Slow roasted lamb & chilli fetta carrots

With the cooler weather (finally) hitting Perth, Mr Alphie has started requesting a Sunday roast. We've had roast chook (WA raised free range, of course) a couple of times now, and after the most recent request for a chicken roast, I realised that the alternative had to be pretty tempting to draw Mr Alphie from the roast chook obsession he was clearly about to fall in to. I had a quick ponder back to previous winters, and other roasts cooked, and remembered stumbling upon a fantastic lamb recipe last winter.

In the low calorie obsession of the last 12 months, I bought a number of cookbooks I would not have otherwise. On reflection, most of the books are are quite weird  but one that has had more than it's fair share of gems, is Jane Kennedy's OMG! I Can Eat That?. It still has some weird stuff in it, and I think she takes the low-carb thing a bit far sometimes, but the slow roast lamb recipe is definitely a winner. Beautifully soft, pull apart lamb shoulder, drizzled with a garlicky, lemony 'gravy'.... mmmm, oh, and the smell wafting through the house as it cooks... Perfection.

Another recent realisation I have had, is that just because we're having a roast, doesn't mean we have to have the full suite of traditional roast veges (potato, sweet potato, pumpkin, carrot, parsnip, etc), with an obligatory serve of green veg on the side (peas, beans or broccoli). Don't get me wrong, I adore roast veges, and have been known to just have roast veges for dinner, but I'm starting to fall for carefully crafted 'side dishes' to star along side the roast, rather than as uninspired support acts.

A recent favourite  thanks to a continuing excess of carrots that arrive in our fruit & vege delivery, is also found in OMG! I Can Eat That? Chilli feta carrots. So divine, and it's possible I love these more than regular roasted carrots, which I previously thought of as the best part of a roast. I have a continuing love affair with Brussels sprouts/cabbage and bacon, and of course, a roast is not a roast, without some form of roasted potato to accompany it - soft & fluffy in their jackets is my preference.

Slow Roast Lamb
slightly modified from Jane Kennedy's OMG! I Can Eat That? pg 105
Serves 4-6

• approx 1kg boned lamb shoulder
• 1 lemon, quartered
• 1 head garlic, broken up, but not peeled
• 2-3 stems rosemary
• 1 cup chicken or beef stock
• olive oil
• salt & pepper

Preheat your oven to 220°C.

In a roasting pan, place the lemon wedges in the centre, ad surround with the garlic cloves. What you're trying to do here is create a 'trivet' for the lamb to rest on. Depending on the size of your lamb shoulder you may need another lemon, or some more garlic. Place the rosemary on top, followed by the lamb. Drizzle with a bit of olive oil, salt & pepper, and rub it all in.

Add the stock to the pan (Jane recommends you do this at the end to make the 'gravy', but I had too many experiences of the lemons & garlic burning on to the pan & engulfing the kitchen in acrid smoke), and cover tightly with foil. Chuck it in your hot oven, and immediately reduce the heat to 160°C.

Leave it for 4 hours. Yes, 4 hours. I promise you, it'll be worth it.

After the 4 hours are up, take the foil off & increase the oven to 220°C. Leave for another 20 minutes, just to get some crispy bits going.

Remove from the oven, set the lamb aside on the serving plate & cover with foil. Fish the lemon bits & rosemary out of the pan, and squeeze all that delicious slow roasted garlic out of its skins back into all the pan juices. You might also want to get rid of a bit of the fat in the pan at this point, although I don't always have to - it depends on the lamb. Mush up that garlic & put the pan on the cooktop on a medium heat to reduce a bit. It won't thicken up like a gravy, but that's ok.

This works best if it's served family-style - a big plate in the middle of the table & everyone can help themselves to the unctuous lamb & drippy pan gravy. So, shred the lamb on the serving plate & spoon the gravy over the top.

Serve & dig in!

(sorry about the lack of 'in progress' photos, I had to fight Mr Alphie for the oven & I got a bit frazzled trying to get it in on time)

Chilli Fetta Carrots
slightly modified from Jane Kennedy's OMG! I Can Eat That? pg 193
Serves 4-6

• 3-4 carrots, peeled & sliced on the diagonal
• olive oil
• salt & pepper
• 1/4 - 1/2 tsp chilli flakes, to taste
• 50g fetta cheese (or there about, I just eyeball it)
• 2tbs chopped flat leaf parsley

Either toss your carrots in a bit of oil, then spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper; or chuck them straight on the tray (still with baking paper) and spray with oil. Whichever method you choose, sprinkle the carrots with salt & freshly ground pepper & chilli flakes.

