Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Apricot Stuffed Lamb Rack ( Steam Combi or Conventional Oven)

Lambrack1

 

One of my favourite cuts of meat is a Rack of Lamb. – Its so quick to cook and gives such an elegant result .

There are so many variations on how to cook it but this method will wow your guests and its really so easy to do.

This can be cooked in a Conventional Oven or in a Steam Combination oven.

 

lambrack2

Conventional Oven – heat to 210C

Steam Oven – Use  half steam and 220 C

Firstly trim away some of the fat from the edge of the lamb leaving about 1/4 to half an inch .

Then take a small sharp knife and cut a slit in the meat about half an inch from the bone on each end of the rack  – With your finger bore a hole through the rack to form a tunnel.

Taking the stuffing a teaspoon full at a time stuff it into the tunnel until you have half filled it, then turn and stuff the other end.

Heat some oil in a frying pan and brown the meat, starting with the fatty side and then doing each end and the underside of the rack.

Just a few minutes will be sufficient .

 

Place the rack in the preheated oven for approximately 20 minutes for medium rare ( slightly pink meat inside)

Remove and let stand for at least 5 minutes if you can before slicing through each bone for serving

 

 

Apricot Lamb Stuffing

1/2 Cup Chopped Dried Apricots
1/2 Cup Chopped Raw Cashew Nuts  ( or you can replace with Breadcrumbs if you wish)
1 Spring of Rosemary ( Strip leaves from stem and discard stem)
small handful of Fresh Mint Leaves
1 tspn Sweet Paprika
1/2 tspn Salt
2-3tbsn lemon juice. and rind of half a lemon

Place all ingredients in foodprocessor and blitz to crumb consistency.

Apricots may be substituted with dates, prunes or any other dried fruit .  Mint and Rosemary may be substituted with any other fresh herbs.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Secret Ingredient Breaded Chicken

breadedchicken

Last night I had decided to cook chicken for dinner. I had some chicken tenderloins and wanted a quick tasty meal from them.

I opened my pantry and tried to let inspiration flow from within… not a lot flowed… But then I saw a new packet of Panko Breadcrumbs and thought that perhaps I should crumb the chicken.

Trouble is that crumbed chicken really needs a bit of resting time after you’ve crumbed it for the coating to “set” enough so that it doesn’t fall off when you cook it. – Isn’t that so frustrating when you spend time and get your fingers covered in eggy breadcrumbs just to have the crumbs fall off when you cook the chicken?

Additionally i fancied something a little tastier than regular crumbed chicken anyway.. so what to do….

breadedchicken2Then it struck me – Sitting on the shelf next to the breadcrumbs was a new jar of mayonnaise. –

“Well “ I thought “It will either be fantastic, or disgusting  but I’m going to give it a go.

So into the bowl went about half a cup ( or so) of mayonnaise, and to that I added my spices. Now here you could completely use your imagination. If you have a favourite spice mix or dry marinade rub – add that – I made up a mix that Ive used with chicken in the past which includes brown sugar,Smoked Paprika, Black Pepper, Coriander, Mustard Powder, Garlic, Chili and Turmeric

(See below for quantities to make it in bulk)

I added about 2 tablespoons of the mix to the mayonnaise and mixed it up and then added the chicken and stirred it all around until it was well coated.

The thick mayonnaise really sticks well to the chicken and makes it easy for the breadcrumbs to stay stuck.

I used Panko Breadcrumbs but you could use regular dried breadcrumbs if you wanted.

I decided to pan fry the chicken to see how well the crumbs stuck  ( its when i pan fry that I often find the crumbs stick to the pan and not the chicken despite using a non stick pan)

Anyway – SUCCESS- the crumbs stayed stuck to where they should and the colouring from the spice mix made the chicken a beautiful golden brown ,and whats more the entire family were raving over the chicken.

You could oven bake the chicken instead of pan frying if you wish- in fact after giving my chicken a quick browning on both sides I did put it in the oven to finish off cooking.

