Roast Veg & Grilled Lamb Pitas - Phase 2

Okay - the recipe has now been developed - see below. Have had a few problems though! Getting the right cut of lamb has been a hack. South African's like a choppie but to find a nice lamb loin you seem to need to go to a butchery direct. It is worth it though! Promise. I used ostrich today and it just wasn't the same.

Serves 4
400g piece of well-trimmed lamb loin or a piece of deboned leg

Juice and zest of ½ lemon

2 Tbsp. oil

20 rosemary leaves, bruised

1 clove of garlic, peeled and chopped

125ml of plain yoghurt

6 chopped mint leaves

1/8 tsp. of cumin

1/4 tsp. of salt

8 cups of cubed roasting veggies (butternut, onion, peppers, carrots, courgettes, aubergine etc.)

1 Tbsp. oil

20 rosemary leaves

½ tsp. of salt

4 – 6 pitas depending on who might want seconds ;-)

Wash the meat and pat it dry with kitchen roll. Mix together the lemon juice, zest, oil, garlic and rosemary in a container small enough to snuggly hold the meat. Coat the meat with the marinade and leave it for about 2 hours if you can (shorter is fine if you don’t have the time).

Mix up the yoghurt, mint, cumin and salt and refrigerate till ready for use.

Pre heat your oven on grill and place the wrack in the centre of the oven.

Select the veggies you want and dice them into pieces of about 1cm – 1.5 cm. This is so that they can easily fit into the pitas. Combine the veggies with the oil, salt and rosemary, in a bowl, tossing them until they are covered with oil. Spread them out onto a baking tray and place them in the oven. They should take about 15 minutes to roast. Every 5 minutes or so, check them to see that they are not blackening too much and turn them with a spatula if they are. Remove them from the oven and set aside.

For the lamb you need to get the oven as hot as possible and on grill. Move the wrack as close to the element on top but naturally not so that the meat touches it. Remove the meat from the marinade and place on a backing tray in the oven. The meat should need about 7 – 8 minutes per side (you need to turn the meat with a fork) for a 400g piece of meat and if the oven is at the correct temperature. The lamb is best served medium rare. Up the cooking time by two minutes per side if you prefer it well done. Remove the meat and let it rest for 5 minutes before slicing. Lightly salt the lamb after slicing.

Toast the pitas in the oven until they puff up. Slice a hole about 1/3 big along the edge of the pita and with the knife loosen the inside creating a pocket. Layer roast veggies, yoghurt sauce and lamb evenly in the pita and serve immediately.

PS - if you want this recipe in a nice printable word format, please e-mail me at info@domesticgoddesses.co.za and I will gladly mail it to you.