'Shining in my Kitchen' was Star Lifestyle's recipe competition for the year 2022 where we asked our valued readers to send their best meat recipes ahead of Eid ul Adha. Selecting the best recipes from a host of entries is never easy. Kazria Kayes, Sheulee Akter, and Arshia Idris Talha have shone their way through the strenuous selection process and emerged as winners. So try out these top recipe entries this festive season.

LS Desk

Whole mutton leg roast with baked vegetables

Photo: Arshia Idris Talha

Ingredients
For the first marinade —
½ tbsp salt
½ cup lemon juice
½ cup onion Juice
½ cup ginger juice
½ cup garlic juice
1 tbsp coarsely crushed black pepper
½ tbsp coarsely crushed white pepper
A fistful of fresh mint leaves (no stalk, only leaves)

For the second marinade —

Mix well the following ingredients together.
1 tbsp cumin powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp turmeric powder
1 tbsp garam masala powder
1 tbsp chaat masala powder
1 tbsp salt
1 tbsp (optional) sheek kebab masala powder
½ cup yoghurt, beaten
5 tbsp mustard oil
6 tbsp vegetable oil
½ tbsp (half) salt

Vegetables —

5 medium sized potatoes and 5 carrots (other preferred roots or vegetables can be used as well) Wash, peel and cut into 1½-inch chunks. Also take 15 cloves of garlic and 10 small peeled onions. 

Method
Take 1 whole mutton leg. Wash, clean, and stab it with a 'knife and fork' all around. Place the whole leg in a large bowl.

Mix the ingredients for the first marinade in a bowl. Crush the mint leaves roughly with hand and mix with the mixture. Pour half the mixture over on side of the leg, then flip the leg, and pour the rest of the mixture. Rub the marinade on the leg for 2-3 minutes to make sure the mixture reaches deep inside the stabs/incisions made on the meat earlier. Marinate for at least 2 hours in a fridge.

Next, take the ingredients for the second marinade, and mix. Now pour half the mixture over on side of the leg, then flip the leg, and pour the rest of the mixture. Massage/rub the marinade on the leg for 2-3 minutes to make sure the marinade reaches deep inside the stab/incision made on the meat earlier. Marinate for at least 2 hours in a fridge.

Take the leg out of the fridge, and scrape of excess marinade off the leg. Leave the excess marinade for later use. Keep the leg aside. Take a large frying pan. Pour enough oil to fry half the leg at a time. 
Fry both sides to golden brown. Take the leg out of the pan and let it rest for 5 minutes. 
Make deep cuts/incision (10/12) into each side of the leg; Take a clove of garlic, wrap a few coriander leaves (including stalks) and completely shove it inside each of the deep cuts.
Keep aside and prepare the vegetables.

Next, grease a large, deep baking pan with oil. Put the garlic cloves, peeled onions, chopped carrots and potatoes at the bottom of the pan. Put the leg on top of the vegetables and top it with the gravy mixture. Cover it with aluminium foil and bake at 200° C for 2 hours in an oven. Approximately 45 minutes for every 500g of meat, so, if the leg is 1 kg, then bake for 90 minutes, if the lamb leg is 2 kg then bake for 180 minutes).

After 2 hours, remove aluminium foil, reduce the temperature of the oven to 180° C and let it bake for 10 minutes, flip the leg, bake for another 10 minutes. Take the baking pan out. 

Remove the leg from top of the vegetables. Let it rest on a grill placed over a plate so that the excess liquid inside the meat comes out. Let it rest. 

To make the gravy, remove the carrots and potatoes from the liquid left on the baking tray. Now transfer the liquid, along with the garlic and onions into a blender and process until smooth. 

Take a deep pot, transfer the blended gravy into the pot and start cooking on medium heat. Taste and add seasoning if required. Add 1 tablespoon of corn flour dissolved in ¼ cup of water into the gravy. Keep stirring until the mixture reaches desired consistency. Once the consistency is correct, turn off the heat. Take the gravy and pass it through a sieve while still hot. Add 2 tablespoons of butter in the hot gravy and keep stirring until the butter is dissolved and the gravy is ready. 

To serve, place the leg in the middle of a large serving dish. Surround with the vegetables. Put a cube of butter on top of the leg. Sprinkle fresh coriander leaves to garnish. Serve with the gravy on the side. 

By Arshia Idris Talha

Photo and Food: Arshia Idris Talha

Arshia Idris Talha likes taking part in recipe competitions as they encourage her to become better at what she does every single day. She runs a catering service, Arshia's Rasoi.

Roast beef with a deshi twist

Photo: Kazria Kayes

Ingredients
For the roast —
900g–1000g beef, roast cut
(Preferably if it's an eye of round. Just ask your local butcher to keep a log like round piece of meat for you from the upper round of a cow).
300g shallots, peeled and cut in half
1 tbsp white mustard paste (shorisha bata)
2 tsp garlic, minced
Salt, as per taste
1 tsp pepper
1 tbsp oil
Woody herbs — rosemary, oregano, thyme, optional
For the gravy —
¼ cup tamarind syrup
1 tbsp jaggery
1 tsp white mustard paste (shorisha bata)
½ cup beef stock
1 tsp flour
Salt and pepper

Method
Remove extra fat from the meat. Marinate the meat with generous helping of salt and pepper. Leave it overnight in the fridge. The next day, take the meat out from the fridge. Bring it to room temperature.

