Lamb sliders

With weather as glorious as we have at the moment leaving the cover in the BBQ is tantamount to a criminal act. What to cook though? Despite the fact that I marinade it in honey and mustard, tandoori it, jerk it, glaze it in lemon, soy and ginger, put a herb crust on it and all but sprinkle it in edible glitter, chicken is BORING, according to one of my teens.

As a result I have decided to share this recipe in the Family Friendly Friday round up which this month is being hosted by Solange over at Pebble soup. This is yet another blog I have discovered as I hop from Blog to Blog on my travels.  These sliders are small enough for little hands, adaptable enough that you can add your own toppings thus satisfying fussy teens and plentiful enough to feed the hungry hoards. Hope you have fun making them.

I do like to cook large joints of meat over the coals, butterflied leg of lamb being a favourite. I’m partial to a pizza and fish always goes down well but we have had all of those recently so I needed to ring the changes. Taking inspiration from the craze for sliders happening around the UK at the moment and the fact I have a big jar of home made red pepper hummus to use up, I thought spiced lamb sliders. I ambitiously thought I’d make some small slightly sweet za’atar topped slider buns too. That didn’t happen. By the time I’d cleared the kitchen enough to make the buns it was far too hot, the dough would have gone crazy. I used wholemeal pitta as a substitute. Brushed with a tiny amount of oil, sprinkled with za’atar and flashed over the coals they did the job. I promise, mostly to myself that I will make my own slider buns as what we had today really morphed into koftas!

Lamb sliders/koftas (lets not argue about the semantics, they taste great either way)

500g lamb mince (not too lean you need the fat on the BBQ)

1 onion finely chopped

1 green or red chilli finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic grated

2cm  piece of ginger grated

zest of half a lemon

2 tsp za’atar I use Steenbergs but others are available.

good pinch of salt

good slug of oil

Pour the oil into a small saucepan, put over a medium heat and cook the onions down for about 30 minutes until a sweet sticky pulp. Leave to cool.

Add the lamb mince to a bowl, tip in the other ingredients and using your hands combine the ingredients well. Now add in the brown onion pulp. Combine again. Place the bowl into the fridge to allow the mixture to set up.

After about half an hour shape the meat into 12 small patties. Sprinkle each one with a little za’atar and cover with cling-film. Place back in the fridge until needed.

Fire up the BBQ. Cook the sliders on a flat top if you have one, if not be careful on the grill bars as these are quite small.  Brush the buns or pittas with za’atar infused oil. Heat through and serve. accompaniments might include green salad, tomato salad, olives, yogurt and cucumber dressing, red pepper hummus or just a squeeze of lemon.

Oooohh, and by the way we ARE  having chicken today. Spatchcocked, skewered with rosemary, spritzed with lemon and accompanied by asparagus and crispy sauté potatoes. Please world, tell me that isn’t boring!