Crunchy Lamb Spring Rolls

Okay, so you remember the lamb shoulder that I slow cooked for the Minty Aromatic Pulled Lamb Pittas?  Well, I only used half of the joint of lamb in the pittas and put the other half into the freezer while I pondered on what to use it for.

Today's Crunchy Lamb Spring Rolls is the first instalment of "making the most of a socking great piece of rolled lamb shoulder - the leftovers".

Now I've never made Spring Rolls before, but I've eaten plenty of them!  As a result, I had a pretty good idea of how they are supposed to taste.  However, I've not had a lamb version of them before, so that was something new.  Plus of course, the lamb had been marinated in about a thousand different spices before being slow cooked, so I very definitely wasn't looking for something that needed a lot of spice, or a lot of cooking.  I wanted to be able to taste the spicing on the lamb and certainly didn't want to dry it out.  All those points ruled out a lot of options that you might classically use when dealing with roasted meat leftovers.

The quarter of leftover lamb, prior to being shredded. Such leanness!

I have to say that the idea of putting it into Spring Rolls wasn't mine, it was my hubby's.  However, I liked the idea immediately and could see how it fitted the short cooking style and capitalised on the spicing of the lamb.

I'd make a rubbish cigar roller!

Before we go any further, I just have to say a few things about the wrapping.  Yes, I used filo pastry and no, I didn't use spring roll wrappers.  Why?  Well because filo pastry is easily accessible from the supermarket and spring roll wrappers aren't.  Simple as that.  I know that, in the past, I've used some bizarre ingredients that aren't generally available but as with the original recipe for the lamb, I wanted everything to be easily accessible so that the majority could have the opportunity of enjoying these recipes.  If, however, you have a shop on your doorstep that sells spring roll wrappers then by all means use them!  I'm all about accessibility, even if not authenticity.

I had 640g of lamb left from the joint (it really was huge!) and a few Spring Rolls weren't going to use all that, so I cut it in half (again) and the remainder is in the fridge awaiting its fate - Lamb and Potato Pasties.  Yum.

As it turned out, the 320g of cold lamb was perfect for 9 of these rather oversized Spring Rolls.  I think in future, instead of cutting the pastry in half, I'll cut it into thirds so as to achieve rather shorter Spring Rolls.  However, the length didn't matter one jot from a cooking point of view - it's simply a visual thing and an ease of eating thing.  Being so long, it did make the dipping of them an interesting operation that was resolved with a paper napkin under the chin - but being shorter would solve that problem rather more elegantly.

The stir fried veggies with shredded lamb and five spice.

I was concerned that the veggies would be cooked sufficiently so as to retain a bite, but not be super crunchy.  After all, there was carrot in there and you know how hard carrot can be.  I didn't want hard pencils of semi raw carrot to detract from the soft gentleness of the lamb.  As such, don't feel tempted to skip the stir frying part of the recipe.  It really doesn't take long (far shorter than prepping the vegetables did!) and is very important in bringing the right kind of texture to your Spring Rolls.

I didn't include the meat in the stir frying, as having been cooked once it didn't need any extra and the heat from the baking would be sufficient to heat it through.

So - cook's tips.  The rolling up of the things didn't go quite according to plan initially, but I did get better as we went on and the last two were perfect.  It is well worth folding the edges in before the last two turns, so as to achieve a neat pocket that prevents the filling from escaping.

Also, don't feel compelled (if you are using filo pastry) to bathe the things in oil once they are rolled.  Just a smattering brushed over the top is sufficient to achieve a nice golden colour and crisp pastry.  Too much oil can result in a greasy Spring Roll and as we're oven baking them, that would be a shame.

Because the lamb I used was quite highly spiced in its original incarnation, I only used a teaspoonful of five spice in the filling mixture.  However, if your lamb, chicken or prawns (all of which would be fab) don't already carry spice, I would increase the five spice by a half a teaspoonful, or perhaps a little more.

If you have one, I can recommend using a mandolin for the carrot julienne.  Makes it so much quicker unless your knife skills are pretty darned hot.

