Lamb & carrot meatballs with butterbeans - quite a surprise!

For really quite a long time - ever since seeing them on the t.v. - I have wanted to reproduce those gorgeous Spanish style tapas meatballs that you see being served in small terracotta dishes.  They look so yummy with their thick tomato sauce that just the sight of them is enough to set my saliva glands tingling.

Well - and purely by accident - I think I've just achieved it.

I didn't set out to make a tapas-style meatball at all.  I'd found a recipe on goodfoodchannel.co.uk probably around a year or more ago, which I'd filed away in my folder of "good ideas" with a view to making some time in the future.  It was a Peter Gordon recipe, so immediately I had confidence in it as Peter Gordon always appears to me to be something of a "serious" chef, as opposed to those who are more keen on the t.v. appearances than making good food.

What made me decide to make the recipe now, though, was entirely down to the fact that I had a tin of Sainsbury's butter beans burning a hole in my tin cupboard.  I'd had a discussion with a friend on Facebook about how much we liked butter beans and she'd recommended Sainsbury's as being good ones of their type.  (Thanks Marj!)  I really dislike soggy butter beans that just fall apart when they're cooked - and these ones definitely don't do that.  They're tender, but still firm enough to cope with being stirred regularly.  Now I really - no, really - like butter beans, so the knowledge that I had a tin of good ones in the cupboard was more than enough enticement.

There was something else about the recipe that tickled my curiosity.  In the meatball method, it said to include four tablespoonfuls of cold water into the meatball mixture.  I so nearly didn't do this, as it seemed as though - with the grated carrot there too - it stood the chance of making the meatball terribly soggy.  However, I decided to place my trust in Peter Gordon's capable hands and complied with the recipe.  What a revelation!

Now anyone who has ever made meatballs from scratch, will know that the blasted meatball mix will stick to your fingers and steadfastly refuse to be moulded into a ball.  I'd read a little tip which said to run your fingers under cold water whilst rolling the ball, which very definitely helped - in fact, it made the task do-able.  However, if you add the water to the meatball mix, you don't need to keep running them under the tap (with accompanying water wasteage and cross-contamination hygiene issues).  The meatball mix just rolls up without a squeak of complaint and - what's even better - is the meatball stays moist and delicious throughout the browning process, right the way to being served!  As I say - a revelation!

The grated carrot was another departure from the norm - and one which worked brilliantly.  The flavours of lamb and mint are traditional and the addition of the grated carrot really brought out the sweetness of the lamb, along with helping to ensure the meatballs stayed moist.
 

As ever, well you wouldn't expect anything else now, would you?  I made a few changes to the original recipe - which I have reflected in the recipe below - both to suit what ingredients I had in the house and to suit our palates.  Amongst a few other things, for instance, the original recipe called for 8 cloves of garlic.  Now we do like garlic - but 8?  Between three of us?  I don't think so - especially as all eight go into the sauce!  Hence, I trimmed it down to a much more acceptable 2.

The quantity of mince is 800g on the recipe, whereas a supermarket pack of mince is generally 600g.  From the 600g, I made 21 meatballs which were a good size - with a bowl of sauce and butterbeans for lunch the following day.  (Which coupled with a fresh baked baguette was just such a stellar lunch!).  So feel free to increase the size to 800g if you've extra mouths to feed.  I found the 600g fed the three of us perfectly.

The recipe also called for 200g of bacon lardons.  Well, I have to admit that I've no time for lardons - not when my local butcher is still selling their wonderful smoked back bacon for a fraction of the price of 100g of lardons!  It's all bacon, after all.  So I swapped those lardons for three large (and I'm talking large) rashers of smoked back bacon, cut into small pieces.  It worked.  It worked very nicely thank you.

Owing to hubby's sensitivity to tomatoes - the acidity tends to give him rampant indigestion if not cooked out very well indeed - I habitually add a little tomato ketchup.  Now you could add a little sugar to do the same job - but tomato ketchup has all those intriguing spices along with the sugar, that add that little je ne sais quoi to a tomato sauce and helps to kill the acidity.

Quite apart from anything else, this recipe is a complete doddle to make.  Apart from forming the meatballs (which really doesn't take very long at all), it's a simple matter of chucking everything in order into a deep pan, stirring occasionally and cooking something to help mop up the sauce.

