Arni Souvlaki – Easy Greek Lamb

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14 Sept 2010

With winter retreating, albeit very slowly, it’s time to start thinking about ways to use the BBQ. We were actually trawling some cookbooks looking for a hearty, warming dinner before we realised that actually we didn’t feel like a big pie or casserole. Something lighter and quicker was definitely in order.

Elizabeth David’s A Book of Mediterranean Food* provided inspiration in the form of her recipe for the Greek classic arni souvlaki. This is another great example of needing a recipe to keep things simple … because I know that, given a pile of lamb to marinate, I’d end up using most of the spices in the spice drawer – whereas in this case I used just the one.

David’s recipe doesn’t specify any quantities but I used (approximately) the following. We had about 600g of diced lamb to which I added the juice of two smallish lemons and about 2 tsp of oregano (she specifies rigani and substitutes marjoram). I gave it a good mix and finished off with plenty of pepper and a little salt. That was it. Oregano, lemon juice, salt and pepper. Let’s face it, sourcing the lamb is going to be the most difficult part of this dish.

The mix only needs to be left for about half an hour. If you’re aiming for a more authentic Greek dish, you can thread the lamb on to skewers, but if you want quick, then just fire up the BBQ. Once it’s good and hot, throw the lamb on, grill it and you’re good to go.

The lamb cooks quickly and it should be reasonably tender (depending on cut, I guess) and you get a lovely herby, lemony, grill flavour. It’s not cluttered – just simple flavours that marry together well.

Of course, such a simple, quick dish needs a simple, quick accompaniment. For something with a mediterranean flavour we opted for couscous. Add a cup and a half of boiling water to the same amount of couscous, stir it through and cover. Then, I coarsely chopped an onion and fried it off with a very large clove of garlic. When it was softened I added a chopped red capsicum to the pan and turned off the heat.

Mix some good quality olive oil and butter through the couscous – you might need to put it back on the heat – and then add in the capsicum and onion mix. I finished with a generous handful of parsley and mixed through a small amount of crushed chilli, a teaspoon of ground cumin and a generous sprinkling of sumac.

All far far too easy and, best of all, very tasty – we’ll definitely be serving this at our next BBQ. And don’t worry about cooking too much and having leftovers – it’s tasty even reheated in a microwave the next day for lunch!

* also available from Amazon UK, Amazon US or from The Book Depository for world wide delivery.

King’s Head Hotel

- Alex 7 Comments

 

 

date visited: Friday 10 Sept 2010

The sole criterion for Friday night’s dinner was that it was on King William Street, as that happened to be on our way to the car. We made it past the smells and bright lights of Gouger Street and were tempted very briefly by La Trattoria (until we saw how packed it was!) before deciding a peek at the King’s Head menu was in order.

The King’s USP is that it’s strictly South Australian. That’s right – all South Australian produce (they bend their own rules a bit for cocktails, so spirits drinkers can relax). Of course, this caused a bit of a problem when one of our first requests was for a James Boags … but things were righted by the arrival of a Coopers Lager. We grabbed a table in The Den, which is the à la carte restaurant, but you can also eat in the bar. We had no reservation and there were seats free, but the restaurant was sufficiently busy to warrant booking for future visits.

The service was incredibly friendly and it was certainly efficient. Perhaps a little too efficient, if you were after a leisurely meal … our main courses arrived as the plate from our entrée was being cleared! However, the efficiency did translate to speedy drinks service – I find nothing more irksome than being seated in a restaurant and waiting an age for a waiter to decide to take your drink order!

We started by sharing the arancini. Four generous balls of roast pumpkin and sage that were just the right temperature for picking up and eating, but hot enough for them not to be stodgy and the cheese to still be melty.

For main course I chose one of the blackboard specials – spaghetti puttanesca. The pasta was perfectly cooked (in that it was still toothsome) and the saltiness of the olives and anchovies offset the potentially sweet tomato sauce perfectly. I did think that the dish itself lacked some essential chilli (I’m confident a puttanesca pasta sauce is meant to have some heat to it!) and also found the mound of dressed rocket on top of it utterly superfluous. Still, it did mean I ate some greens, so it’s not all bad.

Andy ordered the fish and chips, which he was a little underwhelmed by. He passed comment that the batter was excellent but that the chips were under par, apparently being the standard oven type.

It’s interesting to note that The King’s chef is Sam Worrall-Thompson, son of UK celebrity chef Anthony Worrall-Thompson which is reflected in the British gastro-pub style menu. The menu covers pub basics (yes, there’s schnitzel and even pie floaters) as well as more interesting dishes, so most people should be able to find something to eat. And the execution of the dishes, based on our sample size of two, seems more than competent but perhaps a little uneven.

I know I’m not raving here, but the experience was definitely good enough for us to say we’d return. The Den is a comfortable dining space that is definitely a cut above most pub restaurants, the service is sharp and the food represents good value for money. Most main courses hover around the $20. We left having spent around $65 – not bad for the food as well as three drinks.

King’s Head Hotel

Interesting, good value pub food

Rating:3.5 stars
***1/2

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Seacliff Beach Hotel

- Alex 3 Comments

Seacliff Hotel Schnitzel

date of visit: Sun 29 August 2010

It had been quite a long time between schnitzels and a friend had returned from a long stint working in Hong Kong … so rather than wait to organise a more substantial night we headed to the Seacliff (or, more properly, the Seacliff Beach Hotel) for a Sunday evening meal.

I haven’t been to the Seacliff for years (living abroad does that) so the original plan was to meet in the upstairs bar for a drink before eating in the Bistro. Now, ten years ago or so, I’d enjoyed quite a few quiet Sunday evenings playing pool in the upstairs bar, but while the pool tables remain, the vibe now is distinctly … rowdier. There was a live DJ and the crowd seemed to be winding itself up for a reasonably big night.

Because I’m a grumpy old lady type, particularly on a Sunday night, we scurried down to the front/sports bar. While we weren’t too interested in the various types of racing being shown around the bar, we could at least hold a conversation.

We moved in to the Bistro, where we had a totally unnecessary reservation. At the start of our meal there was just one other table (of two) occupied and by the end of our meal, we were the sole diners. Of course, it was a Sunday night – I wouldn’t like to comment on a Friday or Saturday evening.

There’s no table service – you order (and pay) at the counter which makes it ideal for large groups, or groups incapable of splitting the bill. We started with some garlic bread which was pretty underwhelming and not very garlicky before moving on to the schnitzels. Disappointingly there were no chicken schnitzels left so it was beef schnitzels all round – mostly parmigianas, one with gravy.

The schnitzels were pretty much pub standard. The parmigiana was nothing particularly special: the tomato sauce was topped with a thin slice of ham and melted cheese. It did avoid the (seemingly common) problem of the sauce being overpoweringly sweet. The chips were standard frozen chips and the salad was OK although a little heavily dressed for me (I would have to say that about 95% of dressed salads I eat so it’s not much of a criticism). One thing though … if sufficiently ripe tomatoes aren’t available … just don’t put them in the salad. No one orders a schnitzel explicitly for the tomatoes in the salad, so no one will miss them if they’re not there.

Schnitzels are $18 ($20 for parmigiana). This is a standard price for a standard schnitzel. I’ve certainly had far worse.

And let’s not forget, the Seacliff has great views over the sea so roll on summer and daylight saving!

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