Take a thick iron skillet and warm it up on medium high flame. Drizzle 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil on the meat and coat evenly. Sear the piece of the meat fat side down for 3 minutes and other sides for 2 minutes each to make an even brown crust on all sides.

Take the meat out from the skillet and let it rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, take the shallots in a bowl and drizzle some oil. Wipe excess oil from the skillet and add the oil coated shallots in it. Let the shallots roast for 1 minute.

Mix the mustard paste with garlic and few of the dry herbs of your choice. Rub the paste thoroughly on the meat.

Pre heat your oven to 180° C for 10 minutes. Place the meat on the bed of shallots in the skillet. Roast the meat for 45 minutes in the oven. Take the roast out from the oven, baste the roast with the beef liquid from the skillet. Add some herbs of your choice on top and cook it again for 20 more minutes.

Take the roast out from the oven, place it in a cool dish/cutting board. Cover it loosely with a foil. Allow the roast to rest for 20 minutes.

Take the same skillet that has been used for the roast, take out all the caramelized onions and keep aside.

While the roast is resting, prepare the gravy. Take the same skillet and put it on the stove on medium heat. There should be some beef juices left in the skillet. Add some tetuler rosh/tamarind syrup in it. Try to scrape off the bits and pieces of the beef and shallots with a spatula. Add mustard paste, cook for 1 min. Add beef stock, jaggery, salt and pepper. Bring it to a boil. Add a teaspoon of flour to make the gravy thicker. Check seasoning. Remove the gravy from the stove. Pour it in a nice gravy dish.   

Rest for a bit. Now take a sharp carving knife and carve the roast in really thin slices. Thinner the tastier. Place the slices on a serving dish, pour the gravy over, place some of the caramelised shallots on side. Garnish with fresh woody herbs.

Serve and enjoy with your friends and family!

By Kazria Kayes

Photo and Food: Kazria Kayes

Kazriya Kayes is the Head of Marketing at Mentors, a freelance voice over artist, founder of the group Curly Girl Bangladesh, an avid home chef, who also has a cloud kitchen and catering house along with her mother.

Beef lemongrass-coconut oil curry (with peanuts and fried shallots)

Photo: Sheulee Akter

Ingredients
For the spice paste —
1 lemongrass
6 dried red Asian chillies
4 eschallots, peeled
5 cloves garlic, unpeeled
2.25-inch galangal piece, peeled and cut into ½-inch slices
4-6 tbsp water

For the dried spices —
½ tsp ground cloves
¾ tsp cumin
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
¾ tsp coriander
½ tsp cardamon
½ tsp cinnamon

For the beef —
700g beef chuck, cut into 2.5-inch cubes
500ml beef broth, low sodium
2 bay leaves

For the curry sauce —
¼ cup vegetable oil
400ml coconut oil
1 cinnamon quill
1 star anise
1 tsp tamarind paste/puree
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp white sugar
2 medium-small potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-inch pieces

Garnish & Serving —
3 tbsp peanuts, roughly chopped
Finely sliced chilli, optional
Asian fried shallots
Steamed jasmine rice

Method
To prepare the beef, place beef ingredients in a medium saucepan. Liquid should almost cover the beef, but not completely. If not, add water. Add lemongrass trimmings.

Bring to boil over high heat, then reduce heat and simmer gently for 1.5-2 hours until beef is fork tender. Now, remove beef. If there's more than 1.5 cups liquid, simmer to reduce. Set liquid aside.                                
 

For the spice paste, place heavy based skillet over high heat until smoking (no oil). Add eschalot, garlic, and galangal in skillet, get a nice char on them, then remove.
Add dried chillies into skillet, char 10 seconds or so on each side until charred, then remove. Once cool enough to handle, grate galangal, peel garlic, break chillies in half, shake out seeds and discard. Place chillies in food processor. Blitz until finely chopped.

Add galangal, finely chopped lemongrass, the toasted spice paste (dried spices), and remaining spice paste ingredients, starting with 4 tablespoons of water. Blitz until smooth, add more water, if required.

To make the curry, place oil in a pot or large skillet over medium high heat. Add curry paste and cook for 3 minutes until the liquid has cooked out and it's thick and fragrant. Add coconut milk, stir to incorporate. Add cinnamon, star anise and reserved beef braising liquid. Reduce heat to medium and simmer for 3 minutes. Stir in fish sauce, tamarind and sugar, stir. Add potatoes and cook for 7 minutes until potatoes are tender, turning as required. Add beef and simmer for 2 minutes or until sauce has reduced and thickened. Serve.

By Sheulee Akter

Photo and Food: Sheulee Akter

Sheulee Akter works as an Assistant Manager (Foreign Exchange), at Basic Bank Ltd, Dilkhusha Branch.