Speaking of which, I decided to cook some Orzo.  Now I'd only ever used Orzo once before, in my Greek Lamb & Orzo Bake - which we all really liked.  So I knew that I was onto a fairly safe bet there.  Son and heir was momentarily befuddled by it, asking what sort of rice it was, but was satisfied when we revealed that it was a tiny pasta instead.  He commented that it was "odd" and didn't finish his portion - but for the first go in a very long time, plus the first time of having it as a side dish, I think he did pretty well.  He's a conservative ole thing, don'cha know.  I added a few frozen peas to the Orzo more with a view to their colour than flavour, but they added a nice sweetness that the Orzo alone couldn't have delivered.

All in all, I was very pleased indeed with this meal.  Everyone loved the meatballs and to have found a tapas style meatball in tomato sauce is a very definite bonus, as I have a yen to make a tapas style dinner one night.  So, my first dish is tucked firmly behind my ear for later!

LAMB & CARROT MEATBALLS WITH BUTTERBEANS   (serves 3)

Ingredients :

600g lean minced lamb
1 tbsp fresh mint, shredded
1 carrot, peeled and grated
100g plain flour
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 large onion, sliced thinly
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 tsp dried rosemary
200g bacon lardons
750ml tomato passata
1 tbsp tomato ketchup 
1 tsp lamb stock powder (or half a lamb stock cube)
400g tin butter beans
fresh parsley, finely chopped.

Method :

1.  Make sure that all the vegetables are prepped and ready to go, before you make up the meatball mix, or the meatballs will stick to their plate as they wait to be browned.

2.   In a large bowl, mix the lamb, mint and carrot together with some seasoning and 4 tbsp cold water.  Form the mixture into balls the size of a walnut.

3.  Take a large freezer bag and mix the flour together with some seasoning.  Roll each meatball in the flour until coated.

4.  Heat the oil in a deep frying pan or wok.  Once hot enough to sizzle the meatballs, add them gently and without crowding.  You may need to brown them in two batches.  Brown them all over and remove with a slotted spoon onto a warm plate.

5.  Once all the meatballs are browned, drain the majority of the fat from the pan and add the onion.  Cook over a moderate heat until softened and turning golden.

6.  Add the garlic and rosemary, cooking until the onion is beginning to caramelise and the garlic is softened.

7.  Add the bacon and continue to cook, stirring frequently, until all the water has cooked out of the bacon and it is beginning to turn golden.

8.  Add the passata, tomato ketchup and the lamb stock powder - (I used Essential Cuisine's superb lamb stock powder) - along with 200ml of water.  Stir well, then add the butter beans and bring to a boil, stirring as it heats through.

9.  Once up to temperature, return the meatballs to the pan and coat with the tomato sauce.  Place a lid on the pan and simmer for 35-45 minutes, stirring occasionally.

10.  Serve sprinkled with the chopped parsley.

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Taste test : veal meatballs -v- lamb meatballs

Veal meatballs right, Lamb meatballs left

In the package of veal that Farmers Choice sent to me, was a small packet of veal mince.  Now I'd been pondering over what to do with this.  It wasn't enough to use for an entire meal for the family, but I didn't want to dilute it by adding another type of mince - I wanted to sample the flavour and texture unsullied by outside influence.

Then, the obvious answer struck me.  No, not burgers (which I admit was my first thought), but meatballs.  How about I find a generic kind of meatball recipe that would suit the veal as well as another meat - and do a direct taste test comparison.

So that's what I did.

Close enough for you?  lol  Veal meatballs

I found a recipe on BBC Good Food, for Greek style lamb meatballs with tzatziki, that used just grated onion, garlic, lemon zest, mint and cinnamon in the meatballs.  All of these ingredients would go very well with the veal, I thought - so that's what I did.

I kept the two minced meats apart and put exactly the same amount of flavour ingredients into each, mixed them both by hand (washing my hands in between types) and rolled them up.

On a scale of 1-10 where 1 is poor and 10 is excellent, the lamb rated a 10 for rollability (i.e. forming a meatball without crumbling or otherwise breaking) and the veal a 9.  The veal was just slightly lighter in texture and much leaner.  Without the fat content, the meatball was slightly harder to get to stick together - but unless you were comparing the two, I doubt you'd notice.  It certainly wasn't a problem at all.

Veal meatballs

I cooked the veal meatballs first, so that they went into a clean pan.  This avoided any contamination from the lamb, which is a much stronger flavour.  The two types of meatball were identical where the cooking was concerned, as both held together perfectly and both achieved a nice colour in roughly the same time scale.

This recipe used just plain meatballs without a covering sauce.  I didn't want anything to affect the flavour of the veal, you see.

Once cooked, the two types of meatball were almost identical.  The veal had a very slightly darker colouration to the lamb, which I put down to the structure of the meat.  The veal meatballs had much less fat involved in the mince, which meant that the majority of the meat in contact with the heat of the pan was veal, as opposed to the fat in the lamb meatball.