I served  my chicken on a salad of rocket ( arugula), halved cherry tomatoes, red pepper and eggplant(which I had cut into long slices and basted with olive oil before putting on my griddle pan to cook) , and asparagus .

Unfortunately I was out of potatoes so had to resort to oven fries ( not my favourite form of potato)

 

Smokey Sticky Chicken Rub Spice Mix

3Tbspn Brown Sugar
3 Tspn Smoked Paprika
3 Tspn Garlic Flakes
2 Tspn Sea Salt
1 Tspn Coriander
1/2 Tspn Mustard Powder or Yellow Mustard Seeds
1/2 Tspn Dried Chilli Powder
1/2 Tspn Turmeric

Mix all together with Mortar and Pestle, or whizz up in spice grinder – Store in airtight container.

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Mediterranean Chicken Roulade

 

Last week as part of my training for my great new job I spent a morning in the Bosch Kitchen with their trainer Shannon.

We had a great time cooking up some wonderful dishes, amongst them was a Chicken Roulade from this months Taste magazine .

Roulades look so appealing, and look quite complex but actually are very simple to create and make such a visually impressive dish with not much work.

When I got home I decided to make one for our dinner that night using slightly different ingredients than the one we had made in the morning .

In my pantry I had a jar of roasted red peppers and I had a bunch of asparagus in the chiller because its Steve’s favourite vegetable and I thought that the combination of the red and green might make a nice contrast inside my roulade.

Start by taking boneless skinless chicken breasts and bash the living dayight out of them using whatever you have handy – I used a rolling pin but you could use a heavy bottle or a tenderising hammer or whatever you like.

Its a great way of relieving the days stresses . Bash that chicken till its about half an inch thick. I used 4 chicken breasts in my roulade..

The main pressure point in creating a roulade is getting it rolled up – this is how I did it.

 

roulade1

I cut a large piece of aluminium foil and sprayed it with a non stick cooking spray ( or you could wipe it with olive oil)

I laid out 8 pieces of proscuitto – this will form the outer wrapper of your roulade so try not to leave any holes.
You could use Streaky Bacon instead if you wanted.
Next lay out your chicken over the top of the proscuitto .

 

roulade2

Now its time to add your filling.

I started with a layer of basil leaves and then as I said I used roasted red pepper and asparagus but you could use whatever you wanted – feta, spinach, prunes and caramelised onion, ham and cheddar cheese, – minced meat stuffing and boiled eggs, you name it – the variety is endless

 

Once you have your ingredients laid out, season with salt and pepper and any herbs or spices you wish to use and then carefully start rolling by holding the  foil and form a thick tube. ( be careful not to roll the foil into the roulade itself . Once you’ve formed your tube shape tighten the tin foil around the roulade as tight as you can and then fold closed the ends.

Cook at 180 C for 75 minutes or until juices run clear.

Leave to stand for about 10  minutes to settle after taking it out of the oven, then unwrap and slice to serve.

roulade3

Sunday, November 10, 2013

Gluten Free Parmesan Crackers

crackers

Last week a friend bought some home made gluten free crackers with her for a shared lunch.

They were really very delicious, and had the benefit of being gluten free . ( not that Im particularly intolerant to gluten but its always nice to be able to offer something to someone who is )

The basis of these crackers was almond meal and the recipe was remarkably simple . You can find it on this website.

Being short of rosemary in my garden at the moment ( blame years of neglect)  I started thinking  about other flavourings that could be used in these crackers and so I came up with the following recipe which was so yummy I had to hide some in order to photograph them!