Roast the carrots in a 200°C oven for 25 or so minutes, until they're just golden. Mix with the fetta & parsley in a serving bowl.

Enjoy!

Do you have any favoured side dish recipes that are starts in their own right? Please share, I'd love to hear about them.

My food biography

I read this article/blog by Jill Dupleix a while ago (sometime in July or early August I guess...), and scribbled down my first thoughts for my food biography on a scrap of paper, with the intention of turning it into a blog post. The scrap of paper was ‘safely’ filed away in my diary, and not surprisingly, I totally forgot about the idea and the blog post I had planned. Cleaning out my diary last week, I found my notes, and started turning it into a readable post. So, with a little help from my sub editor sister, Ms Red, here is my food biography.

1. Gingiboat

image from cuisine.com.au

One of my first food memories is of homemade smoked trout pâté, affectionately known as ‘gingiboat’. Ms Red has questioned our parents on the origin of the word gingiboat, and the response is always ‘I have no idea, you just started calling it gingiboat, and it stuck’. So no real insights there. To this day I have a soft spot for a well-made smoked trout pâté and have been known to make a bee-line to the relevant stall at growers markets muttering ‘gingiboat, gingiboat…’.

2. Pikelets

image from taste.com.au

My Mum went back to uni while I was in primary school, and so was home a lot more. One of my main memories of this time is of mum cooking pikelets for afternoon tea, after school. I seemed always to be able to put away a scarily large number of pikelets for a 6 (or so) year old. On one particular occasion I managed to eat more than 20 in one sitting, and I regretted it pretty soon after. And now, I’m one of those weird people who don’t really like pancakes (although I make an exception for poffertjes).

3. Chicken with mustard sauce

image from nine msn/real living

One particular semester of Mum’s degree, she had a late afternoon/evening lecture. Ms Red and I used to go to my best friend’s house after school, then Dad would pick us up and make my then favourite dinner - mustard chicken with mash and veges. Every week without fail, the three of us had chicken with mustard sauce. And, while it might have been my favourite when Dad asked for suggestions at the start of the semester, I got over it pretty quickly. I asked Dad if we could have a break and have something else next week, and the look of hurt on his face was obvious even to a 7 year old, but he relented, and sadly chicken with mustard sauce has not made an appearance since.

4. Chocolate self saucing pudding

image from nine msn recipe finder

This was one of the first things I learnt to cook solo, possibly because it doesn’t require an oven, just a microwave – you might have seen my previous post on microwave puddings. I have numerous memories of whipping this up in Mum and Dad’s old kitchen after dinner. It has now become a staple last minute dessert at our house, as well as at Ms Red’s. Although, sadly I don’t think Mum and Dad have continued the tradition...

5. Lasagne

image from nine msn/AWW

My dad is one of those cooks who finds something that works and sticks with it (see above). Lasagne is one of these dishes, and it has outlasted all others. Dad’s lasagne makes a regular appearance whenever the four of us get together, and is often requested by extended family when they visit. I’m sure it’s totally not traditional, and that any self respecting Italian would disapprove, but it is the best lasagne I have ever eaten, with perfect bolognaise to béchamel sauce ratio. He has passed his skills on to Ms Red and I, but neither of us can ever get it quite right.

6. Pho

I remember very clearly my first Vietnamese food experience. Near the end of my last year at school, Dad drove me to Wollongong for a scholarship interview. The night before the interview, we walked to the mall to find dinner. Not surprisingly, the mall is not really the best place to find food, so we kept walking and ended up on Keira St, in front of a Vietnamese restaurant, Monsoon (which I later discovered was a Wollongong institution), luckily, they had a table and ushered us in. Neither of us had any idea what to order, so a very energetic waiter sat with us and helped us decide. I can’t remember what we had, apart from the best fish cakes I have ever eaten, and that I had never had anything like it before. Once I moved to Wollongong, Monsoon became a regular lunch (and dinner) spot, and I almost always order the signature Vietnamese beef noodle soup, pho bo, regardless of the temperature outside. Pho has become my measure of a Vietnamese restaurant, and is my first choice when trying out a new place. I am so in love with pho, that I convinced FH Alphie to spend three weeks in Vietnam earlier this year, just because I wanted an excuse to eat the delicious noodle soup for three weeks straight.

