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.
It’s interesting that carrot cake is always cake, but banana cake and zucchini cake are often called breads. The ingredients for all of these are very similar, but we never say carrot bread (or beetroot bread!) do we! I think they’re all really cake, because bread in my view is generally a savoury thing. But who am I to argue with the masses…….
Anyway I came across this great looking zucchini “bread” recipe a couple of weeks ago via a Food.com e-newsletter, and decided to make it for morning tea at work, last week. As I had successfully made my usual carrot cake in the bread machine the week before, I looked at the zucchini bread ingredients and thought hmmmmm they’re very similar in quantity etc. so I’ll do this one in the bread machine too.
It worked, but it was not as moist as the carrot cake, so I think this one would be better eaten straight after cooking (I made it the night before taking it to work). Also it didn’t rise quite as much and I think would have been better on the medium crust setting, which would have baked it about 8 minutes longer. It was good enough to be a “keeper” though, so I will change the baking time slightly next time.
Below is my bread machine version for 1 cake – if you want to do it the original, oven way, here is the website I got it from – which is in fact quantities for 2 loaves.
The Ultimate Zucchini Bread (CAKE!!)
In order, place the following ingredients in bread machine bowl:
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 1/4 cups grated zucchini
1 tbsp orange zest, grated
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1 3/4 cups plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bi-carb soda
1/2 tsp salt
Bake on bread machine’s Cake setting, with Medium crust and 750gm loaf settings.
If you’re feeling like a more savoury bread, try this lemon & dill bread, also in the bread machine. I made this again recently and we had it at work with apricot & almond cream cheese on top – a great combination with the bread flavours.
My lovely bread machine, best friend for years, also has all those fancy functions like jam and cake. I’ve never tried making jam in it, mainly because I’m just not a sweet eater and wouldn’t really use it – I am a definite Vegemite Kid and the idea of eating sweet stuff for breakfast is, well, just plain full of wrongability, as the smegheads  from the Dwarf would say!
I have, however enjoyed making this carrot cake recipe in my current bread machine (which is my second one as my first, beautiful, trusty Sanyo died 3 years ago after 15 years of faithful service and being used to death, literally).
I do have a great non-bread-machine carrot cake recipe, but really this is so easy to do that I haven’t made the other one for years. It is from the recipe leaflet that came with the machine, and works a treat.
I have a Sunbeam Quantum Smartbake – but I’m sure if you have a different machine the same or similar settings and quantities will work just fine. I transferred all my favourite old recipes from my old machine to the new one without a problem.
Carrot Cake
2 eggs
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 1/2 cups grated carrot
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 cup SR flour
1/2 cup plain flour
1 rounded tsp bi-carb soda
Place ingredients in bread machine in the order listed. Bake on the CAKE setting, with light crust and 750 gm loaf size chosen.
Ice as desired, or if you can’t be bothered making icing, sprinkle with icing sugar through a sieve.
I made this the evening before I wanted it for work, and it was still beautifully moist the next morning – and disappeared very quickly!
Really enjoyed watching this 3 part documentary, on my favourite subjects – food, history and England. So interesting to watch (and makes you want to rush off and roast some eggs!).
This Mulled Pork recipe looked excellent on the face of it – anything that calls for a whole bottle of red wine can’t be bad! I did enjoy it; however, the meat was too dry, particularly with the leftovers the next day. The flavours were fabulous and my flat smelled amazing – lots of citrus and red wine and cinnamon and cloves in the air – it was quite Christmasy in fact!
The dish is adapted from a recipe from More Than a Schnitzel, a German cookbook recently acquired by my library. I will make this again quite happily, but use beef instead of pork – slow cooking for 8-10 hours is just too much for pork, in this instance. Venison would probably be good with these flavours, but might also dry out I suspect.
Mulled Pork
1 kg diced pork
750 mls red wine (I used a Merlot)
2 1/2 tbsp brandy
juice and zest of 2 oranges
juice and zest of 1 lemon
1 tbsp brown sugar
6 cloves
1/4 cup raisins
1 tbsp beef stock powder
4 apples, sliced
3 onions, sliced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
cracked pepper, to taste
1 tbsp cornflour
Place all ingredients except cornflour in crockpot bowl, and refrigerate for at least a couple of hours (or leave overnight in fridge).
