Easter lamb three ways

Easter brings out the usual suspects. Hot cross buns make an appearance for Good Friday brunch. I used to do them for breakfast but brunch around 11 & then an earlyish tea works well.

In the evening we have the old standard, Smoked Fish Pie. I used to make this regularly as a family favourite. Now it only appears annually on the Good Friday table. Not because it is not delicious but because it is not an easy one to shrink down for two. However it is nice reheated the next day. This year I used smoked warehou & fresh monkfish. About 200g smoked & 150g fresh plus a handful of prawns.

This year for our Easter Sunday dinner we stayed with slow roasted shoulder of lamb (and why wouldn't you?), but we varied it a little. We went for Nigel Slater's slightly middle eastern version with mashed chickpeas. I served this with crispy roasted potatoes sprinkled with horopito, baby carrots & beetroot roasted in orange juice and balsamic vinegar, & steamed spinach. Yum.

The lamb made a second appearance in Shepherd's Pie the next day served with the spinach that wasn't used the previous day.

The following day I made a delicious slow cooked lamb stew with chops that I served atop the leftover mashed chickpeas enlivened with a little beef stock (only because I had just prepared a fresh batch & it was there). For two, use 2 large neck chops, trimmed of as much fat as possible. Sprinkle with salt & pepper & brown in a casserole on both sides. You'll need to do in batches if you are doing more, or use a much bigger casserole. Once one side is browned add an onion & a large clove of garlic, both thinly sliced. Push them into the gaps between the chops so that they lightly brown as well. Add some oregano, or thyme leaves, 1/4 cup red wine & a tsp sugar. Once the wine has bubbled up add three or four tomatoes peeled & sliced and a couple of waxy potatoes (I used desiree), unpeeled & thickly sliced. Season with salt & pepper, bring to the boil, turn right down & simmer 1 1/2-2 hours. Or do in the oven at about 120 if your stove top is busy as mine was with beef stock & bottling feijoas. I served the chop on a bed of the chickpea mash with the potatoes & oniony gravy on one side accompanied by steamed new season sprouts.

I am favouring a light grainy dish as a midweek meal. Try this. Saute a couple of sliced spring onions with a minced clove of garlic and a finely chopped chilli in olive oil. Stir through a handful of oregano leaves or a tsp of dried and a couple tbsp chipotle sauce. I had this in the fridge & wanted to use it up but when I haven't, I think I will use home made tomato sauce & maybe add a 2nd chilli. Or maybe sweet chilli sauce?

Add 1 cup quinoa & season. Cook a couple of minutes then add a drained tin of black beans (small kidney beans or pintos would work), 1 cup frozen corn, 2 chopped courgettes (the last 2 in the garden) & 2 cups vegetable stock. Bring to the boil, stir, cover, turn down & simmer about 15 minutes then uncover & cook until the water has mostly evaporated & the quinoa is soft. Serve with lime wedges. Cook generous portions because this may not look pretty but it is so delicious that if you haven't made enough there will be sad faces at your table.

I need to tell you about this new Over the Moon cheese - Southern Cross by Neil Willman. It's a blend of buffalo, ewe, goat & cow cheeses. It's at Moore Wilson but I'm not sure where in Auckland. Try Farro Fresh in Mt Wellington or Mairangi Bay.

The prodigal returns

On a busy Sunday night try this comforting potato dish. Peel 2-3 Agria potatoes & cut into 4cm chunks & lay in a roasting pan with 1-2 carrots, peeled, halved & sliced lengthways. Add about 250ml vegetable stock & season. Put in the oven at 200 for about 40 minutes until most of the stock is absorbed. Take them from the oven & drizzle over 50 ml creme fraiche, sprinkle over a slice of prosciutto chopped into smallish pieces, zest of a lemon & a handful of chopped chives. This would work as an accompaniment to almost anything but is a wonderful busy night supper because you can put it in the oven & walk away.

We have our student back for mid-term - well, kind of, when she's not off having fun with her friends. We delivered her favourite French onion soup for her soup Monday homecoming.

