Lamb cutlets, mint salsa and roast pumpkin mash

So for the past couple of weeks John has been making 'joke' comments about wanting a crown roast. You know the type of thing,
Sal "what should we eat?"
John "a crown roast with thrice baked potatoes, truffles and greens tossed in verjuice" (said in his poshest 'Pru & Trude' voice)

So yesterday I saw these lovely organic lamb racks at the supermarket and I couldn't go past them. I didn't really know what to do with them then and there, so just made up this dish with what we had at home. Well John was well impressed, declaring it to be perhaps the best meal I had ever made, high praise indeed! Personally I think he just has a short food memory, but it was pretty tasty, the minty salsa was much better than I expected.

Ingredients

* Lamb rack (size will depend on how many you are cooking for I had just under 500g for 2 peeps)
* Olive oil, salt and pepper to season
* Butternut pumpkin chopped (again, amount depends on peeps)
* splosh of cream
Salsa
* 1 lebanese cucumber (diced finely)
* almost a cup of mint leaves
* 2 spring onions
* 1/2 an avocado
* 1 tbs olive oil
* 2 tbs balsamic
* 1 tsp sugar

Method
* Start with pumpkin by tossing in olive oil and season with salt and pepper, place in moderately hot oven (200deg) to roast for about 45 mins
* After about half and hour turn the oven down to 170-180 so it is not too hot for the lamb
* With the lamb rack just trim it of any big obvious fatty bits, rub olive oil into it then season with salt and pepper.
* When the pumpkin is roasted and soft, take from oven but keep warm, before serving mash with fork and add a splash of cream if you need a bit more moisture, but you may not need anything.
* Place lamb in (now slightly cooler)oven, and you'll need to cook it for about half and hour for each 500g of meat to have it lovely and moist

Salsa-as I said was a bit of an experiment but lovely, and this is what I did
* Chopped cucumber finely, added finely chopped spring onion
* Stir through olive oil and balsamic (I have pretty good olive oil and divine balsamic and seriously think this is the most important thing for these kind of cold dishes)
* As I was chopping the mint I sprinkled a pinch of sugar over the leaves, then stirred them through the rest of the mixture (adding a leeeetle more sugar at the same time)
* The finely diced avocado was a bit of an after thought so that went in at the very end, but a fine addition

A surprise little bit of gourmet for a thursday night in the burbs. Easy and tasty, Enjoy!

It's a long way to the shop if you want a sausage roll

When we were in Sweden, sometimes I craved a good old Aussie sausage roll. Not sure why really, but maybe it was the fact that the sausages, or 'korv' as they are known there were disappointing. Really.....so close to Germany but so far from wurst it was unbelievable. When I got back here, the craving was well and truly stifled, what with all the other great food to get back into, so I'm not sure that I have actually had a sausage roll until now. We all know the slight worry of what we might be consuming with store bought meaty products like sausage rolls and pies, so as I'm not that into pre-packaged/made/processed food and my herb garden is doing pretty well, I thought I'd give it a go myself and the results were pretty darn good. I did cheat a little this time with frozen puff pastry, but that is easily rectified and will be the next thing to try with this recipe.

Ingredients
300-400g beef (I had some cheapish steak)
1 egg
handful of breadcrumbs
7-8 sage leaves
5-6 sprigs of dried oregano (I had dried a bunch from the garden and just shook it into the mixture but fresh would be good too- just use more if it)
2 tbs parsley chopped
squirt of tomato sauce
1 egg whisked extra for basting
1 or 2 sheets of puff pastry

Method
* Preheat oven at about 180 degrees
* I have some beef left over from the day before so I put it in the food processor to mince
* Mix minced meat with chopped herbs, egg, breadcrumbs and tomato sauce
* Cut sheet of pastry into thirds then place meat mixture in a long sausage down the length of each third and roll up
* Brush top with egg and bake for about half an hour

A Family Affair

I call this an old family recipe because it has such a personal history and so many stories that surround it, such as: when it almost blinded my Burmese-Italian cousin: “Darshan, I’m blind….IM BLIND!!”, or when it almost helped my sister lose her first boyfriend [we hoped], or when my dad [Pa], true master of the recipe, woke up the morning after the very same sister’s wedding to find a trail of rose petals leading from his bedroom directly to the szechuan chicken recipe [hint hint!].

But as experts in Chinese geography might have guessed, and as you can see from the scan below, the recipe is not Sri Lankan. Its ripped from Charmaine Solomon’s Asian Cookbook [a must have] and I still follow her pretty much to the letter. It may look slack [and sorry about the sm. type] but I’ve included a scanned version of our original family copy below to show the amount of use it has had over the years [notice the ‘tick’ up the top which must have been the first time Pa chose to cook it].


A word in favour of deep-frying: This is not a cooking technique to be derided or looked down on but a fine art of precision, texture and fish & chip shop sound effects. A few of the other contributors to Family Pies are responsible for purchasing my deep-fryer and well, its been a hot, crispy, slightly salty, 3rd degree burning love affair ever since. In short: don’t try shallow frying this chicken – Pa and Charmaine just won’t have it.

