Lamb cut small and fried fast with peppers, tomato and oregano in a single searing hot pan. Thirty minutes start to finish and naturally gluten free.
Prep
15 mins
Cook
25 mins
Servings
4
Per serving
£2.75
Difficulty
easy
Traditionally cooked on a sac, a domed steel plate over a fire, this is about high heat and speed rather than slow braising. Cut the lamb small so it cooks through before it toughens, and get the pan properly hot before anything goes in.
Pat the diced lamb completely dry with kitchen paper and leave it at room temperature for 20 minutes.
Heat a large heavy frying pan or wok over the highest heat until it is genuinely smoking. Add 2 tbsp of the olive oil.
Add half the lamb in a single layer and leave it for 2 minutes without touching it, then stir and cook 2 minutes more. Lift out and repeat with the second batch.
Two batches, not one. The pan temperature drops the moment you overload it, and the lamb will stew in its own juices.
Add the remaining oil and the butter to the pan, then the onions and green peppers. Fry hard for 6 minutes, stirring, until they blister and soften at the edges.
Add the garlic and red pepper paste and cook for 2 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes, oregano, pul biber, black pepper and salt.
Cook for 5 minutes until the tomatoes break down into a thin sauce that clings to the vegetables.
Return the lamb and all its resting juices and cook for a final 4 to 5 minutes until everything is coated and the lamb is just cooked through.
Taste for salt, scatter with parsley and serve straight from the pan with rice.