Make mine a lamb chop - recipe

An award-winning actor, director and scriptwriter, Durban's Steven Stead is a dab hand in the kitchen.

An award-winning actor, director and scriptwriter, Durban's Steven Stead is a dab hand in the kitchen.

Published Sep 2, 2015

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Durban - Actor and director Steven Stead, star of Snoopy! The Musical, which ended its run at Durban’s Elizabeth Sneddon Theatre recently shares his food secrets.

 

QUESTION: What meal is your favourite – and what is your least favourite?

ANSWER: I love roast lamb stuffed with garlic and rosemary, served with green vegetables and crispy potatoes. It reminds me of all childhood celebration dinners. My mum would always do this for special occasions.

I loathe plain white fish in cheese or white sauce because besides being a banal dish, this was what my mom served up for too many nights of my teenage life when my father gave up eating red meat due to arthritis.

Boil in the bag specials. Urgh!

 

What is your first food memory?

A castle of mashed butternut with a moat of Bovril gravy.

 

As a child did you develop a taste for unusual foods?

I used to raid the store cupboard (the one with food for when the Russians came…) and eat roll mops (pickled herring) from the bucket, which I’d then seal imperfectly. I developed a taste for pickles that I’ve never lost. Odd because generally I like fresh, clean food.

 

What was the first thing that you ever cooked?

Bacon and egg for a Cubs cooking badge, aged 8. I think it was pretty indifferent, but my father declared it ambrosial.

 

What is the dish you tend to cook most often – and why?

I do Greek-style lamb chops pretty often, firstly because they cook very quickly and it is a delicious and very simple meal to prepare. Also, because my partner, Greg, is a huge fan of them. You can make it as a fancy dinner-party meal or just a two-of-us-in-the-kitchen sort of meal, depending on what you serve them with.

 

What do you like and/or dislike about dinner parties?

I love to try other people’s cooking, but hate it when I feel obliged to eat a dessert or something calorific that I would otherwise avoid. I enjoy the conversations too, but if you hit one of those dull evenings, with people with no opinions and nothing to contribute, it can be deadly.

 

What has been your biggest kitchen disaster?

I cooked a tough kudu roast that was inedible for my first dinner party in my Cape Town flat in my twenties. This was followed by kumquats in yoghurt for dessert … which were so bitter and inedible that two guests spat them out. Social death.

 

Biggest culinary success?

Recently I produced a dinner party on a single gas plate during load shedding, which fed six people three courses, and was still warm when it hit the table. Pretty impressive, I thought.

 

How serious a wine fundi are you?

I’m not really a fundi, but I know my Malbec from my Mourvèdre, and won’t touch any wine that has a number in the name. I really like Hartenberg Cab-Sav Shiraz. It is everything I look for in a wine: affordable, complex, smooth and textured.

 

What kitchen utensil can you simply not live without?

My mezza luna. Chops herbs, garlic, chilli, etcetera, so quickly and efficiently.

 

What kitchen utensil would you love to have?

A set of Le Creuset pots.

 

What’s the most kitsch thing in your kitchen?

A china hen that is supposed to house eggs. I don’t know why it is there. My mother probably is responsible.

 

Some foods you won’t try?

Offal (brain, heart, tripe) and whale or dolphin (I do have ex-friends who have eaten this in Iceland).

 

What is your favourite Durban restaurant and what do you usually order there?

Unity, because the food is delicious and affordable, and the service excellent. I usually have the 200g sirloin or rump with steamed greens and salad.

 

Fave cooking ingredient?

Olive oil. I can’t think of a dish I don’t use it for.

 

Most memorable meal?

In Morocco I went to Palace Restaurant in Meknes, which was vast and exquisite, and served a seven-course banquet – which they served me even though I was the only person there. The food was splendid but the experience unforgettably surreal.

 

Who is your favourite celebrity cook – and why?

Jamie Oliver, easily. He is unpretentious and accessible, and you can follow him and eat healthily and well. And he taught my partner to cook. Hallelujah!

 

The sexiest of foods?

Rich red fruits like ripe strawberries and cherries, and I am not going to tell you why.

 

What do you tip in restaurants?

About 10 percent to 12 percent. But not if the service has been appalling.

 

Favourite fruit, veg, dessert and store-bought sweet?

Mango, asparagus, meringue, and Lindt dark chocolate with chilli or salt.

 

Steven’s Greek-Style Lamb Chops

Takesix thick lamb loin chops and marinate them for a couple of hours in olive oil, crushed garlic, bruised rosemary, black pepper and a little salt.

Heat a thick iron griddle pan to smoking hot and cook the chops two minutes to three minutes per side. (I like them medium rare).

Serve with a Greek salad of tomato, cucumber, red onion, green pepper, all chopped coarsely into chunky pieces, mixed with chopped mint and basil, chunks of feta cheese, Kalamata olives and an olive oil vinaigrette.

Serve with rosemary roasted baby potatoes, or chips sprinkled with dried oregano.

 

Steven's Broad Beans Curry (serves two)

1 onion chopped

3 whole green chillies

¼ cup olive oil

2 tomatoes chopped

½ teaspoon each of turmeric, dhania, cumin powders

2 star anise

Stick cinnamon

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 tsp good chilli powder

1 tsp ginger-garlic paste

Splash of water

Salt to taste

1 cup broad beans boiled until soft (Or a can of butter beans if you are pressed for time)

Gently fry the onion and chillies with star anise, cinnamon and mustard seeds in oil until softened.

Add tomatoes. Cook until moisture has evaporated. Add spices and a splash of water. Continue cooking until the spices have melded with the tomato.

Add the beans and more water if required, and cook gently until the gravy has thickened. Serve with rhotis or steamed basmati rice.

The Mercury

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