Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meat. Show all posts
I confess that lamb was not something I had ever eaten prior to moving here to the UK. My mother did cook lamb chops once when I was a teenager, but they smelled like burning mittens so none of us would eat them. I strongly suspect it was mutton and not lamb. In any case, the smell was enough to put us all off for a very long time.
My mother often spoke of a lamb stew that she had enjoyed in the hospital when she was having my brother. It was a taste memory that she carried with her all the days of her life. My brother just turned 60 last week, so that was a very long time to be thinking about what something tasted like.
I know all about that. The summer before 12th grade I went on a school exchange trip and we stayed at Carlton University in Ottawa. Each night we were taken to a restaurant in Ottawa called "The Cascade Restaurant." The very first night I ordered the Barbequed Chicken. It was so good I ordered it every night that we were there and I have been thinking about the taste of it ever since!
Taste memories can be very specific and they stick in your brain, often becoming even more delicious (or not as it were) in the memory as years go by!
My ex husband would never eat or try lamb because his father wouldn't and so it was not something I ever cooked when we were married. It was not until Todd and I got married that I took the risk of trying it.
Our church congregation had taken us out for supper at a restaurant to celebrate our marriage and there was saddle of lamb on the menu at the restaurant. I took a chance, ordered it and I have to say I fell in love with it at first bite.
This was proper lamb. British lamb. Succulent, tender and almost sweet. It was incredibly edibly delicious.
Since the I have enjoyed lamb in many ways. I do so adore a good lamb stew and I have several really delicious recipes fot that on here. This Simple Lamb Stew is beautiful and probably my favourite. Then there is my Lamb Stew with Feather Dumplings, also very good. I also have a delicious recipe for Small Batch Irish Lamb Stew which is very pleasing!
I also have several recipes for lamb chops. Spiced Lamb Chops with Roasted Roots. which has a very Indian-like feel to it. One of my favourites is Garlic Lamb Cutlets with a Mint and Sun Blush Tomato Sauce.
There are actually quite a few Lamb Recipes on this blog. You can access all of them here. Tagines and stews, and steaks, etc. All very delicious, I can assure you. These chops I am sharing today are especially delicious. They are seasoned and flash fried, and then a super simple honey, mustard and balsamic vinegar glaze is produced in the pan drippings.
They are coated in this and briefly reheated before serving. Oh but they are so delicious. Tender, perfectly cooked, and that flavourful glaze, well . . . its like manna from heaven.
Honey Mustard & Balsamic Lamb Chops
Yield: 4
These cook quickly and taste amazing. Quantities are for four but I have put quantities for two in brackets should you wish to serve a smaller family.
ingredients:
- 4 (8) lamb chops, well trimmed
- freshly ground black pepper
- fine sea salt
- light olive oil to fry
- 120ml (60ml) good balsamic vinegar (1/2 cup (1/4 cup)
- 2 (1)TBS liquid honey
- 2 (1) TBS grainy Dijon mustard
- 2 (1) cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
- 6 (3) sprigs of fresh rosemary
instructions:
How to cook Honey Mustard & Balsamic Lamb Chops
- Pat the lamb chops dry and season all over on both sides with salt and black pepper to taste. Whisk together the balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard and garlic. Set aside.
- Heat a bit of oil in a large non-stick skillet along with the rosemary. Add the seasoned chops and sear well on both sides, cooking for about 2 minutes per side, or to the level of doneness you desire. Remove to a plate and keep warm.
- Add the balsamic vinegar mix to the pan and allow it to bubble up. Cook until the mixture thickens and turns sticky. Return the chops to the pan, turning to coat them in the glaze. Serve immediately.
We enjoy our lamb on the pink side. Its so juicy and tender. Today I servd it with some Dauphinoise Potatoes and Steamed Brussels Sprouts. This was a fabulous dinner! I have given quantities so you can either cook for 4 or for 2. I also like to use French trimmed loin chops. The meat is so succulent and delicious.
Every New Year's Day from as long as I can remember we have had roasted ham for our New Year celebration dinner. Boiled until tender, and then the skin stripped, fat scored and roasted in the oven with a glaze until the fat was all sticky and sweet and gilded golden brown.
Its pretty hard to buck with traditions. They usually run deep and don't like to budge.
Its been a tradition, and that would be followed in the coming days with a huge pot of Pea and Ham Soup, made with the bone left from the ham.
Oh my mother did make lovely soup. The ham was lovely served cold and in thin slices with some mustard . . .