Where flavour is concerned, the veal scored as best in both hubby's and son & heir's opinions, but I just couldn't get past my love of lamb, I'm afraid.

Don't get me wrong, however, because I really liked the veal meatballs.  Without the influence of the lamb to compare it against, I'd have been as happy as Larry with the veal.  I can't help being true to my love of lamb.

It was very interesting to have the context of the lamb to compare the veal against.  Most of us have sampled lamb at some point of another and know how lamb tastes.  Veal, however, is a different matter as it's not a meat that has been readily available.  The veal meatballs were lighter in flavour to the lamb.  For all that, though, they weren't one-dimensional, in that the veal very definitely had a mild, gentle beef flavour - but it truly is a unique flavour.  Veal doesn't taste like anything else, except veal.  All of which doesn't really help you if you've come here to try and decide whether you might like it.  In my opinion, if you like beef and you like pork, then without a doubt you'll like veal.

It is my hope that, if bloggers and the like continue to promote the consumption of British Rose Veal, that eventually (it may take some time!) the consumer will pick up the idea and demand for British Rose Veal will grow.  This will, in turn, make it possible for the millions of bull calves who are currently shot at birth, to be raised for veal in the humane and ethical conditions that are in force in the U.K.  Don't be tempted to spend a fortune on veal from the continent, as by doing so you may well be supporting the use of the barbaric veal crate system of raising veal calves and not buying the best product.  British Rose Veal is so much nicer than meat that has been produced in such a high stress environment.  You would think that the way an animal has been kept wouldn't be directly attributable to the quality of the end meat product - but believe me, it is.  Do a quick search online for farms in your local area that produce and sell veal direct from the farm, to cut out the middle man who always puts his percentage on top and you'll be getting veal in the most economic way possible.  It's not cheap at the moment, but is very well worth the cost.

GREEK STYLE VEAL MEATBALLS WITH TZATZIKI    (serves 3)

Ingredients :

500g minced veal (or lamb, or beef, or any combination)
half a red onion, grated
half a garlic clove, grated
half a lemon, zested
half a small bunch of mint, chopped gently
half a tsp ground cinnamon
1-2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil.

For the Tzatziki :

150ml plain Greek yoghurt
3cm chunk of cucumber, skinned, deseeded and diced
half a sharp apple like a Braeburn, cored, sliced and cut into matchsticks
half a small bunch of mint, chopped gently
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper.

Method :

1.  Put the mince, grated onion, garlic, lemon zest, mint and cinnamon into a bowl.  If using different meats, use different bowls for each and divide the other ingredients equally between them.

2.  Season very well, then use your hands to mix the ingredients until distributed evenly.

3.  Using wet hands, roll individual meatballs about the size of a walnut and set aside.

4.  To make the Tzatziki, combine all the ingredients with some seasoning to taste and mix well.  Refrigerate until serving.

5.   Place the oil into a frying pan and heat until a meatball, when placed into the pan, lightly sizzles upon contact - but don't overheat or the meatballs will burn on the outside before the inside can have cooked sufficiently.

6.  Fry until the meatballs are well coloured and cooked through.  Place onto a plate covered with kitchen paper and keep warm until serving.

I served my meatballs with the Ottolenghi's Green couscous.

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Mediterranean style giant couscous with barbecue pork chops

If you're me, you'd look at that title and have to come and see what it's on about!  After all, giant couscous?

It really isn't so long ago that I was bewailing not being able to get enough flavour into normal couscous, without venturing into giant couscous - or Mograbiah, to give it its proper name.

Mograbiah does bear plenty of similarity to ordinary couscous in that both of them are round in shape, made from pasta dough and are vehicles for other flavours.  However, where they differ (apart from the obvious size) is that where ordinary couscous is prepared by putting in a bowl and pouring a small amount of boiling water onto it, giant couscous is prepared by putting into a saucepan, pouring a slightly larger amount of water (or stock) on and heating gently or simmering until the majority of the water is absorbed, then you can leave it to soak up the remainder of the liquid.

It has a different texture too, well okay each grain is a lot larger so that would follow, but it also has a slightly slippery texture that can make eating it a bit of a challenge for youngsters who haven't yet learned that they eat with their mouth closed.  Son and heir had no problem with it, but then there's little that disappears into his maw that ever sees the light of day again.

As with all couscous, its own flavour is very bland and it is entirely reliant upon what you put with it, for flavour.  As such, cooking it in stock is a very good start.

