Family Barbecue

On Saturday I decided to make Raan Maseladar. The local IGA had lamb legs on special so I bought a small one and, after removing all the fat, marinated it in a spicy yoghurt mix. The recipe I used is from Madhur Jaffrey. I really like her recipes and always turn to her or Doris Ady when I have an urge to cook Indian. The lamb needs to sit in the marinade for 24 hours if possible, so we thought we would cook it in the barbecue for Sunday night's dinner.

Yesterday lunchtime I rang Helen and invited her to come and share it. She was initially reluctant because she had bought some seafood for her own meal, but decided that she would bring that along to cook on the barbecue as well. We added Graham to the guest list so I defrosted some tiger prawns and whizzed up my favourite marinade for them. I use fresh ginger, garlic, fresh coriander, kaffir lime leaves or lemon zest, fish sauce and lime or lemon juice combined in a food processor.

We had a feast. Helen had rolled strips of squid in salt, pepper and dukka and grilled them on the hotplate. She had prepared a delicious salad to go with them. The salad combined red cabbage with snow peas, coriander and thinly sliced pear dressed with sweet chili sauce and ranch dressing. Yummy, and the marinated prawns also went well with it.

Then we had the Raan, spiced yellow rice and green beans cooked with chili. Also yummy. Almost no leftovers, just a bit of rice.

Kevin is not keen on barbecued steaks and chops, so we don't use the barbecue very often. But it did a great job yesterday, first with the lid closed for the Raan, and then open for the squid and prawns.