“The orzo beautifully absorbs the flavour-soaked juicy lamb in this dish, which the little ones will love as much as the bigger ones.” - Nabula El Mourid

When time’s short, we pimp like crazy. And nothing begs pimping more than a tub of hummus… and look, you could make your own for this recipe if you liked. But we’re cheating like hell here because we’re all out of time this week and we’re rooting for Team Easy. You just grab a half kilo of lamb (or beef) mince, give it a hard sear, amp it up with spices, a slosh of pomegranate molasses and…

Let’s talk skordalia – part sauce, part dip, and all kinds of delicious. The name comes from the Greek word skordo (σκόρδο), meaning garlic, which tells you everything you need to know… if you don’t like garlic, trust us when we tell you this isn’t for you so just jog on. Creamy, rich and punchy…

Right. It’s roll-your-sleeves-up time. This dish has a few (very easy) components, so set yourself some time to create an Indian-inspired feast that will fully knock socks off. Fans of rice, spice, lamb and spuds will be in heaven...

"This recipe came from our neighbour Mona, who grew up in Hama in Syria, her childhood home built along the river. A wonderful cook, she would make this layered dish whenever she came to one of our gatherings. It has lived on in our spreads ever since." - Karima Hazim Chatila & Siline Tabbouch

There’s a new way to cook lamb shanks in town; trussed up in paper. The idea is, the baking paper packaging traps all the juices and steam inside, keeping the shanks super-succulent and tasty as they cook. We don’t think you could possibly over-cook these as there is no way they can possibly dry out...

Hands up who has memories of their Mum making shepherd’s pie? Us too. Ours minced the cold roast lamb using a hefty metal mincer with a crank handle. It screwed onto the edge of the bench or dining table and made short work of reducing the lamb to teeny tiny bits; yes, kids, there was life before food processors…

Salty, spicy, meaty and juicy – here’s the ultimate beer food. These are inspired by some of the delicious-est street food we’ve ever eaten; namely the lamb skewers you get in parts of northern and western China, where they’re cooked with plenty of cumin and chilli over smoky coals, then eaten with even more spice scattered over...

We wish we had the skill and dexterity to make the famous pulled wheat flour noodles of China's west and north – it’s mesmerising watching these being made. Cooks start by stretching their dough and folding it in a way that apparently lines up the gluten strands…

There’s something lovely about slow-cooker cooking. It makes meat juicy and really concentrates flavours. It’s pretty much impossible to overcook meat using a slow-cooker and unless you leave the lid off yours and go walkabout for a few days, nothing ever burns in one either…

If you want a virtuous, nutritious soup, or you just want to make 300g of mince stretch a long way… you’ll love this Turkish-inspired number. It’s also great when you’re looking for an alternative to the ubiquitous veggie, barley and chicken (or ham) meal-in-a-bowl that turns up…

“Sweet spices in a ragù are typical of northern Italian cooking, and they are surprisingly perfect with meats like lamb, beef and game. The star anise and cinnamon lend sweetness and depth, while the tomato, red wine and rosemary bring this back to more recognisable territory…

There’s a certain kind of tyranny baked into a recipe. “Cut that this big. Weigh those precisely. Use this sized pot. Cook for exactly this amount of time. No, DON’T stir yet. OK, stir NOW. And put a lid on that, would you?” …

Bloody autocorrect. Ours has a field day with ingredient names we’d think it should jolly well know better. We’ve ‘butthurt’ our corn when it should have been buttered. We added ‘shitpotle’ not chipotle to our chilli, although this one was arguably more of a straight typo…

We love lamb, especially a roast leg, either cooked long, slow and on the bone, or boned, rolled, tied and blasted at 200C. This is a very simple take on a fast roasted boneless leg but for the sake of all that’s cute, woolly and goes ‘baaa’ when you pat it, do not overcook your lamb…