WARNING: Szechuan chicken is extremely tasty before you put it in the sauce [kinda like KFC] and will be snapped up by any kitchen hangers in the vicinity. It is also one of those slow-melding, burning dishes that pack extra punch and flavour on day two: often devoured with toast or in a Brewell in front of the Sega Mega Drive. So make extra – perhaps triple the current recipe?

Lamb pita pockets

This is one of John's specialties but I never complain when he wants to make it as I am a bit of a lamb fan and this is one of the best ways to have it. It is not always possible to get lamb and this recipe works well with beef mince too, but the lamb mint combo is so heavenly that it really is worth seeking out lamb. You also need to have lots of good mint for this recipe too.


Lambballs
300-400g of lamb mince
1 egg
1 small spanish onion finely chopped (if we have a large red onion we will use half here and half in the salad)
1 cup finely chopped fresh parsley
1 cup chopped fresh mint
Mix everything together and shape into golf ball size meatballs with wet hands. Cook in pan or on barby.


Mint Salad
3 large tomatoes sliced
1 small spanish onion finely sliced
a handful of fresh mint leaves
juice of one lemon
slurp of good olive oil

Serve on halved pita pockets and top with natural yoghurt. Delish.....

In the cal-zone

After a busy months end (hmmmm too many holidays), I am cheating a little here and using some of an old post for ingredients and method. You may remember the very first entry for pizza,
and that the amount of dough is quite substantial. Well the great news is the dough freezes well and can be used for other tasty treats such as this calzone. You can also use some of the sauce in the filling too. Love a meal with pre-prepared yet homemade ingredients......

Dough
See method for pizza entry

Filling
This is the fun and creative part! This can be totally up to your taste, or even what you may have in the house! Here are just two of the standard combos we use in our place/

Veg- Mix spinach, fetta, parmesan, mushrooms, black olives and a splash of tommy sauce also on pizza page

Meaty- Any ham, prosciutto, (ground or thinly sliced)lamb or beef, mixed with spinach, cheeses, mushrooms, olives and of course the splash of tommy sauce

Putting it all together

* So you roll out your dough on a large floured surface.
* Then get a small(ish) dinner plate and cut out as many dough circles as you need.
* Once the rounds are made, you spoon about two tablespoons of the filling mixture into the middle of each round.
* Fold the rounds in half and pinch and fold round edges together.
* Brush top with egg or even just a little olive oil

* Place onto baking tray and put in 180- 200 degree oven for about 15-20 mins until each calzone in a lovely golden colour.
* When you take them out drizzle with a bit of yum e.v.o.o especially in the crease, and enjoy as a snack on its own or with a crispy rocket based salad for a main meal.
Enjoy

Laksa

While supermarket shopping in Thailand the other day I came across fried tofu puffs which I have never seen in Laos and immediately thought Laksa. Now, I have made many Laksa's over the years and while they are usually very tasty they are often really, really time consuming. I mean really, on most days, who could be bothered to boil prawn heads to get a stock - even if it is a damm tasty stock. So I took a risk and attempted a recipe from my new 'Bowl Food' cookbook purchased from the Cambodian chain bookstore that sells a wide range of photocopied, copyright infringed books. It looked easy and surprisingly was quite tasty. Anyway, that is why a make this post -it is a recipe for a tasty Laksa that you don't have to dedicate a day to.

For paste

1 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 onion, chopped
1cm x 3cm piece of ginger, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 stems lemongrass, sliced
4-6 small red chilies
2-3 teaspoons shrimp paste

For soup

1 L chicken stock
½ cup oil (I only used a few tablespoons)
3 cups coconut milk (I made do with a 200ml can coconut cream)
4 fresh kaffir lime leaves
2 ½ tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 table spoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons palm sugar or brown sugar
Handful of prawns or pork or beef or veggies
250g dried vermicelli noodles

To serve

1 cup bean sprouts
Handful of fried tofu puffs
4 hardboiled eggs
Mint, coriander – chopped
Lime wedges – to serve
Fried shallots – to serve

Dry roast the coriander seeds. Grind in a mortar and pestle. Repeat for cumin seeds. Put all of the ingredients for the paste in a blender and add half a cup of stock and blend to a paste.

Heat the oil and cook the paste on a low heat for 3- 5 minutes while stirring. Add remaining stock and bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 15 min, until slightly reduced. Add the coconut milk, lime leaves, lime juice, fish sauce and palm sugar and simmer for 5 minutes. At this time pour some boiling water over the vermicelli and leave for about 5 minutes until soft. Drain.

Add meat or vegies to soup and simmer until cooked.

Add noodles to each bowl. Top with soup and then garnish with eggs, bean sprouts, tofu puffs and herbs. Serve with lime and shallots. Serves 4-6.

Frango Piri-Piri

When visiting Southern Africa you invariably end up in Maputo. When in Maputo you may meet Lulu [pictured centre inset]. When you meet Lulu he will introduce you to the frango - portuguese 4 dead Chicken – call them galinhas when they’re running around – which reminds me – when you' re in a country where the chickens are running around: order the chicken– aint no better way to ensure you’ve got free range.