Because institutional food is processed and often lacking fresh vegetables, I made a light fresh chicken dish. Start by preparing some vegetables. Choose from thinly sliced spring onions, topped & tailed snow peas, julienned carrots, capsicum, courgette - whatever you have to hand. Heat a little vegetable oil in a pan & fry grated rind of a lemon or lime, 2 tbsp fresh minced ginger, 1 small red chilli finely chopped, 2 cloves crushed garlic. After a minutes or so, add about 500g boneless chicken cut into thin strips & stir fry about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Add 1 tsp grated palm sugar, 2 tbsp fish sauce, 2 tsp lemon or lime juice, 2 tbsp water mixed to a paste with 2 tsp cornflour. Simmer 2-3 minutes. Mix in prepared vegetables and a handful of bean sprouts & stir through to heat. Serve with rice or noodles.

You may recall I did a lamb stew with rose petals a few weeks ago. I still have a pack of rose petals, so for our Wednesday family meal I made quinoa with pistachio & rose petals served with delicious vegetable kebabs. Prepare the kebabs first. Choose a selection of vegetables you like - capsicum, button mushrooms, baby red onions and chop into kebab sized chunks. Add to a bowl with haloumi chopped into 3 cm cubes. Combine 2 tsp sumac, 1/4 cup chopped mint & parsley, 1 small red chilli finely chopped, 80ml olive oil, 20ml lemon juice & black pepper. Pour over the vegetables & mix through with your hands. Set aside for as long as you can - an hour would be good. Put some bamboo skewers into water to soak.

When you are ready to start cooking, put a cup quinoa in a saucepan with 2 cups cold water, bring to the boil, cover & simmer gently about 15 mins until all the water has evaporated. Set aside to cool slightly. Thread the vegetables and haloumi onto the bamboo skewers & grill about 10 minutes turning regularly. The good thing about kebabs is you can prepare the skewers to individual tastes. We did 2 per person - one pair with no onion or cheese, one no capsicum or cheese, one no mushrooms & 2 with everything.

Back to the quinoa. Toss through 1/2 cup chopped mint, juice & zest of a lemon, 1/4 cup slivered pistachios & 1/4 cup rose petals with a tbsp olive oil and season. This was so delicious & delicate. I think it might be a nice side dish with sliced lamb fillets for a crowd. You could roast the veg in the oven, which might provide more even cooking but you can't deliver the same degree of customisation.

This summer, 1/2 a dozen tomato plants sprang up unexpectedly in the flower beds. I think they must have come from seeds in the compost. We hadn't tended them or fed them & although they presented tomatoes, none ripened. What luck, as we were quite out of green tomato chutney. Last weekend I pulled the plants & made the chutney. Finely dice 2 onions, 2 cooking apples & enough green tomatoes to make up 1.5 kg of fruit. That was the quantity of tomatoes I had. Add 2-3 roughly chopped peeled garlic cloves, 2 tsp salt, 2 cups brown sugar, 2 cups malt vinegar. In a small square of muslin, wrap 2 tsp pickling spices. Try allspice & cloves or do what I do & keep a tsp each of allspice, cloves, white peppercorns, coriander seeds, yellow mustard seeds in a small jar labelled (with a Brother P touch labelling machine) Pickling Spices. Simmer everything in a preserving pan over a low heat until it becomes pulpy & thickened. Cool, remove the muslin bag & blend a little in the processor. Pour into sterilised jars, seal & label. This will be very popular. I will probably have enough green tomatoes when I pull the back tomatoes to make a second batch.

I suspect I often talk as if I have a huge garden. Those of you who have seen it will testify that this is not so. I have a few raised boxes & some pots. It wouldn't have fed a family of seven but we do get enough to keep 2 or 3 in whatever's harvesting at any given time. I haven't bought a lettuce since October & at times we had so many I couldn't keep up & had to share with some of you. We have had a bumper crop of carrots. I've stewed 3-4 sticks of rhubarb every week all summer. We enjoyed a good crop of potatoes. We grew radishes all summer. We have all the herbs we use growing. By growing our own we get more interesting varieties. My carrots are very pretty colours. I love the purple ones that are orange in the middle. We are now growing broccoli, red cabbages, winter spinach & a winter crop called corn salad which I am hoping will keep us in salad over winter with the radicchio that is still going strong. I urge you to try growing your favourite crops. Let me know what you recommend.

End of the Golden Weather

The summer crops are winding down and the new season's produce is filling the market stalls. All the brassicas looked irresistible but I settled for broccoli which we just steamed and served with an old favourite beef stew. It's a good idea to make lots and freeze as it is little effort and you'll have a 2nd hearty meal to produce on one of those nights when you don't have time to cook but want something substantial when you finally get in.