Red meat is not something we eat very often in our house. We eat mostly fish and chicken, but this year I thought I would treat us to some nice steaks for our New Year dinner.
I am breaking with tradition all over the place for some unknown reason!
I picked up some lovely rib eye steaks at Costco the other day. Of course they come four in a pack but with there only being two of us I froze the other two for another time, maybe even Valentines Day.
We will see.
The meat at Costco is lovely . . . Scottish Angus beef, dry aged . . . these were beautiful looking steaks. I should have taken a photograph of them before I cooked them.
They had just the right amount of fat and marbling.
Of course they were rather expensive, costing about half of my grocery budget for the week, so I couldn't afford to mess them up.
I decided to lightly season them and then pan sear them in some oil and butter, until golden brown . . .
I added garlic and sprigs of thyme to the butter in the pan, which made for a really nicely flavoured basting sauce.
The timings I have given were perfect for the steaks I was cooking, about 1 inch in thickness and at room temperature . . . with the end result being medium rare, which is how we like our steak.
I used the pan drippings and a bit more garlic to create a beautifully creamy and lush mushroom sauce to serve with the steaks.
I started by sauteing the mushrooms in a bit more butter along with some garlic, adding some good balsamic vinegar and then finally some cream . . .
Oh but it didn't half smell heavenly if I don't say so myself!
It was the perfect accompaniment to the steaks . . .
This made the perfect meal along with some salad and baked jacket potatoes . . .
Yield: 2
Garlic Butter Steak with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
Perfectly cooked pan seared steaks, beautifully flavoured and served with a lush and creamy mushroom sauce.
ingredients:
- 2 (7-ounce) rib eye steaks, each about 1 inch thick
- fine sea salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste
- 1 TBS olive oil, divided
- 2 TBS butter, divided
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled and bashed/broken open
- 3 to 4 sprigs of thyme
For the sauce:
- 1 clove garlic, peeled and crushed
- 1 tsp Balsamic vinegar
- 10 to 12 quartered closed cup white mushrooms
- 120ml light cream (1/2 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Garlic Butter Steak with a Creamy Mushroom Sauce
- Bring the steaks to room temperature by unwrapping them and leaving them to sit open to the air for at least half an hour. Season them all over lightly with salt and black pepper.
- Heat a large heavy based skillet over medium high heat. Add the oil and when it begins to shimmer and smoke add the steaks very carefully. It will sputter and spit. Cook for three minutes on one side, then flip over and cook for a further 3 minutes on the underside. They should be nicely browned.
- Reduce the heat to medium low and add 1 TBS of the butter to the pan, along with the sprigs of thyme and 3 garlic cloves. Once the butter begins to foam, and using a metal spoon, carefully tilt the pan and baste the steaks with the garlic/herb butter in the pan. Cook for a further 1 to 2 minutes, basting.
- Remove the steaks from the pan to a heated plate, discarding the thyme and garlic. Leave to rest while you make the sauce.
- To make the sauce add the mushrooms to the pan along with the crushed garlic and remaining butter. Cook over medium heat, stirring, for a few minutes until fragrant. Add the balsamic vinegar to the pan and cook for a few minutes longer until soft, then add the cream. Let bubble up and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve immediately with the steaks.
You can safely double this recipe if you are wanting to feed more people. It makes a great dinner party entree for entertaining. The steaks don't take overly long to cook, nor does the sauce, especially if you have everything in place and ready to go when you start cooking them. Any sides can be done before hand, well ahead of time and just reheated when you are ready to serve. Enjoy!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
City Chicken. The delicious chicken dish that really isn't chicken. This fabulously tasty recipe is a Polish American recipe for making something very tasty which was developed during the Depression to help create a delicious supper dish that tasted like chicken, but was made with meats that were not quite as pricey to buy.
It is a recipe which was first shared with me by my sister many years ago and I have to say it is incredibly delicious!
I was sitting here yesterday morning doing Christmas Cards and I was trying to think of what my first Christmas memories were of myself and my sister. I am three years older than my sister, and I wasn't exactly very happy when my mom brought her home from the hospital. I wanted my mom to take the baby back, probably because I was used to being on my own and the baby was taking up far too much of my mothers attention.
For a week the only glimpses of my mother had been through a hospital window when my father had taken me to the hospital to see her. To have her come home finally, only to be accompanied by this small squealing attention getter was not exactly what I had been hoping for.
I must have been quite spoiled by having had all of both of my parent's attentions for three years to myself. That's all I can surmise.
