Mint Chutney - RR 9, Part 2

This is Steve's post for Random Recipes this month. Steve was randomly paired with the very lovely C from Cakes, Crumbs and Cooking (check out all her recent recipes for chocolate week!).  She chose number 44 out of our 53 cookbooks which was The New Penguin Cookery Book by Jill Norman.  She then chose page number 383 which gave a recipe for a mint chutney.  Am I allowed to say that C has 191 cookbooks?  Wow!

Okay, here's Steve's bit -
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Indian-Spiced Lamburgers with a Mint Chutney (Serves 4)

Recipe for the Lamburgers (from The River Cottage Meat Book)

500g of minced lamb

2 small dried red chillies (possibly too many for the kids…)

1 teaspoon of coriander seeds

½ teaspoon of fenugreek seeds

½ teaspoon of mustard seeds

½ teaspoon of black peppercorns

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

salt

Split the chillies open and remove and discard the seeds. Place in a pestle and mortar with the other dry spices and pound to a coarse powder.

Put the lamb in a bowl and mix with the oil and garlic, massaging it well so that is covered with a light film of oil. Toss thoroughly with the pounded spices and then leave to marinate for at least 2 hours.

Form into patties 2cm thick and barbecue (or fry – I fried) for 4-5 minutes on either side, till nicely browned and cooked through.

Recipe for the Mint Chutney (from The New Penguin Cookery Book)

1 handful of mint leaves

1-2 green chillies, seeded and finely chopped

½ tsp of sugar

salt to taste

5tbs of plain yoghurt

Blend the mint, chillies, sugar and salt to a paste in a food processor or pound them in a mortar. Blend in the yoghurt.

I got a bit lucky with this challenge as the random recipe chosen for me was the mint chutney which was basically “bung everything in a food processor”. I thought the chutney on its own would have made a great lunch but Louise overruled me and I had to do an accompaniment for the chutney, hence the lamburgers.

I should perhaps have worked this out in advance but I overdid the chillies in both recipes, with the result that it was all a bit too hot for our two kids, no matter how much extra yoghurt I ploughed into the chutney. If I was to make it again, I would probably leave the chillies out of the chutney altogether and let it be a more cooling accompaniment to the lamburgers.