They (spring rolls, not mandolins) really are the easiest of things to produce - and I'll be tempted to use the leftovers from our next roast chicken for the next batch.  I'm sure that would be just as scrummy. I served mine with vegetable & egg fried rice plus a Chinese style dipping sauce, but they would be just as good with a sweet chilli sauce.  Equally, they would be great with salad or as picnic food (when the weather improves!).

CRUNCHY LAMB SPRING ROLLS  (makes 9 large sized, 12 smaller)

Ingredients :

1 tbsp peanut oil
8 good sized spring onions, chopped diagonally and including as much of the green as is possible
Half a Hispi or Pointed sweet cabbage, shredded
1 carrot, peeled and julienned finely
2 big handfuls of beansprouts
1 tsp Chinese five spice
a pinch of freshly ground black pepper
300g cooked, roasted lamb, shredded
200g filo pastry sheets
2 tbsp olive oil.

Method :

1.  Prepare the vegetables prior to needing them and heat the peanut oil in a wok until really hot.

2.  Stir fry the vegetables, keep turning them to prevent from browning in any way, until the carrots are just tender.

3.  Tip the veggies into a heat proof bowl and set aside to cool a little.

4.  Chop and shred the lamb.

5.  Add the five spice, pepper and lamb to the veggies and stir to combine.

6.  Cut the pastry pieces to size.

7.  Brush a little oil onto the edges of the top half of the first sheet.

8.  Place a spoonful (or more if you are making larger rolls) of the filling onto the lower half of the pastry sheet.

9.  Gently start to roll the filling into the pastry, keeping the pastry as tight as possible without splitting it.  Roll up to the oiled section, then fold in the edges to seal the filling into the tube.

10.  Continue to roll until the pastry sheet is taken up.  The oil should help the last bit to stick.

11.  Gently place onto a baking sheet and continue with the next pastry sheet.

12.  Once all are rolled, place into a pre-heated oven at 180degC/340degF/Gas4 for 25-30 minutes or until the rolls are golden and crispy.

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Slow roast leg of lamb with cinnamon, fennel & citrus - oh my word!

You've probably gathered by now that there's not many foodstuffs on this earth that I won't try - at least the once.  However, if you were to ask me what is my favourite type of roast meat, I would be hard pressed to pin it down to just the one.

After all, there's gorgeous roast chicken - who doesn't like roast chicken?  There's roasted gammon ham - so delicious with creamed leeks and new potatoes.  What about a superb roasted rib of beef?  So savoury and flavoursome.  Roast turkey, too - cooked with love and care, it is a perfect companion to bread sauce and Brussels sprouts.  Then, there's a beautiful roast leg of lamb, with mint sauce - need I say more?

For this last Sunday's dinner, we had originally planned to have a piece of salmon, which hubby was going to roast in a spicy glaze.  All these good intentions flew out of the window the minute I saw that Tesco were offering a leg of lamb at half price - £10 instead of £20, effectively.  When would we be able to lay our hands on an entire leg of lamb for that sort of price again?  Probably not for a long time - and it would fit perfectly into hubby's programme of roast dinners that he has embarked upon.

By heck and it was a mighty leg of lamb, too.  It only just fitted into our teensy tiny freezer - where it stayed until Saturday.

There'll be a few dinners out of this one!

The advent of this leg of lamb demanded the reconvening of the Menu Planning Committee (over a cup of coffee and several Jack Russells, of course), where we decided what in the world we were going to do with it.  Should we go the traditional route and roast it plainly then serve it with mint sauce, onion sauce and roast vegetables?  Or should we investigate some rather more exotic uses for the lamb?

In researching how long it would take to cook, I tripped over an intriguing recipe from BBC Good Food's Sarah Cook for slow roast lamb, with cinnamon, fennel and citrus.  Now the minute I mentioned cinnamon, hubby was hooked - but the addition of the word "fennel" had him salivating.  So, we'd decided.  Now, all that was left was to decide on what to serve with the lamb.

Again, we ultimately changed our minds over this, but the original plan was to serve it with roasted Jersey Royal potatoes with sea salt & rosemary, accompanied by a Spring Vegetable Thoran - which was a midly curried recipe from Anjun Anand.

