Quick Lamb Curry

This simple lamb mince dish is based on one from Simple Indian Cookery by Madhur Jaffrey – an old book that I came across at work recently, with loads of terrific and EASY Indian dishes.

There is no rocket science here; the key is in the use of fresh spices – get your mortar & pestle action on!

You could serve this as is, in a bowl, or make it a bit more glamorous with rice, tortillas or naan bread, raita, and maybe a side dish of sauteed mushrooms or mashed potato!

Minced Lamb With Peas

2 tbsp olive oil

1 brown onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

1 tsp cumin seeds, ground

1 tsp coriander seeds, ground

1/4 tsp turmeric

1/4 tsp cinnamon, ground

1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

2 tomatoes, chopped

4 tbsp low-fat Greek yoghurt

500 gms minced lamb

cracked pepper, to taste

1 cup water

juice of 1 lemon

3/4 cup frozen peas

Heat olive oil in a large saucepan or frying pan over medium heat. Add onion, garlic and ginger; stir until lightly browned.

Add the cumin, coriander, turmeric, cinnamon, nutmeg and cayenne pepper, and stir for 10 seconds. Add the tomatoes and yoghurt. Cook over medium heat until the tomatoes have softened, stirring often.

Add the lamb and cracked pepper. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, breaking up all the lumps.

Add the water and bring to a simmer, then cover and simmer on low heat for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Add lemon juice and peas, return to a simmer and cook gently, uncovered, for a further 10 minutes.

Serves 4

Happy Fooding!

Restaurant Review: Hyde Park Hotel

Lamb Pot Pie

Had a yummy lunch on the weekend at the Hyde Park Hotel in North Perth.

This pub is only 5 minutes drive from my house, yet I’ve never been there before in almost 4 years here. I was going to the Perth Mint (having a play-tourist moment!), so looked up the Entertainment Book to see what eating places were nearby, that I had a voucher for. I decided to try something new, and it turned out to be a great decision. The food was truly fabulous, in looks, portion size and taste. These mains were both about $25 each, standard pub prices, but as I had a voucher it was 25% off.

Baked Coriander & Pistachio Nut Crusted Chicken

Service was excellent and staff friendly – and the place was seriously renovated (apparently it used to be a bit of a dive – not so now, it is very upmarket) in 2011 and still looks brand new. It was my first time there, but it won’t be my last!

An added bonus is that there is a very large Dan Murphy’s bottle shop next door, so I made the most of that and stocked up on wine bargains while I was there.

Happy Fooding!

Still on the Quinoa Train…

I recently borrowed Cooking With Quinoa: The Supergrain from work. It’s a great resource for quinoa recipes, and here is a lamb dish that I’ve adapted. The only time-consuming part was grinding a tablespoon of cumin seeds – as I have quite weak wrists I find using a mortar and pestle not that easy, but I do prefer to grind the spices freshly as I need them. I sat outside in the sun with my neighbour, grinding away whilst stopping regularly for champagne liquid refreshment to keep me going!

Lamb With Quinoa

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium brown onions, cut in half & thinly sliced

500 gms minced lamb

5 clove garlic, crushed

1 tsp cumin seeds, whole

1 tbsp cumin seeds, ground

3/4 cup quinoa (rinse it if you prefer)

1/4 cup black rice

1 tbsp light soy sauce (I like Pearl River Bridge)

1 tsp chilli paste

2 cups hot water

1 cup frozen peas

1 red chilli, sliced

10 dried prunes, roughly chopped

preserved lemon & low-fat Greek yoghurt, to serve

Heat the olive oil in a large deep pan, and saute onion until soft and golden. Add lamb mince and cook until well browned.

Stir in the garlic, cumin seeds and ground cumin, and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.

Add the quinoa, rice, soy sauce, chilli paste and water. Stir, cover and simmer on low heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the quinoa is almost cooked.

Stir in the frozen peas and prunes, and cook for a further 8 minutes. Add the sliced chilli and cook for a final 2 minutes.

