Category: Mains

Ultimate Comfort Food

Colcannon

Ingredients

  • 1.5 kg potatoes, scrubbed
  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 1/4 cups hot milk
  • Freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 head cabbage, cored and finely shredded
  • 1 x 500g piece ham or bacon, cooked the day before
  • 4 spring onions, finely chopped
  • Chopped parsley leaves, for garnish

Directions

Steam the potatoes in their skins for 30 minutes. Peel them using a knife and fork. Chop with a knife before mashing. Mash thoroughly to remove all the lumps. Add 1 stick of butter in pieces. Gradually add hot milk, stirring all the time. Season with a few grinds of black pepper.

Boil the cabbage in unsalted water until it turns a darker color. Add 2 tablespoons butter to tenderize it. Cover with lid for 2 minutes. Drain thoroughly before returning it to the pan. Chop into small pieces.

 

Put the ham in a large saucepan and cover with water. Bring to the boil and simmer for 45 minutes until tender. Drain. Remove any fat and chop into small pieces.

 

Add cabbage, scallions, and ham to mashed potatoes, stirring them in gently.

 

Serve in individual soup plates. Make an indentation on the top by swirling a wooden spoon. Put 1 tablespoon of butter into each indentation. Sprinkle with parsley.

 

Recipe from Food Network

Roast Lamb

Lawsie – a controversial and entertaining icon of Australian radio. Certainly intoduced me to some great music and this fantastic recipe. Keeping the dream alive.

John Laws Roast Lamb Recipe:

roast lamb in an oven bag

Ingredients:

1 Leg of Lamb (the smaller the better – with all visible fat removed)
Full bunch of thyme or oregano
1 large onion, roughly chopped
1 Bottle of Tomato Juice (Small Spring Valley )
2 Cloves of Garlic, peeled
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Good Length aluminium foil – long sheets important

(Use oven bag instead of foil) BK

Cooking Method:

Rub the meat with the olive oil and put salt and freshly milled pepper all over. Place in porcelain dish with onion, garlic and herbs and pour the tomato juice over it and marinate it in the fridge overnight. Take two generous sheets of foil – lay them on your bench in a cross shape, place the lamb and everything else on it, add 2 tablespoons more of olive oil. Wrap the lamb up in foil making sure to tie the edges very tightly so that no steam escapes under any circumstances, while at the same time leaving the surrounding foil loose enough for air to circulate. Place it in a large baking dish and put in the oven – so it’s really like an oven within an oven.

Fast Method: Cook for 1 hour in a preheated oven at 250 degrees C, and then turn the oven down to 100 degrees C and cook it until you are ready to eat it (approx 3-4 hours)

Slower Method: requires the oven preheated to 100 degrees C and kept at this temperature for 7-8 hours.

Half an hour before serving have a look and remove the bunch of herbs and if you want you can baste it and roast it a little to give a bit more colour.

Best Curry

lamb curry

This is our fave curry – discovered by Glasgow Katie in the unlikeliest of sources.

CURRY POWDER

This is a useful general spice mixture and enough for seasoning 600-900 ml (1 ½ pints, 2 ½ 3 ½ cups) sauce or a dish to yield 4-6 portions depending on the ingredients.

Place 1 cinnamon stick, 4 cloves, 4 green cardamoms, 2 tablespoons cumin seeds and 4 tablespoons coriander seed in a small saucepan. Roast the spices gently, shaking the pan frequently until they are just aromatic. Remove from the pan and cool, then grind to a powder in a spice grinder or pestle and mortar. Mix in 2 teaspoons ground fenugreek, ½ teaspoon ground turmeric and ½ teaspoon chilli powder.

LAMB CURRY

Mix 1 tablespoon freshly grated root ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground ginger), a pinch of saffron, 3 tablespoons of oil, a large pinch of cayenne, salt and pepper.

In this mixture, roll 1.5kg (3 ¼ lb) neck or shoulder of lamb cut up in pieces and leave to marinate for 1 hour. Peel and crush 3 large tomatoes. Brown the pieces of meat in a large saucepan containing 25 grams (1 oz, 2 tbsp) ghee/butter then remove from pan.

In the same fat, fry 4 large sliced onions until golden, then add the crushed tomatoes, the prepared curry powder (above), 3 finely chopped garlic cloves and bouquet garni. Leave to brown for 5 minutes. Peel and grate an acid apple, add to the pan
and stir for 2-3 minutes. Replace the meat in the pan, stir, add a small cup of coconut milk or semi-skimmed milk, cover and leave to finish cooking gently for about 40 minutes.
Adjust the seasoning.

Serve this curry very hot with boiled rice, cashew nuts, raisins, and pineapple and banana dice flavoured with lemon juice, all in separate dishes.
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(I’d be careful about the chilli powder and the cayenne – I prefer to use fresh hot birdseye chillies. We also don’t use the coconut milk – it still tastes good)