The best thing about this recipe is it does not take very long, the ingredients are easy to find and are not too expensive. The most expensive item will no doubt be the lamb. The cherry tomatoes will vary in price depending if they are in season or not, but you don't need to buy that many anyway. I bought a 400g pack for $3.50.
Ingredients - serves 2 people
1 Eggplant
200-300g lamb pieces suitable for grilling
250g of cherry tomatoes
2 brown onions
White vinegar
Olive oil
1 bird's eye chilli
200g natural yogurt (bland flavour)
Cumin
Salt
Cracked pepper
Wooden skewers
Step 1
Chop up the lamb into bite size pieces and place into a bowl. Do not throw away the fat because this gives off fantastic flavour. When grilled to perfection even the fat pieces taste fantastic. Dice up the chili and add to the bowl. Add about 4 tbs. of olive oil and about 2 tbs. of vinegar. Now add some salt and cracked pepper and mix everything together.
Now take a skewer, slide a piece of the marinaded lamb on followed by a cherry tomato and again followed by lamb. Repeat this process until you get something like in the photo below. Drizzle some olive oil top of the tomatoes.
Ideally you would put the skewers on a barbecue but if you are like me and don't have one or simply because setting one up inside an apartment is not the best idea, an oven will do just fine. Preheat your oven to 160degC with the grill on. Once it has heated up place the skewers on an oven grid not too close to the grill (otherwise you'll burn the meat too quickly). Slide the grid into the oven and place an oven tray underneath the grid so that the lamb fat does not drip to the bottom of the oven.
Step 2
While the lamb skewers are roasting slice up the eggplant into 1/4 inch thick circle pieces.
Next finely chop the onions and set aside.
Add some cooking oil (or olive oil) to a frying pan on medium heat and add the eggplant pieces. Add a pinch of salt and cracked pepper. After frying for about 3 minutes flip the eggplant pieces, and fry for another 3 minutes. Set the eggplant aside.
Next add the chopped up onion to the pan, and a dash more cooking oil. Reduce the pan heat to low and add about 1-2 tsp. of cumin. Saute for about 5 - 10 minutes. Add more cooking oil if you feel the onions are getting too dry.
Step 3
Place the sauteed onions on top of the fried eggplant slices and add a layer of yogurt on top. Add salt and pepper to taste. By this time the skewers should be ready. Take the skewers out and serve with the eggplant dish as in the picture below and dig in. You'll find that the eggplant dish complements the lamb skewers perfectly.