It was only when my mother explained that if the baby went she would also have to go as the baby needed someone to take care of it that I relented and decided the baby could stay.
Little did I know then that my mother had brought home to me the best and most beloved friend that I could have ever had or wanted.
My life has been enriched and richly blessed through the years by this marvelous woman that I am lucky enough to be able to call sister. Cindy.
I love her so very much. It was she who taught me how to crochet. In fact she taught both my mother and myself. I am not sure where she learnt how, but she came home and taught us.
We spent several hours together one afternoon learning together. It is a skill that I have always been grateful for.
Through the years we have shared many loves and experiences with each other. We both love to craft and to create things with our hands.
Some of my happiest memories are of those we spent together manning craft tables filled with our wares at craft sales . . . the best part of which was getting to spend a whole day with each other without any children or husbands nipping at our heels.
We both love bird watching and nature. We have often compared notes through the years of different birds we have seen and have sat and watched them together.
I have fond memories of us having discovered an old discarded orchard filled with apples and blackberries and wild raspberries and picking large containers of them so we could make jam.
Everything my sister does is done with great skill and expertise and she is good at all that she does. I have always considered her to be the great baker in our family.
She has always created cakes that rise and pastry that is as light as a cloud. I was always more of a savory cook.
But one thing was certain, we both loved to create, cook and bake delicious meals and foods for our families to enjoy.
At a time when smaller families were most common, we both had what was considered somewhat larger, me having five children and she four children. Even my brother had four.
I think we all just have hearts for family and home.
One thing my sister and I have done a lot of through the years is sharing recipes. Some of my favourites come from her, like her Portuguese Gumdrop Cake, her Zucchini Casserole, her Stove Top Mac and Cheese
All delicious, and then there is this one . . . City Chicken, which isn't really chicken at all, but cubes of pork threaded onto wooden skewers, breaded, fried and baked until tender and juicy and incredibly delicious.
It was a recipe she got from her late mother in law, and it was one of her then husband's favorite meals. She shared the recipe with me and it became one of ours.
These kinds of recipes have always been my favorite kind of recipes. No question about it.
Recipes that are handed down and shared and that become a part and a parcel of the fabric of your family.
So whilst this tasty dish has nothing to do with Christmas or Christmas memories, or even chicken . . . . it has plenty to do with family and the love that most family's have for and share with each other.
Yield: 4
City Chicken
This is an old, old recipe I got from my sister back in the 1970's. It was a favourite of her in laws. It isn't chicken at all but beautifully tender pieces of pork.
ingredients:
- 1 1/2 pounds of pork tenderloin, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 free range eggs, beaten lightly in a shallow bowl
- 180g seasoned dry bread crumbs (1 1/2 cups) in another shallow bowl
- oil for frying
- 6 to 8 wooden skewers, about 5 to 6 inches in length, pointed on one end
- 120ml chicken stock (1/2 cup)
instructions:
How to cook City Chicken
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Have ready a shallow casserole dish large enough to hold all of your skewers in one layer.
- Trim and season the pork cubes with salt and pepper. Thread the pork onto the skewers, leaving a portion of the skewer bare at the end for holding.
- Roll the pork skewers into the beaten egg and then roll them into the bread crumbs to coat completely. Set them on a plate as you go along.
- Heat about 1/4 inch of oil in a large skillet. Working in batches as required (over-crowding the pan will cause the oil to cool), brown the pork skewers on all sides. Transfer the skewers to the casserole dish when browned. Make sure there is some space between each one. Pour the chicken stock in between the skewers. Cover tightly with foil and bake in the preheated oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for a further 10 minutes to help crisp the breading.
- Serve hot with mashed potatoes, gravy and a vegetable on the side.
I love simple meals like this. Just the meat, some gravy, piles of fluffy mash and some peas and carrots on the side. The only thing missing was my sister. Oh but I wouldn't have given to be able to sit down and enjoy this with her. Maybe one day . . .
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Most men are real meat and potatoes people. My father is, all my sons are, and so are my grandsons also!
My husband is also a real meat and potatoes fan. He could quite happily have meat and potatoes every night of the week and never tire of it! He especially loves pork chops or sausages!
They have beautiful sausage here in the UK. They have nasty ones as well (think cheap and filled with lots of fillers, pasty textured, blecch). But I think that is the same anywhere.
If you are open to paying a bit more, there are loads of beautiful sausages you can buy for your family. Beautiful sausages which are meaty and flavourful with lovely skins that snap when you bite into them!