With our Mograbiah, I decided to go for one last mediterranean style dish and roasted some courgette, aubergine, butternut squash, red pepper and red onion and dressed the lot with fresh mint and coriander plus a lemon juice and olive oil dressing.

For a welcome zing, I baked the pork chops in some of the excellent Mic's Chilli El Loco BBQ Sauce.  The highly flavoured pork went so well with the calming influence of the roasted vegetables and zesty dressing.  A real ying/yang thing was going on there!

Of course, it isn't essential that you put a barbecue pork chop with your giant couscous - you can use it however you fancy and with whatever you fancy.  I found my pack of Mograbiah in my local Asda, which has a particularly good World Foods section.  However, I'm sure you would be able to find some at your local ethnic food store - for instance, I know that Makkah's on the Ashley Road, Poole, definitely carries it.  For me, it makes a nice change from ordinary couscous - and as I often have problems trying to decide upon the carbohydrate element in a meal, anything that extends my options can't be bad!

MEDITERRANEAN STYLE GIANT COUSCOUS (MOGRABIAH)  (feeds 3)

Ingredients :

1 tablespoonful of giant couscous pearls per person, plus a little for luck
vegetable or chicken stock (home-made, powder, cube or Knorr stock pot - all are good)
half a butternut squash, cut into half inch dice
a red pepper, seeds removed and cut into one inch sheets
a courgette, cut into half inch dice
half an aubergine, cut into half inch dice
a red onion, peeled and cut into thin wedges
olive oil
sea salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
juice of half a lemon
a handful of mint leaves, shredded
a handful of coriander, chopped finely.

Method :

1.  Pre-heat your oven to 180degC/350degF/Gas 4.

2.  Check the cooking instructions on the side of the packet of Mograbiah and follow them, substituting stock for water.

3.  While the couscous (Mograbiah) is cooling, place the vegetables (without the herbs) onto a baking sheet that has been lined with non-stick silver foil.  Drizzle the olive oil over and season well.  Toss the vegetables in the oil and seasoning, then place them into the oven to bake for 25-30 minutes or until tender.

4.  Just before the vegetables are finished cooking, mix together the dressing for the couscous by placing the extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice and some seasoning into a small bowl and whisk together.

5.  Shred the mint leaves and chop the coriander.

6.  When the vegetables are cooked, tip them from the baking sheet directly onto the couscous.  Stir through gently, taking care not to break up the pieces of vegetable.

7.  Add the dressing and herbs and gently stir through again and serve before the herbs have a chance to wilt.

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Pea, mint & chilli dip - what a low calorie winner!

Fresh, sweet, hot and minty gorgeousness - that's good for you!

We appear to have developed a routine in our house, whereby on a Friday evening the two chaps (hubby and son & heir) pull out a bag of Sensations crisps and some flavour of Dorito (respectively) and get tucked in to half the bag, along with some sort of beverage or another (age dependent, usually!).  The other half disappears on the Saturday night.

I found myself slipping into this routine initially.  I'd get myself a bag of Pretzels (as they were baked, not fried, it felt better), but soon I'd have moved on to a bag of Kettle Chips (totally gorgeous - but oh, so bad for you!).  All this had to stop.

However, I felt left out.  There I'd be, surrounded by munching and crunching people all devouring snacks that I liked and - obesity aside for a moment - I'd have been very happy to have joined in with the devouring.

Pitta bread - add olive oil & sea salt & bake in the oven

So I decided I'd have to find something else other than opening a bag of crisps or corn chips.  I've been through the hummus, taramasalata (didn't realise quite how fattening THAT was!), tzatziki list and paired them up with crispbread, carrot, apple, pear, celery, cauliflower, cucumber - anything that it's possible to make a crudite out of, I've done it.

This last weekend, I realised that we had a pack of pitta bread too many and remembered the Cheesy Pitta Breads that I made just recently.  Hmmmn.  If I didn't sprinkle cheese all over them, but just sprinkle with a little olive oil and sea salt, they wouldn't be too bad calorifically.  What I needed to find, was a super-low calorie dip to go with them.

Enter the Pea, mint & chilli Dip.  Using fat-free natural yoghurt, this dip is so innocent it almost has a halo around it.  In fact, if it wasn't for the natural evilness of the red chilli involved, I am sure the halo would be a definite.  Again, it is a recipe from the BBC Good Food magazine, that I can't seem to find on their website.  However, the magazine gives the calorific value as being in the range of 70 calories per serving - which is just brilliant.