GLUTEN FREE PARMESAN CRACKERS

Ingredients

  • 1 cup almond meal ( I got mine from the bulk bins in the supermarket)
  • ½ tablespoon olive oil (You could use an infused oil for a different taste – I love Al Brown’s Orange and Chili Oil )
  • 2 tablespoons cold water
  • ½ teaspoon  salt
  • 1/2 cup grated Parmesan Cheese
  • 3 teaspoons raw sunflower seeds or any other seed ( sesame would be great)

Instructions

  1. Preheat your oven to 160 Celcius – Fanbake
  2. Throw all the ingredients into a the food processor. (If you have a small processor bowl use that) and blitz for a minute or so till thoroughly combined. If you like the seedy look then omit the seeds when you do the initial processing and add them later and just do one or two pulses with your processor to combine them into the dough.
  3. Remove dough and form a ball .Place on a large sheet of baking paper. Place dough in paper on top of baking sheet for rolling.  Fold paper in half over the top  of the dough and roll out to approximately 3 mm thick  ( the fold in the paper forms one straight edge which makes trimming easier
  4. With a knife score the dough through into rectangles or squares depending on what shape you want your crackers. You can reform the edges and re roll to make them all have straight edges.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes,or until golden. Let cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes, then once cold  carefully break the crackers apart.
  6. These will most likely be eaten before they get to need to be stored, but on that rare occasion keep them in an airtight container.

Saturday, November 2, 2013

A Saturday Night Dinner for Two in less than half an hour.

 

lamb2

It is a bit of a treat to be able to cook for just Steve and I in the weekends, and it is starting to happen a bit more frequently now the kids get older. It means not having to cater to fussy tastes and find a meal that suits everyone.

Tonight was one of those nights.

Steve fancied lamb and I happened to have bought some Silver Fern Farms Lamb Medallions that were on special at the supermarket .

They aren’t a budget product by any means but they are beautifully trimmed and vaccuum packed so they last quite a while in the refrigerator ( though they didn’t have to wait too long in my house) .

I often do a nice salad with lamb but Steve asked for vegetables and so I decided to make a nice light lemony hollondaise sauce to go with them .

For potatoes, I peeled and cubed a couple of small potatoes and just seasoned them and browned them in a frying pan in a tablespoon of olive oil , and then put the whole pan in a hottish oven ( 210C) to cook while i prepared every thing else.

The lamb I rubbed with a spice mix  from Annabel Langbeins latest book , A Free Range Summer Annual .
She has 3 different rub recipes in the book and I’ve made up all of them and have been using them quite a bit. ( Love the Asian one on pork belly) – I used the Moroccan rub for the lamb this time.

Next I put the water on for the veges. To make it easier I just used one pot – and I put the carrots in first, followed by some broccoli and let it cook for a few minutes.

While the veges were cooking I made the hollandaise sauce.  It was really a “cheats” hollandaise and its very simple.

I use my stick blender to make hollandaise.

hollandaiseIn a small container whisk up 2 egg yolks,with a tablespoon of lemon juice, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard , salt and pepper and some chopped herbs ( I used Italian parsley and thyme)

Then, while whisking with the stick blender, in a slow stream add about 1/3 cup of melted butter.  - ideally you would use clarified butter but my world isn’t ideal so I just use regular salted butter that I melted in the microwave.

 

The sauce thickens almost immediately to a yummy creamy deliciousness. 

You may want to adjust your seasoning to taste at this point ( I added a bit more lemon juice cause i like the lemony taste with my vegetables .

Next job – heat up the pan for  your lamb.

I rubbed the lamb with a bit of olive oil  ( I don’t add it to the pan – just to the meat) – and heated the pan to a medium high ( too high and your spices and oil will just burn and spoil the taste)

Sear the lamb on one side for a few minutes, then turn and repeat for the other side.

Then pop the lamb into the hot oven with the potatoes to finish cooking.

I then added the asparagus to the vegetables – it only takes a few minutes ( Nothing worse than limp grey looking asparagus)

Take the meat out when its done to your liking ( I like medium rare – still pink in the centre)  and let it rest while you plate up the potatoes and vegetables.

Spoon the hollandaise over the veges

You could just use it over the asparagus or the broccoli but I like it on all the veges I used!

Finally dish up the lamb – and enjoy – preferably with a nice glass of pinot noir!!

lamb1

I chose Hāhā 2012 Marlborough Pinot Noir which  both Steve and I thought was a perfect match.