Kitchen where you’ll find videos, recipes and free recipe booklets to help you cook with different cuts of lamb.
Scotch Lamb is among the best in the world and has been awarded PGI (Protected Geographical Indication) and only farms and sheep that meet the stringent standards laid down by Quality Meat Scotland are eligible be called Scotch lamb. To be confident when buying lamb, look for the blue Scotch Lamb label and PGI logo. That way you can be assured that what you’re buying is quality lamb, born and bred in Scotland to the the QMS standard.
Look for the blue Scotch Lamb label and the PGI Logo
The Scotch Lamb Street Food Festival was also a great opportunity to meet up with some of my fellow blogging chums, Mark from Glasgow Food & Drink and Janice from Farmers Girl Cooks. You’ll find further posts about the event on their sites. Also thanks to Mark for saving the day when I lost some of my pics.
I was invited as a guest to the Scotch Lamb Street Festival, I was not paid and all opinions expressed are my own