7. Lebanese

image from taste.com.au

I had two food revelations in my first year of University, the first was my introduction to pho (above), and the second was an introduction to Lebanese. This happened around the time FH Alphie and I first got together. He was working at a Lebanese restaurant, and regularly brought things back to college to supplement the appalling food Eurest provided us. Also, FH Alphie’s Mum (FMIL), is Lebanese, and loves to cook, so she helped to open my eyes to Middle Eastern food – to think I once hated felafel! To this day, kibbi, hummus and baba ghanoush are some of my favourite foods. Oh, and flat bread! how could I forget that gloriously soft and stretchy flat bread!

8. Mum’s home grown lamb

image from cuisine.com.au

Growing up, we didn’t have lamb much at home; the occasional crumbed cutlets were about the extent of it. Then, about four years ago, Mum started raising her own sheep, and lamb became a hot commodity in our family. I now eat lamb at every opportunity (only Mum’s of course), from roasts to stir fries, slow cooked shanks to meatballs, and casseroles to those familiar cutlets.

9. FH Alphie's pizza

This has already featured here, but it deserves another mention. FH Alphie first started making pizza about 3 years ago, when we first started living together. Initially he didn’t make the bases, and it was an infrequent event. Then it became more regular, but he still wasn’t making the bases. After a couple of tries at making the bases, he finally settled on a recipe from Good Living and it became a Friday night feature. Even though I’m in Perth at the moment, the tradition is continuing with Mr & Mrs Pink, but I really miss my Friday night pizza hit.

10. Macarons

And, last, but definitely not least, macarons! Who would have guessed! As regular followers (all 9 of you...) will know, I’m suffering from a macaron addiction at the moment. And after a number of attempts, I think I’ve finally perfected them using a recipe, and am now getting excited about creating my own flavours.

So, now that I've shared, what would be in your food biography?

-Alphie

Curried lamb pasties

These were a bit of a mission to make. I started dicing the lamb shoulder just after lunch, and we didn't start eating until 8.30 or 9.00! Admittedly it was a late lunch, but I did not expect these to take that long. The recipe is one I ripped out of a SMH Good Living about 2 years ago, and has been languishing in my 'green folder' ever since (much like the Moroccan lamb meatballs). Now that I have such great lamb to work with, I thought it was time I gave it a try.

Just a few hints, so that maybe it wont take quite so long... Use a non stick pan - I made a 'shocking mess' of the pot I used, which wasn't non stick, and I haven't attempted to clean it yet (I made these yesterday)... Cooling the lamb mix will take a couple of hours (unless, like me, you are in a total rush, and are crazy enough to cool it in an ice bath...), so I would suggest you start this either the day before, or at least 8 hours before you want to eat them... And lastly, don't try to put too much filling in the pasties, they wont seal well, and will probably burst open during cooking.

FH Alphie rated them: 8.5/10

Curried lamb and winter veg pasties
from SMH Good Living, 8 July 2008.
makes 6

• 600g diced lamb shoulder
• 1/2 cup plain flour
• salt
• pepper
• olive oil
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 stick celery, diced
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 4 garlic cloves, sliced
• 3tbs curry powder
• 2 birds eye chillis
• 500ml beef or chicken stock
• 200g pumpkin, diced
• 200g parsnip, diced
• 200g celeriac, diced (swede also works well if you can't find celeriac)
• 6 sheets/600-700g shortcrust pastry
• 1 egg, lightly beaten

Toss lamb through the seasoned flour. Heat oil in a large, preferably non stick, pan and brown the lamb in batches.

Then add the onion, celery, carrot, garlic, curry powder and chillis and cook until soft (about 10 minutes). Return the lamb to the pan, and add the stock. Simmer, stirring often (another reason I made such a mess of the pan...) for 90 minutes, or until the lamb is soft and the sauce is thick.


Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Combine the pumpkin, parsnip and celeriac/swede on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, season, and bake for 15 minutes. Stir into the lamb mix, and cool completely.