Cut 2kg of stewing steak (blade, chuck, skirt) into thick chunks. Finely chop together 4 rashers of bacon, 2 onions, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery, 4 cloves garlic with a handful of parsley & thyme. Gently cook in a tbsp lard in a heavy casserole (if you don't want to use lard try olive oil instead but lard gives good flavour here) and set aside. Heat a 2nd tbsp lard in a second pan and brown the meat in batches. When it is done sprinkle a handful of flour over the last batch and cook until the flour has browned. Add the meat to the casserole and to the meat pan add 1 cup red wine, 1 tbsp soy sauce, 2 cups water and salt & pepper. Scrape up the meat residue and add to the meat and vegetables. Cover & cook in a low oven about an hour. Take it out and add some vegetables selecting from mushrooms, pickling onions, carrots, potatoes, baby turnips. Just prepare them and chop them into a size you like. Return to the oven and cook for another hour. If you have 2 casseroles you could split them at this stage & put a different set of vegetables in each one.

Now that daylight saving has ended we are back on soup Mondays. We started the season with Egyptian lentil, served with some pita that was in the fridge and had seen better days. For 2 people, heat a small quantity of oil in a pan and soften a finely diced onion, a sliced garlic clove, a small piece of ginger grated and 1/2 a carrot, grated. Stir in a tsp each of cumin, turmeric and paprika and cook for a minute or two. Add a couple of handfuls of red lentils and stir through the spices then add 500ml chicken stock. Simmer until the lentils are cooked. Meanwhile brush a couple of pita breads with oil on both sides then cut into triangles and gently toast in a medium oven for about 8 minutes. You want them crisp but not so crisp that they shatter when you bite them.

On Tuesday I did something I've been thinking about for ages. I love mattar paneer and Zany Zeus have brought out a paneer so I thought I'd have a go. I delved into my trusty Indian Vegetarian Cookery bought in London 30 years ago and it did not disappoint. Cube the paneer (I just bought a pack of paneer that seemed the right amount for 2 people) and fry in ghee until golden. Set aside. In a mortar & pestle grind a small piece of grated ginger, 1 tsp turmeric, 1/2 tsp chilli, 1 tsp cumin seeds, seeds from 2 cardamom pods, a small piece of cinnamon and mix with a little water to form a paste. In a pan fry a finely chopped onion with 1 tsp each mustard seeds & poppy seeds. Add the paste & fry a couple of minutes. Add 2-3 chopped tomatoes and a cup of peas. Gently fry a couple of minutes, add a cup of water & cook until peas are done. Add the paneer and sprinkle with lemon juice. Serve with rice, home made tamarillo chutney and Indian bread.

If it is a cold night, try sausages in a mustardy sauce. I like to keep a pack of the Island Bay Butcher's pork & fennel sausages in the freezer for a rainy day & Wednesday turned out to be that day. Soften (almost caramelise) 1-2 onions in olive oil. Be patient, you want them to cook right down. While the onions are doing, cook some pasta such as penne or giant conchiglie and set aside. Skin the sausages and break into chunks - you can use any sausages you like. Add to the onion and cook through. Stir through a good dollop each of creamy Dijon and grainy mustard and a handful of chopped Italian parsley. Stir in about 1/2 cup cream and the cooked pasta.

We did a delicious creamy risotto topped with lemony chicken. In a baking dish, combine chopped rosemary and parsley with 2 cloves of crushed garlic, 1/4 cup olive oil and juice of a lemon. Add a couple of chicken thighs - skin on (and skin side up) if you can get them. Put in the oven at 180 and roast 30-40 minutes, basting once. Cover & set aside to rest.

While the chicken is cooking make a basic risotto adding lemon zest and 2 tbsp chopped sage with the rice. Serve with the chicken sliced on top andif you want to be fancy cook a few sage leaves in hot olive oil until crisp. I did the sage leaves in the leftover oil and fat the chicken cooked in - okay if you used a pan that can be used on the stove top.

