Meet the Lamburghlar

Spiced lamb steaks with crunchy bulgur salad and a harissa mayonnaise.  When I said to my 12-yr old stepson that he could choose what we made for dinner, that wasn't what I'd have had him pegged as picking.  But he did, so we did.  It is another recipe from Nadia Lim's My Food Bag, and definitely one we will be making again - the lamb was great, but it would have been equally nice with beef steak sliced up, or chicken drums, or (Harry reckons) crispy coated chicken tenders.   

This was the first time I'd ever used bulgur (I think the only place I've ever eaten it is when I get tabbouleh with my kebab!).  It's basically a wholegrain (good slow-release energy, high fibre, low GI etc etc) made from the groats of various wheats (give or take - click on the link for the full wikipedia article).  It had a firm, al dente texture, and was very very filling.  This salad could easily have fed 5!  

3/4 cup bulgur wheat

100 g pumpkin, peeled and diced 1 cm 

2 tsp 'pumpkin spice mix' (see below)

5-6 baby capsicums, cut in half and de-seeded (or 2 normal capsicums)

1/2 apple, diced 1 cm (do this at last minute) 

2 spring onions, thinly sliced (use all white AND green)

25 g sliced almonds 

2 tbsp crispy shallots (look in Asian part of supermarket)

zest + juice of 1 lemon

300 g lamb leg steaks (or beef, chicken etc) 

1 tbsp lamb spice mix (see below)

4 tbsp mayonnaise 

2-3 tbsp harissa (Sabato is a really nice one, or look online for a recipe to make your own)

mint leaves, roughly chopped, to serve

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees celcius.  Boil 1 L water in kettle.  
2. Mix lamb pieces with lamb spice mix and a little olive oil in a small bowl.  Set aside.  
3. Add bulgur and pinch of salt to large bowl, cover with boiling water and cover.  Soak for 15-20 minutes (if absorbs all water partway through, check texture and add a little more water if needed).  
4. While bulgur soaks, toss pumpkin, capsicum and pumpkin spice mix with olive oil on roasting tray.  Roast for 20 minutes or so, until veges are tender and fragrant.  Remove when done and set aside.   
5. Cook lamb in a medium-high heated pan (or on BBQ) for a couple of minutes on each side (give or take, depends how you like it cooked).  Set aside for a few minutes to rest. 
6. When bulgur is ready drain it using a sieve and then add in: apple, zest and lemon juice (stir now - the lemon juice will prevent the apple oxidising, if you are going to set meal aside to serve a little later), roasted veges, almonds, spring onions and shallots. 
7. Serve up salad, topped with mint and lamb, drizzled with harissa mayo.  Absolutely to die for! 

NB:  For the 'lamb spice mix' combine paprika, tomato paste and cumin - about 1 tbsp paste and a tsp each of the spices.  

For the 'pumpkin spice mix' combine ras el hanout, onion, garlic and fennel seeds - I used finely diced quarter of an onion, a couple of minced cloves garlic, 1 tbsp ras el hanout and 2 tsp fennel seeds.  You can make  your own ras el hanout (click link), buy a ready-made mix from a specialty store/asian supermarket or (as I did) mix things like cumin powder, ground coriander, turmeric, ginger, paprika, chili and pepper together to make a mix that is pretty close (just see what you have in the cupboard).  Fennel seeds was definitely a must here, they smelled AMAZING!!