Lamb and sherry pie

When I was in the UK last year I had a lot of wonderful pies. I particularly remember a great one at the Hand in Llangollen: it was beef in beer served with mushy peas. I have made a few since I came back and had planned that the next one I experimented with would be a chicken and mushroom pie or a kangaroo in shiraz.


But during the week I grabbed some lamb at the supermarket one night after work and once I opened it I thought it looked a bit tough and needed simmering for a while. So I left it to cook until the weekend and this pie was the result. I used ready prepared puff pastry from the freezer and ready prepared tomato sauce. You can, of course, start from scratch for both of those items. I used an Amontillado sherry but you can use whatever you have on hand. And the sherry measurement is a sherry glass not a tumbler! I cut the lamb into strips but you can cube it if you prefer. I made one pie but you can use the same ingredients to make individual pies in souffle dishes: you won't need to use the egg cup in those.


Ingredients

660 gr lamb
1 onion
olive oil
1.5 glasses sherry
Couple teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
Couple tablespoons ready prepared tomato pasta sauce
2 carrots
1 sheet puff pastry


Mode

Chop onion roughly
Cut lamb into strips roughly half an inch by three inches
Heat olive oil in frying pan
Quickly fry onions and add to large saucepan
Seal the lamb in oil in batches and add to saucepan as done
Add sherry, Worcestershire sauce, and tomato sauce to lamb and onion mixture
Bring to the boil
Cook vigorously for 15 minutes then reduce to a simmer
Place a simmer mat under the pot and simmer for about an hour
Meanwhile peel and slice carrots
Add carrots to the mixture and simmer for another half hour (or longer) until everything is tender and yummy
Preheat oven to 200c
Take pan from heat and spoon into pie dish after placing upturned egg cup in centre
Using a pastry brush paint water around the rim of the pie dish
Place the pastry sheet over and trim
Seal the edges to the dish with the water
Gather the remains of pastry sheet and roll
Use to decorate top as desired
Place in oven and bake for about 30 minutes

I served it with sweet potato and peas cooked in cumin but mushy peas would be good too :)

Chicken and basil balls in broth

We have had a very unusual summer and it certainly hasn't been very hot. That has been good for bush fires but also for soup. I made this yummy soup in early February but haven't got around to posting about it until now.



Ingredients

4 cups chicken stock
3 spring onions
2 teaspoons crushed ginger
500gr minced chicken
1 slice bread
water
olive oil
1 onion
Basil
1 egg
Flour
Shaved Parmesan



Mode
Add stock to large pan on stove
Chop spring onions and add
Peel and crush ginger
Bring to boil and leave simmering
Place bread in bowl of water
Chop onion roughly
Chop basil leaves
Add chicken, basil, onion, bread and egg to mixing bowl
Mix to combine preferably using hands to finish
Form small balls with the mixture and roll in flour
Heat olive oil in frying pan
Quickly seal the chicken balls in the oil in batches and add to broth
Simmer for 3/4 hour on chicken balls have been added
Serve with shaved Parmesan on top.

Beef & couscous meatballs

Another day another recipe for meatballs! Yum! I love meatballs. This latest version happened quite serendipitously. I had some beef minced and was thinking about making meatballs. I thought about soutzoukakia with rice but didn't want to take the time to cook rice. My container of couscous was on the bench because I had just filled it up with a new stock. So I thought of using couscous with the beef. The mixture ended up a bit dry so I added some ricotta. They were absolutely yummy with a reminder of middle eastern food.



Ingredients
600 gr minced beef
1/2 cup couscous
1/2 cup water
Cummin seeds
4 spring onions
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 heaped tablespoon ricotta
1 egg
Pepper
Olive oil
Separately prepared tomato sauce
Shaved parmesan

Mode

Prepare the tomato sauce and simmer on stovetop
Bring water to boil and take from heat
Add couscous to water and set aside
Crush garlic and chop spring onions
Place meat, spring onions, garlic, cummin, egg, ricotta and pepper in bowl and mix
Fluff up couscous with fork and add to meat mixture
Mix meat and couscous mixture thoroughly preferably with hands
Using a tablespoon for mixture form in into soutzoukakia shaped meatballs (ie long)
Heat olive oil in a pan
Quickly seal the meatballs in batches and add to pan of tomato sauce
Simmer in tomato sauce for about 30 minutes on stove top or bake in oven for about 45 minutes
Serve topped with shaved parmesan.

"Pritikin style" Beetroot

I have had several people recently diagnosed with diabetes and lots of people I know have their cholesterol edging up. This is a particular issue for those of us who have taken aromatose inhibitors such as Femara or Arimidex. So I dredged back in my head to the days when I was a Pritikin person and came up with this simple beetroot recipe to include amongst my Christmas produce along with the sugar filled relishes.