Hubby had something of a change of heart about the Thoran once half-way through cooking the lamb and quite rightly so, in my opinion.  He felt that the two dishes might argue as to which was the star of the show, when in truth the lamb should be the hero of the hour.  I think he was absolutely right, and although the Thoran had been a good idea at the time, we hadn't the benefit of smelling the lamb cooking when we'd been planning the accompaniments.

All dressed in its rub and ready to roast

So the vegetables took a bit of a step down and we settled for steamed Jersey Royals, along with steamed broccoli, green beans and asparagus.  Hubby made a divine lamb gravy, using the pan juices, which we would have missed the opportunity of having, otherwise.

We had a bit of a problem where marinating the lamb was concerned, however.  It was supposed to be marinated overnight in orange and lemon juice, but we hadn't a bowl, dish or tray that was big enough for the lamb, but that would fit into our small fridge.  Even our freezer bags weren't big enough, or we could have put it all together in a freezer bag to marinate.   As a consequence, our lamb missed out on being marinated overnight, but - scout's honour - it didn't seem to make one jot of difference.

The lamb is roasted for four and a half hours in total.  To say that we had our tongues hanging out of our heads by serving time, is putting it mildly.  The aromas that were coming from the oven were just mouthwatering.

Much, much gorgeousness!

The served lamb was just divine.  No other word for it.  It was soft, flavoured gently with the earthy cinnamon, the freshness of the fennel and the tangy citrus and just melted in your mouth.  Honestly, I can't remember the last time I had such beautiful, gorgeous, sublime roast lamb.  Even the might of a dab of mint sauce wasn't enough to swamp out the flavours.  I was in little roast dinner heaven.

You, too, could be in this roast dinner nirvana - the very next time you lay your hands on a leg of lamb.  Do it - I can't recommend it highly enough.

SLOW ROAST LAMB WITH CINNAMON, FENNEL & CITRUS

Ingredients :

1 leg of lamb
zest and juice of one lemon
zest and juice of one orange
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp clear runny honey
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp ground cumin
3 garlic cloves, crushed.

Method :

1.  Put the lamb into a large (very large!) food bag or container with all the juice and marinate overnight.

2.  The following day, take the lamb out of the fridge an hour before you want to cook it.

3.  Pre-heat the oven to 200degC(fan)/400degF/Gas7.

4.  Remove the lamb from the marinade and reserve the marinade.  Pat dry, rub with half the oil and roast for 20-30 minutes or until browned.

5.  Remove the lamb and reduce the oven temperature to 140degC(fan)/325degF/Gas3.

6.  Mix together the zests, remaining oil, honey, spices and garlic with plenty of seasoning.  
7.  Line a baking tray with foil and place a large sheet of baking parchment on top.  Place the lamb into the middle and rub all over with the spice paste.

8.  Pull up the sides of the foil/paper and drizzle the marinade into the parcel, before sealing by scrunching and folding the silver foil.

9.  Roast for 4 hours until very tender.  Rest in a warm place for 30 minutes (still wrapped).

10.  Unwrap and carve to serve.

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Birthday dinner - and a weird lunch at The Woolpack, Sopley

Yes, apologies for the lateness of the appearance of the "dinner" blog, only I was a bit busy eating it, then watching a DVD (Burke & Hare - which was unremarkable) and then going to bed.  Sunday was spent with my parents (see below, as regards that!), more going to bed and then I then went to work - and now here I am!

Hubby (you may have noticed a "Chillibob" commenting in places - that's him) did a wonderful job on the roast lamb dinner for my birthday.  We didn't need to worry about son & heir as he went out to a sleepover.  So it was just the two of us, tucking into the lovely lamb, roast potatoes, roast parsnips, onion sauce, mint sauce, peas and carrots with Yorkshire puddings and gravy.  What a feast!

I'd studded the lamb with rosemary sprigs, slices of garlic and anchovies before wrapping it in silver foil and roasting for 3 hours.

We'd got the butcher to bone and roll the joint for us and he'd kindly included the bones in the package, so they formed a neat trivet for the lamb to sit upon.  Ooooh, it was absolutely gorgeous and such a treat!  It had been so long, I'd quite forgotten just how much I enjoy mint sauce - not to mention the onion sauce - with lamb.  I knew I liked it - which was why I chose it for my birthday dinner, so it was lovely to re-acquaint myself with just how much I enjoy it!