Now, I love every ingredient in this dip (which always helps).  I used petit pois (tiny baby peas, for those as don't know) as that was all we had at the time and I am sure it was improved slightly for their use.  Petit pois are so intensely sweet, that they provide a fine foil for the dairy yoghurt, the fresh mint and the heat of the chilli.

I divided the end product up into two helpings - one each for Friday & Saturday - and didn't feel left out at all.  In fact, son & heir was very definitely coveting my snacks and managed to whoofle off with more than one of the pitta dippers, duly dipped!  The dip didn't object to being left until the following day (sometimes they can split slightly, or noticeably deteriorate in other ways) and was just as fresh and lovely.

Eaten with vegetable and fruit crudites instead of the pitta bread, I reckon this one is a total winner for anyone who wants to nibble whilst watching a film - or even healthy nibbles for a party.

PEA MINT & CHILLI DIP   (makes sufficient for two helpings over two days)

Ingredients :

200g defrosted petit pois or ordinary frozen peas
50g fat free natural or greek yoghurt
juice of half a lemon
half a tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp mint leaves
half a small red chilli (or more, depending on the heat of the chilli & how hot you like it), chopped finely.


Method :


1.  Place the peas, yoghurt, lemon juice, cumin, mint and chilli into a food processor.


2.  Whizz until the dip achieves the texture you prefer.  You can add more yoghurt, lemon juice, mint or chilli at this stage.  Add a little salt & pepper half way through.


3.  Taste for seasoning and if you're happy with the results, decant into a bowl.


4.  Select your choice of dipping material (carrot & cucumber batons, apple or pear slices, wedges of pitta bread), sit down and be smug as all around you wish they had some too.


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Tequila cocktails - oh, the fun we had!

Cactus Cooler on the left, Desert Apple on the right

I was looking at the Recipe Index page on the blog here and thinking to myself that the Moscato Love was looking fairly lonely, there all on its own under the heading of "Drinks".  

So, following some ponderment, I mentioned it to hubby.

There then ensued a bit of a brain storm.  Now we often find that moments of enforced idleness (such as when waiting to collect son & heir - a case in point) can be filled with running ideas up flagpoles, taking concepts on board and generally doing some blue sky thinking.  Or "getting very hungry whilst talking food", as it's known in our house.  The only difference was, on this day we were talking about cocktails - and Tequila cocktails, as it turned out.

Now I am such an innocent were alcohol is concerned.  I'm definitely not a Lambrusco girl - I do draw the line at that - but I like what I like and that's pretty much that.  Having said that, however, my tastes have changed in latter years and I can now cope with a greater number of different types of alcohol than ever before.  (Which is amazing, considering I went through my twenties drinking orange juice and lemonade, while everyone around me got sloshed).


I could vaguely remember trying a Tequila way, way before they were fashionable - and liking it.  Of course, I don't remember which Tequila drink (it would have to have been involving a mixer of some sort - I just don't do neat alcohol), but it was a start.

So having settled upon Tequila, the first thing that struck me as a perfect accompaniment, was the Tymbark Cactus Juice that is my current fruit juice passion.  Available from some branches of Asda and your local Polish Grocery store, it is alarmingly green, made from Prickly Pear, Lime and Apple juice, is completely gorgeous and really refreshing.  Tequila being cactus based, (the Blue Agave, apparently), it just made sense.


Next up, was an idea for an apple juice/Tequila mix.  However, not just any apple juice, it had to be a cloudy, fairly tart, apple juice - and one which would stand up well against the Tequila.


Well, these two ideas were taking shape.  Next thing on the list was to find some Tequila!

It seems that there are two readily available types of Tequila, the Silver or twice distilled younger variety and the Gold, aged variety.  Of course, there are many more - but these two appear to be available just about everywhere.  We settled on some "Sierra" Tequila, which I have no idea whether it's a good, bad or indifferent one - but it's the one we used.


It seemed to hubby and I that, if you're considering making a cocktail, then you don't really want to go with the aged variety for fear of knocking out some of the more complex flavours.  So that is why we settled on the Silver.


Having got the Tequila, we were curious to find out whether we a) liked the stuff and b) liked the stuff enough to want to create cocktails with it.  Not being ones to wait when you can be getting on with something, I found myself sampling a teensy tiny Tequila & Cactus Juice, at 11 am.  Now I can quite categorically say that you can keep your neat Tequila - bleah! - but with Cactus Juice?  Oooh, now you're talking!

So, last night, we had a concerted effort at blending and developing the "Cactus Cooler" and the "Desert Apple".