Serve with pieces of preserved lemon and yoghurt, if desired.

Serves 4.

Happy Fooding!

French Onion Lamb Shanks

Ready to go in the oven

This week I picked up a luscious looking 2-pack of lamb shanks, and thought I’d do them in the Continental cook-in-bag things that I have tried before. But…..when I went to the supermarket they didn’t have any of the pre-prepared bags in the lamb shank flavour that I used last time.

I decided to make up my own version. I placed the shanks in an oven bag along with 4 small, whole potatoes and 1 onion, cut into chunks. In a small bowl I whisked together a packet of dried French onion soup mix with about 1/2 a cup of white wine and 3 sprigs of fresh rosemary,chopped.

I simply poured the flavour mixture over the meat, closed up the bag, and baked at 180C for 1.5 hours.

Yum!

This made enough for 2, so I kept half for a leftovers meal the next night. I think next time I would cook it for a bit longer – 2 hours – to make the meat fall off the bones more easily.

(I served it with coleslaw – for no reason other than that I just felt like it!)

My Rice Cube arrived in the mail this week! I just have to find time to have a proper play with it…..

Happy Fooding!

Another Greek Review…

I’ve been in Brisbane for 10 days, attending the wonderful Koala Conventions annual embroidery week –  loads of fun, fantastic stitching workshops, and LOTS of food! Last Tuesday night we went as a large group, to Kapsali Greek restaurant.

The food was a banquet organised specially for function groups, so large platters were brought out, first of dips, then hot treats like calamari and saganaki.

Between courses the waiters got up and did some Greek dancing, then they made all of us get up and have a go – in fact the whole restaurant pretty much joined in. Lots of fun.

Main course platters included lamb that just melted in the mouth, and delicious garlic potatoes. By then we were all so full because we had pigged out on the dips and cheese, so quite a bit was left on the platters. I hate to see food go to waste but we just couldn’t eat it all. As for dessert (baklava and fresh fruit) I couldn’t touch a thing.

A great night, lots of laughter and big garlic breath fumes in our room (I was sharing with my mum, who flew to Brisbane from Melbourne to join me for the embroidery week) afterwards!

I fly home to Perth today with mountains of washing to do, 2 new embroidery projects to complete (I did actually finish the 3rd one, which is the first time ever that I’ve been able to do that within the workshop week) and a lot of stuff to unpack. A wonderful 10 days was had by all.

Happy Fooding!

Elies Tent

Here’s another restaurant review for you…….I love Middle Eastern food – Lebanese, Arabian etc. so I was really looking forward to this meal at Elies Tent.

Overall opinion – quite nice, but not outstanding and I think I’ll try elsewhere before I go back again.

Hummus & Babaganoush

We had a banquet as this was the best value and is a good way to try a bit of everything. Whilst the dips were pretty good (hummus and babaganoush) I’m sure the pita bread to go with it was just a bought one from the supermarket – VERY dry and brittle – whereas it should be piping hot and soft, served freshly out of the oven.

Falafels & lamb puffs

The nibbles of falafels and lamb puffs were delicious, as were the lamb and chicken kebabs – a tad burnt but for my taste I didn’t mind that really.

Lamb & chicken kebabs

The tabbouleh was superb – lemony fresh and salt with loads of fresh flat-leafed parsley; my photo of that turned out blurry though 😦

Finally there was a big plate of rice, which was quite sweet with cinnamon, fruit and almonds in it – very gluggy – topped with shaved cooked chicken and lamb that was very dry. I ate as much as I could anyway as I hate waste, but in the end we really did leave quite a bit on the plates.

Meat & rice

It was worth a try, but I won’t go back there again except maybe for a big bowl of their tabbouleh one lunchtime!

Happy Fooding!

Mez – Greek Restaurant Review

Grilled Haloumi

Lots of garlic, tender chunks of mouthwatering meat, terrific presentation, HUGE portion sizes, great fast service, friendly staff and a $22 discount thanks to the Entertainment Card!