Ingredients

6 large beetroot
Cloves
1.5 cups cider vinegar
1.5 cups apple juice

Mode

Prepare jars in hot wash in dishwasher and cool
Cut the ends of the beetroots and slit the base and top with a cross
Add the beetroots to a large pan of water and bring to the boil
Simmer gently until tender
Allow to cool in water
Drain and rub off skins
Slice beetroot and half fill first jar
Sprinkle 3-4 cloves in
Fill to below rim with rest of sliced beetroot
Repeat for other jars (this makes about 3 jars depending on size)
Mix apple juice and cider vinegar
Pour slowly into jars allowing mixture to filter through to bottom
Place on lids and seal tightly
Decorate as required if giving as presents.

Cauliflower & Chickpea soup

This soup was the result of opening up some stock to cook couscous in and wondering what to do with the other three cups of it! Well I found half a cauliflower in the firdge and went on from there with what I had on hand and made a very yummy soup.




Ingredients
3 cups low salt chicken stock
1/2 cauliflower
1 can chickpeas (or use dry chickpeas and pre-soak and pre-cook)
4 spring onions
3 cloves garlic
Heaped tbs ginger root
1/2 teaspoon Sambal Oelek
Small bunch coriander

Mode
Place large pan on heat and add stock
Break cauliflower into flowerlets, roughly chop leaves and stalks, and add to stock
Clean and roughly chop spring onions and add
Crush garlic and ginger and add along with Sambal Oelek
Roughly chop coriander and add
Bring to boil and gently simmer until vegetables are tender.

Easy Pork & Silverbeet Lasagne

I am very fond of lasagne but sometimes it just takes a bit too long to cook up all the component parts, assemble them and then cook the assembled product. The other evening I felt like lasagne but wanted it a bit for quickly. So I used a few prepared ingredients and was creative about including what I had on hand in terms of vegetables and ricotta.



Ingredients

375gr reduced fat ricotta
500gr minced pork
1 carrot
1 parsnip
1 piece of broccoli
400gr Bertolli Summer basil & pasta sauce
2 cloves garlic
1/4 tsp Sambal Oelek
4 leaves of silverbeet
Ready to cook lasagne sheets
Grated parmesan


Mode

Preheat oven to 160c.
Pour pasta sauce into pan and heat.
Add peeled and sliced parsnip and carrot to sauce and stir.
Add pork mince to mixture and stir to combine.
Break broccoli into florets and add.
Stir, cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until vegetables tender.
Meanwhile fill steamer with water and bring to boil.
Roughly chop leaves and stalks of silverbeet and add to steamer.
Add crushed garlic and Sambal Oelek to silverbeet.
Steam until silverbeet tender.
Assemble lasagne with layers of pasta sheets, meat sauce, silverbeet and ricotta.
Commence with layer of meat sauce in bottom of dish, add pasta sheet, then silverbeet and top with ricotta.
Continue in this order until to top of dish, ending with meat sauce layer.
Place in middle of oven and cook for 50 minutes in 160c oven.
Allow to sit for 15 minutes then slice into chunks to serve.
Sprinkle with parmesan and serve either alone or with a green salad.

Beef & pumpkin meatballs

Readers of this blog know that I like meatballs in any shape or form and that necessity (or not having ingredients I want on hand) sometimes forces me to improvise. These pumpkin and beef meatballs were no exception. I bought minced beef and planned to cook my normal meatballs with bread, onion and cumin. Uh oh! No bread! What do I have in the house that could be used bind them a bit? Hmm, there is some pumpkin in the fridge that really needs cooking. I'll try that. I am very glad that I did try pumpkin as it was a great combination: beef, cumin and pumpkin.



Ingredients
600 gr minced beef
1 onion
2 cups pumpkin pieces
1 egg
2 tsp ground cummin
Pepper
Flour
Extra cummin
Olive oil
Ready made tomato sauce

Mode

Prepare tomato sauce and have simmering
Chop pumpkin into small portions and peel
Place in steamer or microwave until soft
Chop onion finely
Place beef, onion, egg, pumpkin and cummin in bowl and mix until combined preferably with hands
Place flour on a plate and add a few grinds of pepper and a little cummin and stir
Using tablespoons of mixture form meatballs by hand and roll in seasoned flour
Heat oil in pan
Add batches of meatballs and seal
Add meatballs to tomato sauce and simmer until cooked through (about 20 minutes)
Serve with rice or pasta