My favourite, not surprisingly, is the "Cactus Cooler".  With its ice, cactus juice, lime, and mint, it has an interesting effect!  The initial flavour is the sweetness and greenness of the cactus juice, swiftly followed by the sharp hit of lime and the coolness of the mint leaves - each flavour being quite distinct.  Then, comes the spreading warmth of the Tequila as it registers a slight sourness which transforms into a comforting glow - all ready for the next cooling sip.  Goodness me, but I could drink really quite a lot of this.

Hubby preferred the "Desert Apple".  A mixture of Silver Tequila and Copella Apple Juice with Elderflower, it is elegant in its simplicity.  The Copella Apple & Elderflower Juice is particular to this cocktail as Copella has the dry element of a fresh crisp apple and is not cloyingly sweet like many apple juices.  The "Desert Apple" delivers an instant sharp zing of Tequila on the front of your tongue before the apple juice floods your mouth with a dry sweetness.  Next comes the high floral note of the elderflower.   The whole thing is ice cold and dangerously swiggable - and you get to eat the lime washed apple slice at the end.

I'm quite coming around to this developing cocktails idea.  We should do more of it!

By the way, if you're curious about how we achieved the exotic background - look here.

CACTUS COOLER

In a tall glass, combine the Tequila and cactus juice, in the ratio of 1 to 5 (the 1 being the tequila!) until the glass is three quarters full.

Layer a mint leaf and then an ice cube, repeating until the glass is almost full.

Twizzle the cocktail to mix and garnish with a slice of fresh lime.

DESERT APPLE

In a tall glass, combine the Tequila and the apple juice in the ratio of 1 to 5 (see above!) until the glass is three quarters full.

Add ice to top the glass off and give the whole thing a twizzle.

Take a good sized slice of apple and rub a cut lime over the flesh to prevent it from browning.  Use this to garnish the glass.

Try not to drink it too quickly!

Note : the 1 to 5 ratio of Tequila to fruit juice was our preference but of course you may prefer more or less tequila flavour.  We recommend that you experiment at length to discover your perfect mix!

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Bacon, pea & mint pasta - an unexpected success!

Well, what an unexpectedly resounding success this one was!

Thank you, "Senses in the Kitchen" blog!

Even though I was concerned about the minty herbiness (following on from hubby's dislike of the mint in the stir fry), it turns out that these combinations of flavours hit the spot perfectly.

Hubby did say that he thought the mint was a bit "whack you around the face" in its profile, whereas I thought it was a much more reserved background flavour.  Son & heir didn't have any opinion either way, he just scoffed the lot and asked for more!

So, I can only come the conclusion that hubby must be more sensitive to minty flavours than I am.  Which is odd, considering hubby will happily eat Extra Strong Mints, whereas anything stronger than a Tic Tac and I'm spitting it out!

Another mark in this dish's favour is that it is really very simple to prepare and cook.  Definitely one to remember for those days when you've done the shopping and can't be bothered to unwrap your creativity in time for dinner.

BACON, PEA & MINT PASTA           Serves 3


Ingredients :

6 rashers of smoked back bacon, diced
a small knob of butter
1 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced finely
1 clove of garlic, peeled and grated
300g pasta - I used either Spirali or Conchiglie
150g frozen peas
200ml creme fraiche - I used Creme fraiche d'isigny
freshly ground black pepper
3-4 sprigs fresh mint, leaves picked and roughly chopped
enough freshly grated parmesan cheese to sprinkle over.

Method : 

1.  Put a pan of salted water on to boil and cook the pasta for 8-9 minutes.

2.  Put another smaller pan of salted water on to boil, for the peas - and cook for 2-3 minutes once boiling.

3.  Meanwhile, in a dry frying pan and while the water is coming to the boil, cook the bacon until the fat has rendered then set aside and add the butter and oil to the pan. 
(The pasta and peas are probably able to be put in to their pans to cook now).

4.  Add the onions and cook, stirring often to prevent them caramelising, until softened but not browned.

5.  Grate in the garlic and cook for another minute.  Mix the crème fraîche into the pan, with some pepper and most of the chopped mint.  Stir well, to combine all the flavours.

6.  Drain the peas, then the pasta, in a colander over a large bowl, reserving some of the pasta cooking water in case your sauce is too thick.

7.  Return the pasta and peas to the saucepan and add the sauce.  Stir gently to combine.

Divide between serving bowls and sprinkle with parmesan.

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Ottolenghi's Green Couscous : a revelation in flavours!

So.  Couscous.  When hubby suggested we have couscous with our devilled sausages (recipe to follow), I laughed.  I laughed because every single attempt at injecting flavour into couscous, to date (as was) has been a catastrophic failure.