Grilled Calamari

That sums up my experience at Mez Greek restaurant in Northbridge. I have nothing negative to say about this place, which is right up there with George’s in Subiaco, my up-til-now favourite Greek place in Perth.

Lamb Kleftiko

Awesomely spectacular meal.

Happy Fooding!

Surprisingly Quick & Tasty

I love lamb shanks, but I’ve only ever thought of them as a dish to be slow-cooked for hours ’til the meat falls off the bone. Apparently, not always so! The other day a friend cooked this delicious cooked-in-an-oven bag meal, using a packet of Continental Cook-in-Bag as the flavour base. We checked the ingredients, because I was skeptical about how healthy the dehydrated contents would be, but actually it was pretty good – nothing too nasty in there. I mean it’s not 100% perfect of course, and you could always make up your own herb/spice blend, but for convenience it was certainly great and really tasty. We added celery, onion and carrot to the oven bag, as well as fresh rosemary (I’ve just discovered, thanks to meeting the neighbours, that there is a large rosemary bush growing under the staircase at my new place – never noticed it before – guess I walk around in a daze a lot of the time!).

The great thing about this dish was (apart from the yummy flavours) that it was ready in less than an hour, which for lamb shanks is excellent, as I always have to plan ahead and either be home for hours to let it cook, or get it ready in the morning and put it in the crockpot for the day.

Spoon the juices from the bag over the meat, mashed potato (made with cream cheese rather than butter) to serve, and a glass of wine or 3, and there you have a delightful gourmet dinner that was no trouble at all to prepare.

Happy Fooding!

Love these free e-cards http://www.someecards.com

Disappointing….

Recently in the Coles junk mail (since I moved I am finally getting junk mail in my letterbox again – yay!) was one of their “feed your family for under $10” recipes that looked pretty good – Lamb, Cauliflower & Coconut Curry – so I tried it. I don’t believe the under $10 rubbish – the recipes are supposed to use in-season products so that the prices are good, but I don’t call $5.65 for a cauliflower a means to a low budget dinner! Just the cauliflower and the mince came to almost $10 for a start.

Anyway, in theory it should have been lovely and tasty – loads of spices, garlic, ginger etc, but really it wasn’t up to much. Lacking in flavour I thought. Maybe they like things to be child-friendly ie no really strong flavours. Certainly it was quite easy – simple enough to make after a 7 hour work shift, – I wouldn’t bother with too much complication at the end of a work day when there’s only myself to cook for.

Oh well, it filled the spot, as they say, but I won’t make it again. Or if I do, I’ll really add some hot chillies to pep it up a lot!

Happy Fooding!

A BBQ Where There’s a Butcher Involved

In fact, the butcher was the host! Our friends Phil & Jodie held a housewarming bbq just after Christmas (this was where I discovered the luscious pear & feta platter), and as Phil is a butcher, the meat was absolutely divine. We had a smoked “turkey ham”, sliced and eaten cold, and it was sooooooo delicious, just melted in your mouth.

As well Phil had made his own creation, a version of a turducken and I am probably getting this wrong but I think it was pork inside chicken inside turkey. Actually Phil reads this so he will hopefully comment and correct me if I have mucked this up – whatever the combination, it was superb. Phil makes these only to order as they take several weeks to produce.

As well as the usual suspects like marinated chicken wings, we also had this large butterflied piece of lamb –

and some specially-aged (3 months??) wagyu steak, which unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of. Luckily, my friends are all well used to me poking my camera under their noses and taking photos of their meals all the time!

Jodie insists that she never cooks, but she managed to produce yummy salads (especially the couscous one, which had dried cranberries in it) and a gorgeous couple of desserts.

Here’s a plug for Terranova Butcher, for any of you that are in the Northbridge vicinity of Perth – thanks for the great bbq, Phil!

Happy Fooding!