I finished off the last few slices, cold, last night with some chutney.  Roll on next birthday, if birthdays mean I get roast lamb!

The following day, Sunday, we met up with my parents for lunch at The Woolpack in Sopley.  It is in such a lovely area, being within the New Forest National Park.  The pub itself is thatched and sited beside a stream.  Where we were sitting - in the conservatory - we were right beside the stream, where a duck brought her babies to paddle.  We were tempted to throw pieces of bread for her, but resisted.  I'm sure those ducklings would be far better off eating natural food (of which there had to be enough)!


Regrettably, I forgot to take the camera with me so there aren't any photographs of the food, but my point in writing about it is to comment on the quite ridiculous portion sizes.  If, in the weeks to come, I see in the local newspaper that The Woolpack has gone out of business, I shan't be surprised.  It'll be all their profits that they've thrown away in the shape of lettuce leaves and cucumber slices!


We ordered two starters - a Salmon & Prawn salad and a Butternut Squash soup.  The soup arrived in the usual tureen, but accompanied by three inch-thick half slices of wholemeal bread.  There had to have been enough bread there for three people to have had soup.


The Salmon & Prawn salad also had two of the inch-thick slices of bread (without butter), along with a good helping of prawns, a slightly meager helping of smoked salmon and an enormous heap of salad leaves incorporating iceberg lettuce, sorrel, spinach, radicchio and at least three other leaves that I didn't recognise, as well as cress, tomato, cucumber and red onion.  Not one of us finished the salad, as it was just too much.


This trend continued.  Son & heir had fish & chips, which came wrapped in newspaper (which made his day) and were the only "normal" sized portion to appear.

Hubby had Scampi, chips and salad - and had the over-sized portion of salad, all over again.

My Dad had a portion of Lasagne (which he declared was very nice), but again, accompanied by what looked to be a portion of salad some eight inches across, by three inches high with countless different types of salad ingredients, including coleslaw and potato salad.  The unfortunate part about it was that the sheer quantity of salad made the portion of Lasagne look meager in the extreme.

My poor Mum had opted for the smoked chicken salad.  Her plate arrived, a good seven eighths covered in salad some three inches high, with a bald chicken breast clinging on for dear life, at the side.  In fact, she had to hunt for the chicken under the salad.  What made matters worse, was that the chicken had been very poorly trimmed before smoking, which left a nasty-looking bloody patch at the thick end.  She cut it off and left that bit, which effectively reduced the amount of meat she had to eat with that enormous mountain of salad.  Needless to say, neither of them made it to even half way.


As for me, well I'd ordered the Mussels in cream, coriander and garlic.  I had seen that it would include crusty bread and garlic bread and was prepared for there to be too much bread - but not for the sheer weight of quantity that turned up - and not just bread but mussels too!  The earthenware pot which contained the mussels was (and I'm not exaggerating here) some ten inches across.  Now I know that mussels need a lot of room because of their shells, but there had to have been enough there for two people.  There was also three pieces of garlic bread and three slices of wholemeal bread (again, with no butter).  I didn't even touch the wholemeal, nor did I manage to finish the mussels.  I had a damned good try at finishing them, but there had to have been a third of them left by the time I ground to a halt.  They were gorgeous and the sauces was just divine - but there was so much there, that you just didn't know where to start!


Quite apart from the "throwing away their profits" aspect of the issue, there's also the point of view that when you're served with such a mountain of food, your immediate reaction is one of "good god, I'll never get through that" - which puts you off even trying.  Another aspect is that when you're being taken out for a meal, it is only polite to attempt to eat everything that is put before you - after all, someone else has paid for it and it seems only polite that you do justice to their financial outlay!  So, it's embarrassing to have to send back untouched piles of food.  Lastly - and not by any means least - is the issue of waste.  The amount of food that went uneaten last Sunday, could have fed our little family of three for at least two days.  It was a wicked and wanton waste that just didn't sit well with me at all.


The end result, was that the quality of both the foodstuffs and the cooking (which were, in the large part, both extremely good) were overshadowed by the ridiculous quantities.