I've gone down the herbs & lemon route, I've gone down the cumin & eastern spice route.  I've even gone down the "Ainsley's couscous in a packet" route, just in case I was missing something there.  ~shakes head~  All have been devoid of the kind of flavour that makes you look forward to couscous appearing on the menu.

Until now.

Now let it be said and agreed that Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi are magicians.  Certainly with food, they are.  I'm not sure about the "produce a penny from behind your ear" type of magic, but I wouldn't put it past Yotam Ottolenghi - he looks the sort who could do that.

The moment hubby suggested couscous, I knew I had to take some serious advice on the subject - and where better to go for couscous advice than the two Ottolenghi cook books, "The Cook Book" and "Plenty".

I will admit that I rejected the first couscous recipe I found therein, but that was largely because the ingredients were hugely expensive and wouldn't particularly have sat well beside a sausage.  "Green Couscous" (page 255 for those who have "Plenty" on their bookshelves) didn't appear - at first reading - terribly hopeful.  However, having scanned the ingredients I discover that we had almost everything barring a couple of the herbs.  As I'm always keen (and even keener, now) to try another Ottolenghi recipe, we were on.

As with a lot of couscous recipes, it's not that difficult to make - provided you have a good blender/processor that will chop herbs down to a fine paste.  We've got one of those hand blenders (left over from when son & heir was a baby) that has a tub which you can plug the blender into - that did the herbs perfectly.

As for the flavour, well it'd be more true to say that it's a case of flavours, not flavour.  Everything combines most beautifully yet each and every flavour stands out in multiple layers of surprise.  I'd recommend using coarse sea salt for it, as the grains when they are tumbled through the couscous leave delicious trails of saltiness behind them.  Hubby was amazed to discover that there was only a quarter of a teaspoon of coarsely ground sea salt involved (not counting the stock cube, of course).

It turned out that my pack of dill had decided to dissolve into green slush, so that's one difference from the original recipe, as is the lack of fresh tarragon (which I couldn't find anywhere).  I substituted a teaspoonful of dried tarragon and nobody noticed it, so that's fine.  I wouldn't recommend doing the entire recipe in dried herbs of course!  Another difference is that the original recipe demanded a green chilli and all we had in the fridge were red ones, but again I suspect that it didn't really matter.


So the recipe you have here is the recipe that I made and that hubby and I enjoyed so much.  Son & heir, needless to say, took a teensy tiny forkful and decreed he didn't like it and left all of his.  ~shrug~  Hey ho, it was expected and his Dad and I polished it off for him, so no harm done.  If you're lucky enough to have a copy of "Plenty" on your bookshelves, the original recipe can be found on page 255.

Just how "Ottolenghi" does that look?

HERBY COUSCOUS (after Ottolenghi's Green Couscous)  Serves 4


Ingredients :


150g couscous
160ml boiling vegetable stock
1 small onion, thinly sliced
1 tbsp olive oil (for frying)
quarter tsp of sea salt
quarter tsp of ground cumin
3 spring onions, trimmed & finely sliced
1 red chilli, top & tailed, most seeds removed and finely sliced
30g rocket, coarsely chopped.


Herb paste :
20g fresh parsley, roughly chopped
20g fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 tsp dried tarragon
3 tbsp mint, roughly chopped
90ml extra virgin olive oil.


Method :


1.  Place the couscous in a large bowl and cover with the boiling stock.


2.  Cover the bowl with clingfilm and leave for 10 minutes.


3.  Meanwhile, fry the onion in the olive oil on a medium heat until golden and completely soft.  Add the salt & cumin, mix lightly and leave to cool slightly.


4.  Make the herb paste by placing all the ingredients in a good processor and blitzing until smooth.


5.  Add the herb paste to the couscous and mix well, fluffing it up with a fork.  Next, add the cooked onion, spring onions, chilli and rocket and mix through.


Serve.

Printable Version


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Fresh Pineapple with Mint sugar : simple but lovely!

Pineapple is one of our favourite fruits where making a dessert is concerned.  That and Lemon!

So, when I saw Jamie Oliver producing a dessert which involved fresh pineapple with fresh mint mixed with sugar sprinkled over it, of course I had to have a go.

Wow!  If you've not tried it, put a pineapple on your shopping list right now.





FRESH PINEAPPLE WITH MINT SUGAR

Ingredients :

A fresh pineapple
A small bunch of fresh mint
2 tbsp granulated sugar
Cream, to serve

Method :

1.  Cut the bristly top and the hoary bottom from your pineapple, then sit it on it's freshly cut bottom and go around it cutting the peel off from top to bottom.  You can generally remove the "eyes" as you go, using this method.  Watch out for pips, too.  (Who'd have thought that pineapples had pips!).

