Spiced Lamb Kebab & Winter
Vegetable Curry – FireChef

Brrrr it’s cold, snowing even. I need a hot bowl of something from the campfire.
With winter cooking outdoors -people comfort- should come first. We want a lively fire radiating
good heat, once cosy we can then start cooking and adapt our dish to the fire. We will use the fire’s
radiant heat to cook a giant Lamb Tikka Kebab and to accompany it a warming pan cooked Winter
Vegetable Curry.

Ingredients:

Fragrant Paste
1 whole bulb (8 cloves) Garlic
25g Ginger root
25g White onion
25g coriander stalk
4 Green chillies
1 tsp coriander seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp fengugreek seeds
5 green cardamon pods

Main
1 bunch coriander leaf
600g Scottish lamb (leg meat, generous chunks)
3 parsnips
½ swede

200g spinach leaf
200g baby plum tomatoes
1 pint (loch) water
100g butter
Slosh rape seed oil
½ tsp Salt (to taste)

(Yellow Sauce
2 Lemon Juiced
1 tbsp demerara sugar
2 tbsp rape seed oil
½ tsp turmeric)

Preparation

I pre-marinated the lamb so all that needs doing is threading on the skewer and positioning it to
cook near the fire.
For the fragrant curry paste blitz equal quantities of garlic, ginger, onion, coriander stalk and 4 thin
green chillies (moderate heat, tweak to preference). Toast the spices gently for 4 minutes to release
the oils and create that nutty aroma, grind and add to the mix*
For the lamb tikka marinade- and add to a bowl with the lamb, lemon zest, yoghurt and half the
fragrant paste. Season with salt, mix and leave. If your trekking in carry it in a picnic box with tight
lid, then with every bouncing stride smile at the thought of your lunch getting a free marinade
massage!
* alternatively a couple of spoons of store bought curry paste would suffice.

Cooking

Balance the loaded skewer across the fire pit rocks. As we are cooking indirect, using the roasting
heat of the fire, I have gone larger on the lamb chunk size. For portability I have chosen to cook this
on a long skewer. A folding grill would also do, we just need to get the lamb positioned about one
foot away from the fire for its indirect roast.

For the curry lets start by adding rape seed oil to a hot pan, then melt the butter and add the chopped
onions and the remaining fragrant paste. Gently cook the onions and paste till browned. My pan is
carbon steel and great for searing however direct on the embers would be too much so I have raised
it with rock and branch. Chop the swede and parsnips to rustic proportion then add to the frying
aromatic paste. Stir occasionally, then add a wee splash of loch water, topping up again as the pan cooks dry. When the vegetables start to soften add the box of plum tomatoes and let them join the
bubbling mix, they will soften and pop imparting further to the sauce.

Place the shallots unpeeled into the embers- the embered vegetable is a thing of delight, slow
cooking direct in the embers imparts a lovely smokey flavour and we simply remove the burnt
outside when its done.

Keep the fire lively, stay warm. Occasionally moving to turn a shallot, reposition the kebab or stir
the curry, I take in the surrounding winter wilderness and its stark contrast to the magic of the fire
before me. Let’s talk about fire another time, for now- back to the feast.

Once the vegetables are soft to the blade. Add a good pile of the fresh spinach and stir into the sauce
until all leaves have soften. Season with salt, taste and re-season if need be. We are ready…

Nearly Wild Camping

I wanted to do something special for the good folk of Nearly Wild Camping as their cause has
struck a personal note with my growing up stealth camping, so let’s plate up with some love.
First a generous line the vegetable curry across the plate, next the lamb tikka chunks crossing the
curry, nestle to the side of this glorious intersection a generous dollop of yoghurt. Garnish the plate
with the embered shallots, an accidental scattering of coriander leaves, and finally an optional
shallot centric drizzle of my yellow sauce.

How did it eat?

The savoury spiced lamb is a delight, sitting beautifully with the warming fragrant curry, contrasted with yoghurt tang and herbs… and those sweet-sweet embered shallots? well they are always welcome at the flavour party.

Have a good meal,

Peter Roobol,

Founder,

FireChef Cookware – Outdoor Cooking Equipment for Campfires and Fire Pits