Apricot Lamb Lasagna Part 2: Now on the BBQ!

We tried an interesting, although unintended, experiment yesterday. We were preparing a dinner of Tomato and Basil soup, followed by our and finishing with a lovely pavlova. The pavlova went into the oven first since the meringue needs baking for quite a while we suddenly found yourself with no oven to do the lasagna in!

So the only solution was to do it on the BBQ. Now at this point it should be said that the BBQ in question is of the gas persuasion, rather than your traditional charcoal one. I believe it’s a if you want to get technical. The important point being that it had a lid you could close and a thermometer so you knew what you were doing. We put the ovenproof dish the lasagna was in into a baking tray just to be safe and then gave it a go. Being to impatient to wait until it actually got up to the 200 degree it’s supposed to cook at it still got around 45 minutes of cooking. And I have to say, the end result was pretty good. It wasn’t quite as good as the first time we made it, but overall the main difference between using this and doing it in the oven was that I was doing the cooking outside.

A few more thoughts on the lasagna recipe itself. We used fresh apricots this time and it was a little difficult to judge how much we needed. In hindsight we only used two or three apricots and it could probably have done with one or two more. It just looks rather overwhelming when you add them but they do shrink when you cook the whole thing. Also, must remember to use good stock, it really can’t be underestimated how important a good stock is to the finished result. But everyone liked it and I think we can consider the recipe a success, even if it might still undergo a bit of tweaking.

Apricot Lamb Lasagne

Occasionally serendipity is a wonderful thing! We made this lasagne tonight, pretty much making it up as we went along and it turned out beautifully, it’s designed with a slightly Moroccan theme, feel free to experiment with amounts as we did! The apricots compliment the lamb really well.

Ingredients

For the bolognese

500g of Lamb mice
1 large red onion finely chopped
100g dried apricots (chopped into chunks)
Cumin
Coriander
8 large tomatoes, chopped
approx 3 tbsp of tomato puree
a large handful of chestnut mushrooms, sliced.
1 courgette, diced.
approx 300ml of Lamb Stock
250ml of Red Wine

For the bechemel sauce

2tbsp Flour
approx 500ml/1 pt Milk
Nutmeg
50g Butter
100g Cheddar cheese (grated)

To assemble

Lasagne Sheets
Grated Cheese (Strong cheddar or Parmesan)

Method

For the Bolognese

1) Fry the onions for a few minutes until softened.

2) Fry the lamb mince until browned

3) Add the tomatoes and courgettes and heat through until soft, then add tomato puree to taste.

4) Add the mushrooms and the apricots and stir for a few minutes until soft

5) Add the stock and red wine and then allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

For the bechamel sauce.

1) Make a white Roux by heating the butter until soft and then stirring in the flour, until thick and well combined.

2) Add milk until you reach the consistancy of single cream, (just over a pint) then allow to simmer gently, until the sauce reduces and thickens (approximately 10 minutes) it should be the consistancy of double cream when it’s finished.

3) Sprinkle in nutmeg to taste

This is a basic bechamel sauce, we then added 100g of cheese. If you prefer you can leave the bechamel sauce plain and sprinkle the cheese between layers.

Assembling the Lasagne

Preheat the oven to 200oC

1) Layer up starting with the bolognese, then white sauce, then lasagne, continuing until you’ve used everything up, making sure you leave enough bechamel sauce to cover the top

2) Spread a layer of grated cheese over the top and then bake for 40 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling!

Leave to rest for a few minutes before serving.