Firepit BBQ Heart, Tex Mex, One Pot Lasagne - as cooked at Mabon Festival
Main Course
Feeds 6-8
Cook Time: 1 Hour
Difficulty: Tricky
I sounds a bit bonkers when you think about it but I cooked this for the first time (ever, in any sort of form) in front of a crowd of 100 people at a festival, on the demo stage.
Every festival demo I perform at, I always use surplus ingredients. I use the platform as a chance to promote local food charities and the amazing work they do collecting surplus ingredients and redistributing them into the community. I am almost militant with my dedication to this - EVERY SINGLE INGREDIENT has to come from the surplus charity or be considered a surplus ingredient, like offal.
I also love taking people on a journey, so every demo has to include something that I’ve never done before. Usually this might mean something like using a victorian meat mincer to chop up some offal or maybe cooking lung for the first time. It doesn’t always translate into an entire dish - this demo was different. I must have been having one of my barmy moments - maybe a little too much sleep.
Based on the ingredients available, which included Tex Mex Salsa pots (like the crisp dips), some tinned beans and some Portuguese cream cheese! I had an idea that I would potentially cook a lasagne under hot coals, in one pot……IN 45 MINUTES!
We got there and it was totally delicious! So here’s the recipe for you and hopefully some inspiration as to how you can reuse, adapt or reapply food you have around you to make something totally different to its originally intended purpose!
INGREDIENTS:
For The BBQ Hearts:
1 Lamb Heart, cleaned, trimmed and sliced
3 Slices Ox Heart
15-20 Chicken Hearts
1/2 Jar Mexican Cooking Paste (Chipotle, Tinga or Achiote are good)
For The Lasagne:
4-5 Tubs Tex Mex Salsa
2 Tins Beans In Water (not drained)
6 Lasagne Sheets, roughly broken into 2-3 pieces each
1/2 Jar Mexican Cooking Paste
1/2 Jar Sliced Jalapeños
200g Jarred Roasted Red Peppers, torn into strips
Handful Fresh Coriander
Salt & Pepper
4 Tbsp Queso Fresco or Creme Cheese or Ricotta
2 Bags Crisps or Tortilla Chips, gently crushed
METHOD:
Prepare the hearts by firstly drying them with some paper towels.
Skewer the chicken hearts on to BBQ skewers and brush them generously with the Mexican cooking paste.
Lie the slices of the lamb and ox heart on a tray and also brush these generously with the Mexican cooking paste before setting aside to marinate for 20-30 minutes.
Meanwhile light your BBQ - you want plenty of very hot coals for this!
Prepare the lasagne but getting a cask iron pot or dutch oven with a lid and empty the Tex Mex salsa pots in to the pot. Add the 2 tins of beans and their water/bean stock along with the rest of the jar of Mexican cooking paste. Mix well.
Tear up the roasted red peppers into course strips and add these along with plenty of jalapeños if you like a bit of heat in your life.
Tuck the broken up pieces of lasagne sheet throughout the lasagne mix, try to get as much of them covered as possible and as evenly distributed as you can.
Once the coals of hot and ready to go, use your tongs to forge a gap in the bottom of your fire-pit or BBQ ensuring there is still a thin layer of hot coals on the base.
Place the pot with the lasagne on the coals, place the lid on top and then using your tongs, build the coals around the sides of the pot and on top of the lid to create an oven effect.
Leave this for around 35 minutes to cook. The anticipation is real!
Next, set up a grill over the hot coals or on a separate BBQ to cook your hearts.
With around 25 minutes of cooking time left on the lasagne, place the hearts on the grill over the hot coals. All the hearts will take a similar amount of time to cook. Grill them for 2 minutes on each side until slightly firm to touch but not completely cooked - you want a nice pink centre to the hearts.
Remove them from the grill and set aside to rest while the lasagne continues to cook. Remove the chicken hearts from the skewers as they will continue to cook on the red hot skewer.
When ready, carefully remove the coals from the top of the pot and carefully lift the pot from the firepit - this is going to be absolutely red hot so please use heatproof gloves and take extra care!
Remove the lid, carefully stir the lasagne and make sure the lasagne sheets are cooked. If they are still a little too al dente, replace the lid and leave to rest for a further 5 minutes before checking again.
Once the sheets are soft enough but still have a slight bite, taste and season the lasagne.
Slice the ox and lamb hearts and along with the chicken hearts, generously scatter over the top of the lasagne.
Generously splodge the Queso Fresco over the top before topping with the lightly crushed crisps.
Serve in the centre of a table with plenty of teatowels around the bowl or spoon into serving bowls.
Like any lasagne, it goes great with lots of lovely garlic bread and a crunchy salad.