Place bowl into crockpot base and cook on LOW for 8-10 hours. About an hour before serving, mix the cornflour with a little cold water and blend to a smooth paste. Add this to the meat and stir through.
You know it’s Christmas time when you have the smells of cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves wafting around the house! I ended up using my own gingerbread recipe, and didn’t decorate them. I was going to, but then I thought meh I can’t be bothered. I find it hard to get motivated to go to that much trouble when there aren’t small children around anymore. When my kids were little I would spend the first weekend in December baking up a storm, but now they don’t live in the same state as me and I only see them a couple of times a year.
One day when there are (hopefully) grandchildren in my life, I will again get really into the Christmas sweet baking, but for this week just a batch of gingerbread to take to work was enough for me.
The cookie cutters worked really well. Don’t forget to “like” this posting (or make a comment)Â to be in the running for a free set! I will draw the 2 winners’ names out of a hat next Sunday.
My recipe did not turn out as sweet as I thought it should – but it all got eaten at work on Monday so I guess it tasted okay! It makes quite a large batch, but can be halved easily (the photo below shows half a batch). Or use your own favourite recipe, or the one I shared from the cookie cutters the other day.
Gingerbread
1 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup treacle
2 eggs, beaten
4Â cups plain flour, sifted
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp bi-carbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
approx 1 cup plain flour, extra
Melt butter in a saucepan until just melted. Remove from heat and add brown sugar, treacle and eggs. Mix well and cool for a few minutes, then add flour and spices and mix well.
Turn mixture out onto a floured board (it will be quite gooey still), and knead extra flour in by hand, to make a firm dough. Set aside in fridge for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 180C (160C for fan forced).
Roll dough out on a floured board (work in more extra flour if you need it) to 4-5mm thickness and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.
Place shapes on a greased or lined tray (baking paper works brilliantly) and bake for about 10 minutes depending on how hot an oven you have.
Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks.
Note: you can make the dough beforehand and keep in fridge, wrapped in plastic, for a few days – soften to roll out then cut and bake as above.
I often make dishes that call for preserved lemon, and as I never have any I just use a chunk of lemon or lime pickle (usually with chilli!). I have finally gotten around to making a jar of it – WELL I’m amazed at why I never have before, seeing how easy this is. Literally 5 minutes of work – I spent longer sterilizing the jar, than making the actual recipe!
Mind you, the proof will be in the pudding, as they say – now I have to wait six weeks to see if it actually tastes any good!
There are many versions out there – here is the one I used. As it was a spur of the moment thing and I only had 1 empty jar, I just used 2 lemons and halved the salt – if it works and tastes good I’ll make a bigger batch next time.
This is my tried and true banana bread recipe – not TOO sweet, lower in fat than most versions, and perfect for using up those over-ripe mushy bananas. I like to eat it toasted with Vegemite on it – YES I know this is completely weird – but try it, you’ll be pleasantly surprised!
Banana Bread
1 3/4 cups SR flour
1/4 cup plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
50 gms butter, melted
2-3 overripe bananas, mashed with a fork
optional – 1/2 cup walnuts
Preheat oven to 160C and line a loaf tin with baking powder. Sift flours and cinnamon into a large bowl; stir in the sugar and make a well in the centre.
In a separate bowl, mix the milk, eggs, melted butter, mashed banana and walnuts if using, and stir until well combined.
Add the banana mixture to the dry ingredients, and stir until just combined (don’t overmix).
Spoon into prepared tin and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Remove from oven and set aside to cool in the tin for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Cut into slices to serve.
(Note: my oven is super super super hot – if your banana bread takes a bit long to be properly cooked, have the oven at 180C instead)
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!
Apologies for the post about nothing, that you might have received in your inbox a couple of days ago, if you are a subscriber. I was drafting up a posting (about a yummy curry), and accidentally knocked some keys and suddenly off it went, before I had written anything!
Here is a delicious, light and fluffy slab cake I found on Best Recipes, which I love as a source of easy and successful recipes submitted by real people like you and I. This was my first baking effort in my new home, so I wasn’t sure how the oven would behave – beautifully as it turned out. This is a very easy recipe and pretty much foolproof. Quite sweet but not too rich.
As I was putting the mixture into the tin, I thought hmmmm I think this would make great apple muffins as well. Something to try next time.
Salmon & Avocado 