In the weekend I made a batch of quince jelly. Yell out if you would like a jar. I used to be scared of jelly because people suggest it is complicated but it really is not. Wash & quarter 5-6 quinces. Put them in a large pan (skin, cores and all) covered with water and simmer covered until quinces are soft. Mash the quinces & water until you have a liquidy mush. Spoon the mush into a jelly bag suspended over a large bowl. You have a lot of liquid so I spooned in the solids using a slotted spoon & then poured the liquid over in batches, transferring the resulting pink liquid to the preserving pan so the bowl didn't overflow. Leave the last batch to drip for hours making sure you have eked out every last drop of liquid from the quinces. Measure the liquid as you go because you want to add 7 cups of sugar to 8 cups of juice. That's 7/8 cup of sugar per cup of juice. Don't be precise but you don't want as much as a whole cup. Bring the juice to the boil then add the sugar. Boil until it is ready, skimming off any foam that appears. You want the liquid to reach about 220F and you can use a cooking thermometer to measure this. Don't rely on it though. When your jelly has been at a rolling boil for 10 minutes or so test it by putting about 1/2 tsp on a dish you have had in the freezer. If after a few seconds, when you push it with your finger it wrinkles a little it is done. Don't worry if it isn't perfect. You'll just have jars of delicious quince sauce to pour over ice cream.

I also pulled the basil plants and
made a batch of pesto. The plan for this weekend is to get all those tomatoes that didn't ripen into a batch of green tomato chutney. 

Dinners to eat on your knees

Our dining table is currently away being fixed. There was a flaw in the design and the whole top is being replaced. This means we are perching on the island or eating on our laps. We need to plan our meals to fit with this arrangement.

On Saturday we had a very simple piece of John Dory grilled with skin on, served on baby leeks. Cook 8-10 baby leeks for a few minutes in boiling salted water then refresh under cold water & set aside. Soft boil 2 eggs about 7 minutes so that you can peel them but the yolk is still slightly runny. Make a mustard vinaigrette using Dijon mustard , white wine vinegar & olive oil. Grill the reserved leeks on a hot griddle pan until they are slightly coloured. Brush the John Dory fillets with butter on each side, season with salt & pepper, ands cook under a hot grill skin side up for about 4 minutes until skin is crispy. Serve the fish on top of the leeks which have been drizzled with the vinaigrette. Top with shavings of Parmesan & serve the egg halved on the side. We thought this deserved one of our bottles of Australian Riesling left us by a generous guest. We opened the Jacobs Creek Steingarten which was perfect.

Sunday was quite cool so I made a heartwarming lamb & pearl barley stew and froze the leftovers. Get your butcher to bone a shoulder of lamb & cut into largish chunks. Brown the meat in batches & set aside. In the pan, soften 1 onion finely chopped, 1 carrot finely diced, 2 sticks celery finely sliced, 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped, with a handful of chopped oregano leaves, peel of 1/2 a preserved lemon & a bay leaf. Return the lamb to the pan with a good slosh of dry white wine, a cup of pearl barley, well rinsed & drained and 750ml chicken stock. Bring to the boil and simmer very gently for a good hour or more until the barley and the lamb are both very tender. Add a handful of baby spinach & stir through to wilt. Season with the juice of 1/2 a lemon and salt & pepper. Stir through some finely chopped parsley. Pearl barley is a beautiful grain to use in winter.

During the week we used the last of the courgettes with pasta. Cut the courgettes into matchsticks & saute, then add the cooked fine ribbon pasta, a dollop of basil pesto, 1/2 an avocado cut into chunks. Mix together, season and top with grated Parmesan. I used a lemon pasta I had in the cupboard but if I hadn't I would have added a good squeeze of lemon juice.

I've been thinking about brown rice which I love but which we didn't have very often because the children weren't keen. Harriet is keen now so when she came to dine I made a very tasty rice stew which I plan to repeat. Almost a brown rice risotto. Start by soaking a handful of dried porcini in a little hot water. Soften a leek or onion or whatever you have to hand in a wide pan. Add 1 cup washed short grain brown rice and stir until shiny. Add a 1 cup vegetable stock or water and cook until the rice begins to become tender, stirring occasionally. This will take about 10 mins. Chop the softened mushrooms & add with the soaking water, making sure to leave the sediment behind. Add a tin of tomatoes and any vegetables you need to use up. I added 1/2 a chopped kamo kamo. Cook about another 10 minutes stirring occasionally. Add more water if you need to. When the rice is almost done stir through a can of drained cannellini beans. I also added a handful of spinach I needed to use up. Stir through some chopped basil & parsley & serve.

On Friday we had friends over to watch a dvd. We had chilli and a beautiful salad featuring lettuce, carrots, radishes & tomatoes from the garden.