Cut pastry into six, 20cm circles, brush with egg and spoon mix (about 3/4 cup) into the centre. Bring sides together at the top, and pinch sides together to seal all the way around. Place on a baking tray, and brush with more of the egg. Bake for 10 minutes at 200 degrees, then 20 minutes at 170 degrees.

Enjoy! But be careful, they will be hot.

-Alphie

Moroccan lamb meatballs

This is a recipe that has been languishing in my over-full recipe folder for some time now. Mostly because I haven't had lamb mince for a while, and I can't bring myself to pay exorbitant prices for average quality lamb at the supermarket (the local butcher is not much better, mind you!). Now that we're all stocked up on the lamb front, I thought I might finally give this recipe a go.

I served this with cous cous and steamed green beans. I probably wouldn't bother with the cous cous next time, the chickpeas give it enough of a 'carby' feel. The meatballs were delicious, although I guess that relies pretty heavily on the quality of the lamb you use ;) FH Alphie thought that the sauce was a lacking something.

FH Alphie rated it: 6/10 (I think that's a bit mean, I'd give it 8/10)
Moroccan meatballs & chickpeas
from SMH Good Living, August 2009
serves 4

• 2 thick slices white bread, crusts removed
• 100ml milk
• 500g lean minced lamb
• 1 small onion, grated
• 2tbs parsley leaves, chopped
• 2tbs coriander leaves, chopped
• 2tsp ground cumin
• 2tsp ground cinnamon
• 1tsp salt
• 2tbs olive oil
• 1 onion, halved and finely sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2x 400g cans crushed tomatoes
• 2tbs tomato paste
• 1 cup water
• 400g canned chickpeas, drained & rinsed
• 2tbs parsley leaves, chopped
• 2tbs coriander leaves, chopped
• 1tsp ground cumin
• 1tsp paprika
• 1tsp ground ginger
• 1/2tsp salt
• 1/2tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees.
Soak the bread in milk for five or so minutes. Combine bread, lamb, onion, herbs, spices and salt in a bowl, and mix (with your hands) until well combined.

Roll into golf-ball sizes balls, place on a lightly greased baking tray, and bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned.

Meanwhile, start the sauce. In a large frypan, cook onion in oil over med-high heat until just colouring. Add garlic, tomato paste, tomatoes and water and bring to the boil. Add chickpeas, herbs, spices, salt and pepper and simmer for 15 minutes. Add meatballs and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

-Alphie

Roast lamb

I mentioned yesterday that I brought lemons back from Mum and Dads. As well as the lemons, we also came home with a lot of lamb. Mum breeds sheep as a hobby, so there is always lamb to be had. She's just at the stage where she is getting too many for the two of them to eat, so she sells them to friends and family, and is trying to start selling them commercially. And, as Mum would say, it's not organic, but it is ethically raised.


FH Alphie and I brought (the equivalent of) one back with us - in cuts mind you, not a whole sheep in an esky! We now have two boned shoulders, four shanks, a boned leg, two 'half' legs (just the right size for a roast for two - but I'll get to that), a backstrap, 12 (or 18?) cutlets, a few chops, some mince, and stir fry strips in the freezer. So it seemed fitting that we had a lamb roast tonight.

I have never really been a big fan of lamb roasts, I generally prefer beef or chicken (weird, since don't like chicken all that much the rest of the time...). I find that roast lamb is often tough and frequently over cooked. So with this in mind, I turned to my cooking bible, Margaret Fulton's Encyclopedia of Food and Cookery. If anyone was going to tell me how to cook a perfect lamb roast, it would be Margaret (p.s. she was on MasterChef last night, and was just adorable).

In the words of Faux Fuchsia, vegetarians, look away now. Everyone else, here's a shot of the gorgeous lamb on its way to the oven.


I used one of the half bone-in legs, about 850g, and cooked it for an hour - 20 minutes at 220 degrees, then 40 minutes at 180 degrees. The 20 minutes on a higher temperature was Margaret's suggestion, as was resting it in the oven for 15-20 minutes. And, no bias here, I promise, it was easily the best lamb roast I have ever had. The lamb was tender and super tasty, and I didn't over cook it, it was perfect, just pink in the middle.

As is customary for a roast, I served it with roast potatoes, carrots & pumpkin, steamed greens (broccoli & beans today), and gravy.

-Alphie