2.  Cut your pineapple in half from top to bottom and each piece in half, until you've got four wedges.

3.  Take each wedge and cut off the woody centre section and discard (but don't forget to have a nibble on them before you chuck them away - cook's perks, and all that!).  Then cut each wedge into bite-sized sections.

4.  Remove the mint leaves from the stalks and discard the stalks.  Chop the leaves finely, then add to the sugar and toss to infuse with the mint.

5.  Sprinkle the minty sugar over the pineapple, then cover and leave to chill in the fridge.

6.  Serve with fresh cream.

Greek Lamb & Orzo Bake - what a triumph!

I just couldn't wait to tell you all about tonight's dinner.  It was such a success!

It was one of those dishes that starts smelling wonderful and continues to get better and better the more of its ingredients you add.  Just so with this Bake.

Now I'd seen Orzo in various recipes on t'internet and got curious about what it was.  So that led me to discovering that it was a particular type of pasta-like carbohydrate, shaped like tiny grains of rice.  Curious!  As is my wont, I'd "tucked it behind my ear for later" and kept an eye out for it in the shops, along with dozens of other things.  It just so happened that while I was browsing the World Foods aisle in our local supermarket, amongst all the other noodles and tiny pastas, there it was - Orzo!  Now I knew where I could get it, all I had to do was find a recipe that looked delicious enough to warrant its use.

So along came "Greek Lamb & Orzo Bake".  I found the recipe in a general type of cookbook that I borrowed from the Library.  I had taken two or three recipes from it, but on the whole it was a book that I wouldn't bother taking out again.  However, I am so glad I found it in the first place, or I would never have discovered how well this collection of ingredients could shape up!

I was amused, when cooking the Orzo, to discover how slippery they can be!  The first time I tasted some (to work out whether they were soft enough to be included in the casserole) I took four or five of them into my mouth and bit down - only to have two of the little devils shoot out from between my lips and disappear into the farthest reaches of the kitchen!  They're like tiny torpedoes.

The mince mixture, as you combine each ingredient, tastes rather gorgeous right up until you include the chopped mint - whereupon it is just lifted somewhere up into the stratosphere.  Now we all know that mint and lamb are a match made in heaven - but my goodness, doesn't this recipe just demonstrate this!

Son was, initially, a teeny bit challenged by the Aubergine pieces.  Right up until I told him that they were just sponges full of the tasty gravy.  That encouraged him to stop picking them out and eat them instead.  Hubby loved the whole thing and, like me, wondered about including a little Feta cheese in the yoghurt/egg mixture.  Son was appalled by that idea, saying it would render the mix too sour.  He may have a point there - but I think it's rather worth trying!

 Edited to say that I included the Greek Lamb & Orzo dish on the menu list again, in April 2011.


This time, I used two eggs in the yoghurt/egg mixture which covered rather better - and I left it in the oven to brown a little more.


You'll see how lovely it looked when it came out of the oven from the picture here.


I can confirm that it was no less tasty, with lots of "mmmnn's" and much eye-rolling of appreciation as the first forkfulls went in.
 

As you can see, this time I served it with  baby corn and sugar snap peas, which were lovely.

It may look as though it has the possibility of being a little dry, but in fact the tomato sauce is just hiding under there.  We didn't require anything more than a little butter on the vegetables, to make a perfect meal.

GREEK LAMB & ORZO BAKE (serves 5)

Ingredients :

500g lean minced lamb

1 onion finely chopped

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1 aubergine, cut into 1cm chunks

200ml lamb or vegetable stock

400g tin chopped tomatoes

15g fresh mint, chopped

300g orzo

300g natural low-fat yoghurt

1 large egg

salt & pepper

half a tsp sugar

Method :

Brown the lamb in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat and remove the fat once it has rendered.

Add the onion and cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the onion is soft.  Then add the garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes.

Then add the aubergine pieces and cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes or until the aubergine is tender.

Stir in the stock, tomatoes and the mint.  Season -including a little sugar if the tomatoes need it - and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes or until the lamb is tender.

Preheat the oven to 180deg C/gas 4.

Meanwhile, cook the orzo according to manufacturers’ instructions, until al dente.  Drain.

Beat together the yoghurt and egg in a small bowl.

Stir the drained pasta into the lamb mixture, then spoon into a large lasagne dish.  Spoon the yoghurt mixture over the top and bake for 20-25 minutes until piping hot.

Serve with green beans & baby corn, or for summer dining, a green bean salad with a fresh lemony dressing.