I'll be writing to the pub to put these points of view across.  Don't suppose I'll get a response, but I'll feel better anyway!


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Meal planning - against the odds! W/c 26.7.11

I refuse to stop meal planning!  To be honest, I wouldn't know what to get from the shops if I stopped planning our meals.  I'd be wandering around like a little lost sheep.

Since I put the meal plan together on Monday, and before I've even had a chance to talk about it here, it has changed three times.  Firstly because we didn't get the car back from the mechanic until the following day so had to move the shopping because of it, secondly, because it suddenly dawned on me that it's my birthday on Saturday and we're meeting my Parents for lunch on Sunday and thirdly, because the boys had such huge burgers for lunch on Wednesday, that we just had sandwiches for dinner!


Ah well, onwards and upwards - and fingers crossed that it stays put as a plan, now.

Oh!  I've an interesting new routine where the meal planning is concerned.  Because Son & heir is becoming increasingly difficult (for which, read picky) to cook for, hubby had a Baldrick moment and came up with a cunning plan.

Under this cunning plan, Tuesdays have been declared as "pizza day", in that Son & heir has pizza (which is the meal he asks for whenever I ask for input into the meal planning) - and hubby and I have whatever we want.  Which, of course, opens the door for us to have things which otherwise would be rejected - like the mushroom risotto and stir fries.

Did someone mention stir fry?  Picture c/o Virgin Media

So, here's how this week is looking :

Tues : Pizza & Baked Camembert with french bread, tomatoes, olives & asparagus

Weds : Sandwiches

Thurs : Sausage casserole

Fri : "Kentish Tart" & salad

Sat : Roast Lamb, roast potatoes & parsnips, peas & carrots, Yorkshire puddings

Sun : Lunch out with my parents

Mon : Tuna Pasta Bake.

As today is now Wednesday, we had the Baked Camembert last night.  I think that all there is to say, at this stage, is that I'll be blogging it right after this.  Oh, and if EVER you get the chance to either have or to do Baked Camembert, have it and do it.  This is one of those "things to do before you die" recipes.  'Nuff said.

Oh!  I must tell you - the Stromboli.  I can give it correct billing now, as I've re-discovered the website that it came from : The Keenan Cookbook.  (Thanks, Chris!).  Do go along and have a look (and sign up for the newsletter, too!) at the original Stromboli that caught my attention.   I dare say you'll be able to understand its attraction!

So anyway, Thursday sees Hubby making one of his awesome Sausage Casseroles.  He's not made one in ages and neither of us can understand why not, as they are munchy gorgeousness.  If you add into the equation the fact that he'll be using our lovely butcher's sausages, we're ready for a cracking dinner, that night!

Friday evening's dinner is an interesting one.  Hubby can remember his Mum making a "Kentish Pie" (or tart) which was egg-based like a quiche, but less custardy (so no cream).  It had bacon, cheddar cheese (surely it should have been a Kent-based cheese? ~shrug~ I guess it's not my memory we're trying to re-create here!) and diced apple.  I can't seem to find a recipe that matches that description, so I'm going to have a crack at creating one and we'll see how close it gets.  If anyone reading this recognises the description and can point me in the direction of a recipe, do let me know!

Saturday is my birthday (wheee! 21 again!) and as is our family tradition, you get to choose whatever you want for your dinner that night.  I have been lusting after a leg of lamb (I suppose that'll take care of the little lost one, above!) with vinegary mint sauce, roast potatoes, roast parsnips and onion sauce, since God was a boy.  So I'm hoping we can get a lovely leg of lamb from the butcher without having to get a mortgage and will cook it long and slow.  Dear hubby has volunteered to cook the rest of the roast, so I'm looking forward to it already.

I don't need to worry about a dinner for Sunday, as we'll be meeting my Parents for lunch at The Woolpack, Sopley.  Apparently they have been there a number of times and approve of the place and looking at the menu online it looks lovely.  So we should have a good lunch and it will be lovely to see them again, of course.

After all the good eating that seems to be on the cards for the weekend, Monday brings a return to easy-going, "normal" food with a good old Tuna Pasta Bake.  Now, if we get that far without a change to the programme, I'll be amazed.


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