Mum's Birthday Meal (Part 1)

It was my mum’s birthday on Thursday and she was having a crowd of friends over for dinner. Being the thrifty (and admittedly broke) student that I am I offered to cook the dinner so she could just relax and have a nice evening with a friends and I could give her a gift which I didn’t have to pay for.

I opted for a Greek vibed meal, well, ‘feast’ might be the more accurate term. We were hosting a vegetarian so there had to be enough of a veggie option meaning that the meat I did cook was more token than a centerpiece but nonetheless it all went down a storm. I’m gonna split the recipes between a couple of posts since otherwise the size of this could get a little out of hand.

The token piece of meat present for the carnivores was a small, slow roasted leg of lamb. The recipe can be found here: http://www.ocado.com/webshop/recipe/slow-cooked-greek-lamb/1490

The combination of the slow cooking with the spice rub created a really sumptuous piece of meat which was really worth the time and effort of cooking and basting it for so long. I got overexcited with eating/serving it so forgot to take a picture of the carved meat but trust. It was goood.

Next on the agenda were two salads, firstly a green bean mint and garlic salad. For this I simply lightly steamed the beans, and fried off some slithers of garlic in a tbsp of olive oil then added some more oil and balsamic vinegar to taste and then lots of chopped mint. I tossed the beans in this and scattered the dish with some toasted pine nuts. Simple but again, good. 

Secondly I made Nigella Lawson’s Ultimate Greek Salad: http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/the-ultimate-greek-salad-220 

If you have never made this before. I implore you, do it. It has completely changed my perception of the world of Greek salads. The marinating of the red onions creating the chemical-reaction-type thing is inspired and it could almost be a meal in its self with some nice bread. Seriously. It’s the business. Big style. I'd even go so far as to say it might be my favorite salad ever. Yes, I went there. 

Right, that’s all for today, I’m feeling a condiment post tomorrow with the tzatziki, sweet potato and aubergine dips. So watch this space.