Less than a recipe, this is more a combination of techniques and preferences borrowed from friends (mostly Lulu) for a hot chicken that beats the pants off Nando’s and still has your unrehabilitated chicken addicts (e.g. Sar/Lambert) screaming for more. Feel free to adapt so long as you are cooking on charcoal/bbq and as long as you give the marinade its time.

As for the piri-piri, it’s a chilli. Get on the net - hold on, you already are - and you’re gonna find all types of goateed wankers waxing lyrical about what a REAL piri-piri is or isn’t. For those of us without conquistadorial roots, just get some small red hot chillies. Bite one, that should let you know if its got the punch.

Serves: 4 persons
Preparation time: 3 weeks!!!!!

Ingredients for Piri-piri
2 teaspoons sea salt
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 tablespoon paprika
3 tablespoons ground piri-piris or substitute piquin or Thai chillies
1 clove garlic, minced, or more to tasted
1 cup olive oil

Grind the ingredients, dry to wet. Put in a jar. Shake like crazy. Leave in fridge for 3 weeks.

Ingredients for Chicken
1 Whole Chicken (preferably organic or free range)
8-10 Cloves garlic, ground
6-8 Limes
OR
3-4 Lemons
Salt

24-48 hours before you plan to serve, butter-fly the chicken. This is easy as long as you have shearing scissors, a sharp knife and you follow this dude on video – he’s the master.

Trim off excess fat and reserve with the bones for stock - with a sharp knife, make deep slashes into the flesh of the bird wherever possible trying to keep the skin in tact. Apply some salt to each slash, then shove garlic into cavities, and pour over lemon/lime so, quoting Lulu ‘that the frango will suck the marinade??? hehehe...’ Leave for 30 minutes then apply your piri-piri in the same way – remember to save some for the grill.

An option which I like because its fun and probably adds punch, is to give the chicken a good 'jerk' while applying the marinade – I know which of our friends are sniggering right now. This is a Jamaican technique that I do with a chop-stick, stabbing and bashing at al the fleshy parts of the meat at will – feel free to puncture and tear a little.

Cover and leave overnight or longer in the fridge.

Tuck the wings in as shown on the video. Charcoal grill the bird flat on a bbq at medium heat for about 1 hour. Some prefer to use a brick or something heavy to keep the chook flat. On your final two turns baste with remaining piri-piri. You may like to add some brown sugar or honey to the marinade if you want a glaze. Chook is ready when you skewer and juices run clear not pink.

Serve with fries, cool crisp salad and Laurentina or some other easy drinking beer.

Yummy Pizza

Not really sure of how this will go kiddies, first cab off the rank and all. At least it will be down the page very soon. But we have to move house over the next couple of weeks so thought I should post a tried and tasty Friday night favourite of ours. The pizza base is a hybrid of a few different recipes that has evolved after some trial and error (oh and a wicked dining holiday in Italy). The sauce is based on a Jamie Oliver recipe that I saw on one of his TV shows once.....
The base can be made with gluten free flour.

Pizza Dough
1000g of plain flour
550mls tepid water
1 sachet of yeast
4 tbs olive oil
Pinch of salt
Optional 1tbs sugar (castor)
* this makes a huge amount of dough but it freezes well and can be used for calzone too. Another recipe for that will follow (sometime soon)

Process
Sift flour, salt and sugar if used onto a clean bench surface.
Make well in the middle and add a small amount of H2O, yeast and olive oil
Mix slowly with fork then start bringing in flour from the sides of well , keep adding water slowly
When it becomes too hard to mix with fork use your hands.
You may not need to use all the water
Kneed dough for about 5-6 minutes until it is elasticy
Place in large bowl, cover with damp cloth and place in warm place for about 45 minutes so it can rise to about double its size.


When you are ready to build your pizza you can flatten the base any way you like, tossing it in the air, stretching it into shape. But I am not a big stickler for shape and like my pizza base pretty thin so I use a rolling pin and it ends up in all kinds of shapes.

Pizza (tommy) sauce
1 large onion (2 small)
3 cloves of garlic
Fresh basil
2 cans of whole peeled tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

Process
Roughly chop onion and garlic
Sweat onion in pan, then add garlic, basil and tomatoes
Roughly mash tomatoes and let simmer for about 10 minutes
Push mixture through sieve so there is a fragrant tomato sauce left (throw chunks away)

Put this sauce back into pan and simmer (maybe another 10 minutes) until reduced to a nice thick sauce.

Topping
Whatever you like!!
A great veggie pizza is sauteed zucchini in garlic, mushrooms, roasted capsicum, onion, olives and mozzarella, Artichoke is always another tasty topping too.

Our fav (this month) is topping the base with tommy sauce and mozzarella, putting it in a really hot oven (250° C) as is. When it is beautiful and golden take it out of the oven, it is topped with prosciutto and rocket (dressed with fresh lemon juice, olive oil and salt and pepper).
Bellissimo!