Restaurant Review: Café Mint, Surry Hills (revisited)

I've previously been to Café Mint for dinner and loved the place. Therefore it was the obvious venue to meet friends for breakfast. Café Mint doesn't open until 9am on Sunday's and arriving early we had to wait for them to let us in. I think it's the first time I've queued for breakfast!

They have some classic breakfast options on the menu, but why would you chose one of those when there are Moroccan delights to be had? Our friendly waiter was able to answer all of our questions about the menu. What is chackchouka?

I ordered the breakfast hummus with lamb mince and pinenuts. The amazingly soft lamb must have been slow cooked for hours. It had a wonderful fragrance from the cumin and Lebanese spice mix, as well as a little bit of a chilli kick. The roasted onion, toast and hummus were the perfect accompaniments. Definitely one to order again.

My breakfast companions ordered a side of the baked beans which were fabulous. Just like the spiced chickpeas on my last visit, it was a side dish which stole the show.

Café Mint is establishing itself as a firm favourite. My only complaint was the $2 per person Sunday surcharge. I hate extras and additions on a bill.

579 Crown St, 
Surry Hills
NSW
2010

Cooking: Slow cooked lamb with prunes

I'm writing this post just for me. It's a recipe I don't want to lose and by putting it on the blog I'll hopefully have a record of it for years to come.

I discovered this recipe last winter in a copy of Delicious magazine. I cooked it several time last year and I've cooked it three times this winter too. It's warm and comforting, pretty easy to make in big batches and it freezes well. Perfect winter food.

I'm a fan of the richness of the stew, the sweetness from the prunes and honey, and the spice from the harissa. I'm sure a lot of the complexity of the dish comes from quality of the harissa paste you use. I've been buying the Yalla paste and it gets the thumbs up from me.


Serves 6-8

Ingredients
1kg diced lamb shoulder
4 large onions, sliced
2tbs sun dried tomato pesto
1tbs harissa
2tsp ground cinnamon
2tsp honey
1/2 cup of red wine (or water)
1tsp pomegranite molasses
200g pitted prunes
Olive oil

Method
Add some olive oil to a large oven proof pan and brown the lamb in batches and set aside.
Add the onions to the pan and cooking them slowly for 25mins until lightly coloured.

Heat the oven to 150 degrees.

Add the pesto, harissa, cinnamon, honey, molasses, prunes, red wine and 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir to dissolve the honey and bring to the boil. Add the lamb and any juices to the pan.

Place a cartouche of greaseproof paper* on top of the lamb, put the lid on the pan and pop it into the oven for one and a half hours. Turn off the oven and leave the lamb in the cooling oven for another 30mins.

*Don't be tempted to miss out the greaseproof paper. The sauce for the lamb is thick and rich. If you don't add the paper you will lose too much liquid in evaporation.

Lovely served with couscous and some roasted eggplant that has been covered in a garlic, ginger, pesto, harissa and honey marinade.