In my opinion a good sausage will contain at least 70% of good quality meat with the remainder being seasonings, fat (you need fat in a good sausage) and rusks or bread crumbs.
I have had really low fat sausages and have always found them to be hard and dry. You need a bit of fat in a sausage or why bother to have one!
Fat adds flavour and is a part of what makes them succulent and delicious.
Here in the UK there are literally hundreds of different kinds/flavours of sausage. Most butchers will have their own speciality sausages.
The butcher who used to be down at the Parade where I live had gorgeous ones. Sadly he closed down a few years back. He just couldn't compete with the big grocery shops I think, which was a real shame.
There is nothing nicer than a well made Butchers sausage. Well worth every penny. Most areas in the UK also have their speciality sausages as well, such as Gloucester, Cumberland, Lincolnshire, Manchester, Oxford, Yorkshire, etc.
They even have square sausage known as the Lorne Sausage, generally composed of pork and beef and served cut into slices. It comes from Scotland.
I have seen it at Costco, and been tempted to buy, but haven't tried it as of yet. It would be great in sandwiches I think!
You can get apple and leek sausages, leek sausages, mustard and caramelised onion, Stilton and cranberry, etc. There is really no end to the variety out there!
The world literally is your oyster when it comes to choice in the British sausage!
My favourites are Cumberland. They are nicely spiced and peppery. You can get them in links or coiled up (Catherine Wheels).
The best are found right in Cumbria itself. I remember buying beautiful ones for our supper when we were staying up there one year. My taste buds still tingle when I think of them! They were so delicious!
Yes, I am a foodie through and through and the food we get to eat and try when we are on holiday is (truth be told) has always been the best part of any holiday for me!
To me, not tasting the food of a place you are visiting is a bit of a sacrilege! Food and culture just go together like peas and carrots!
This is a very autumnal recipe I am sharing here with you today. Hearty, rich and comforting. This is a real belly warmer!
Family pleasing. Man pleasing.
You begin with plump, perfectly browned fabulously flavoured sausages.
These are braised in a beautifully flavoured gravy. A rich and lush gravy. A can-I-have-just-one-more-spoonful kind of a gravy!
Filled with the flavours of earthy and oniony leeks and tart cooking apples. With sweet apple juice and sharp grainy mustard.
This is combined with the smokiness of bacon and those rich flavours from the sausages.
Altogether this is a fabulously tasty dish. Hearty and beautifully flavoured. You really can't go wrong.
I think you are about to fall in love with this beautiful dish. Prepare yourself!
Yield: 4
Braised Sausages with an Apple Gravy
Proper delicious bangers braised with leeks, apple and apple juice for a hearty autumn supper. Perfect served with fluffy mash and a vegetable on the side.
ingredients:
- 2 tsp light olive oil
- 8 fat good quality pork sausages (I like Cumberland)
- 1 medium leek, trimmed and washed
- 6 rashers smoked streaky bacon, chopped
- 300ml cloudy apple juice (1 1/4 cup sweet apple cider)
- 1 large cooking apple (I used Bramley)
- 2 TBS grainy mustard
instructions:
How to cook Braised Sausages with an Apple Gravy
- Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet which has a tight fitting lid. Add the sausages and cook, turning frequently, for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden brown all over. Remove and set aside.
- Trim the leek, removing and discarding any dark green parts. Slit down one side and rinse well, making sure any grit or dirt is gone. Cut into 3 inch lengths and then slice the lengths into 1/4 inch strips. Return the skillet to the heat and add the leeks and bacon pieces. Stir fry for 5 to 6 minutes, until the leeks have softened and the bacon is cooked. Return the sausages to the pan and pour on the apple juice. Cover tightly and braise over low heat for 30 minutes over low heat.
- Peel and core the apple. Dice into 1/4 inch dice. Add to the pan, scattering it around the sausages. Cover and cook for a further 15 minutes on low, or until the apple has softened and begins to break down, and the pan juices have thickened. If you think the pan juices are too thick add some more apple juice.
- Stir in the grainy mustard and heat through. Serve immediately with lots of fluffy mashed potatoes and your favourite vegetables on the side.
Did you make this recipe?
Tag @marierayner5530 on instagram and hashtag it #EnglishKitchen
Don't be tempted to use a sweet eating apple in this. You really want a tart cooking apple to offset the sweetness of the apple juice. This is just perfect . . . absolutely. We enjoyed it with fluffy hot mashed potatoes and steamed green beans.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com Thanks so much for visiting. Do come again!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Social Icons