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Showing posts sorted by date for query lamb. Sort by relevance Show all posts
I am in the process of testing side dishes for the up and coming holidays and this week I really wanted to try this recipe I found in a book by Diana Henry. The name of the book is Pure Simple Cooking.
It is filled to overflowing with an abundance of simple recipes which require very few ingredients and not a lot of effort. When you are talking holiday meals, any recipe which meets those requirements is a plus for me!
I adore onions. They are quite simply one of my favorite vegetables and they go really well with roasts of any kind! Turkey, beef, chicken, lamb, pork, even ham.
These delectable onions would be a perfect side dish with any one of those meats. And when I say delectable, I mean delectable. These onions simply melt in the mouth.
Are you the person who always wants to pig out on that onion which has roasted in the middle of your roast chicken? (and who isn't!) If so, then this recipe is built just for you!
I don't know why I am always amazed when such simple ingredients and techniques come out crazy delicious. I shouldn't be. We all know its the simple things in life which bring us the most pleasure after all!
Caramelized onions are one of my favorite things to eat, but they are rather time consuming and you do have to keep a close watch on them. Worth the effort, but still . . .
When you are cooking a roast dinner you have plenty of other things to do, without having to babysit a skillet of onions! With a tiny bit of prep, these quite simply cook themselves! Easy peasy!
As you all know by now, I am a no fuss no muss kind of a girl. You can call it lazy if you want to, but the truth is I like recipes that can get me in and out of the kitchen with little or no effort.
Yes, they have to taste delicious, but recipes that cook themselves? Sign me up!
WHAT DO YOU NEED TO MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Very simple ingredients are needed to make these onions and you only need four ingredients.
- medium sized brown onions, skins on
- olive oil
- salt and pepper
- salted butter
HOW DO YOU MAKE MELTING ONIONS
Nothing could be easier to make. With just a tiny bit of prep, these can be in the oven and roasting in no time at all.
First of all you will need six medium sized brown onions. By brown onion I mean onions with brown skins. You need to do a bit of prep on them, but not a lot.
Wash them really well and dry them and then trim all those hairy bits from the root end. You can just cut them off as close to the root as possible. You want essentially to make sure that the root end stays intact.
Although it is not essential you will also want to trim a bit from the stem end of the onion. I like to cut a thin slice from the top, discarding it.
You then need to make a deep cross cut down the height of the onion towards the root end, only going down 3/4 of the way.
Make sure you don't cut them all the way through the bottom. You want them to stay together.
You then rub them all over with some extra virgin olive oil. This is when you want an oil with some flavor, so extra virgin olive oil is perfect. You will also be seasoning them with some salt and pepper.
I like to use fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Once you have rubbed and seasoned them you need to pop them into a roasting dish that is small enough to hold them all snugly in a single layer.
This helps to keep them intact during the long roasting time. I used a 6 inch cake tin because I was only roasting 3 onions today for testing purposes.
They are then covered tightly with some more foil and popped into a moderately hot oven. (375*F/190*C) Initially they need to roast for a fairly long period of time. 70 minutes.
But essentially, they are cooking themselves. You can just walk away and get on with whatever else you need to be doing.
At the end of the that time you remove from the oven and add some butter. Just plain salted butter.
I cut it into slivers and inserted it into the cuts of the onions so that the flavor gets right in there.
Back into the oven they go for another 25 minutes, until that butter gets all nut brown and golden and the onions get to the point where they really do melt in the mouth.
You will need to baste them a couple of times with the melted butter. Not a problem. The end result is something that brings pure and simple taste satisfaction.
You can also turn these delectable little morsels . . . cheesy melted onions . . . by adding some grated strong cheddar cheese and popping them back into the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.
Cheese and onion are perfect partners and this makes for a fabulous finish for what is essentially one of the simplest and most delicious sides dishes you could ever put together. I highly recommend!
PS - Do caution your guests to peel off the skins prior to eating. The onions slip out of them very easily. This tiny bit of hassle is well worth it. Trust me on this.
Melting Onions
Yield: 6 as a side dish (can easily be halved)
Prep time: 8 MinCook time: 1 H & 32 MTotal time: 1 H & 40 M
These will be the star of the show! These delicious onions melt in your mouth.
Ingredients
- 6 medium onions, skins left on
- 1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil
- salt and black pepper to taste
- 1/4 cup (60g) salted butter
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/gas mark 5. Have ready a baking dish that you can fit all the onions in upright, snugly.
- Carefully trim the bizarre bits from the root end of the onion, leaving the root and skins intact. Trim a sliver from the other end as well. Make a cross cut into each onion 3/4 of the way down the height of the onion, taking care not to cut all the way to the bottom.
- Rub the onions all over with the oil, season with salt and pepper and then fit snugly into a small ovenproof dish. Cover tightly with aluminum foil.
- Roast for 70 minutes. Uncover. Divide the butter amongst the onions, sliding it down into the centers. Bake for a further 25 minutes, basting them with the melted butter a few times. Serve at once.
Notes:
You can turn these into melting onions with cheese by adding some grated or cut strong cheddar (about 6 ounces) and stuffing it into the centers of each onion when done. Return to the oven just until the cheese has melted. Delicious!
You can also add herbs to these. Fresh thyme leaves are especially nice.
This has to be my favorite apple pie of all time, I kid you not! It is the best apple pie recipe and I think you best prepare yourself now to fall in love because I am pretty certain you will do just that!
The original recipe comes from an old recipe book of mine entitled Food that Really Schmecks, Mennonite Cooking by Edna Staebler, published in 1968.
I remember taking a copy of the book out of the library when I was a very young mother and living in London, Ontario. I painstakingly copied some of the recipes out into my Big Blue Binder. This would have been back in the early 1980's.
I eventually purchased a copy for myself many years later. It is a wonderful example of Canadian Mennonite Cooking, written by Edna Staebler who grew up in Waterloo county in Ontario, Canada, at the very heart of Canadian Mennonite Country.
I have been to the area many, many times myself. The farm market in Kitchener is fabulous and filled with an abundance of Mennonite cooking and quilts, meats, etc.
I also have been to Saint Jacobs many times, which is a very Mennonite town. We used to love to eat at a Mennonite Restaurant called Anna Mae's in Millbank which is in the same area.
I have eaten there many times and in my opinion it was the best home cooking you could get in a restaurant outside of a home! Everything was delicious. They have a different special every night of the week, along with their special Broasted Chicken, and of course the pies are to die for.
If you ever happen to have a chance to visit it and eat there, I highly recommend. Be sure to bring along a hearty appetite because they will be rolling you out of there!
Mennonites are known for being excellent cooks. I am not surprised. They are very similar to the Amish in origin and life style. We lived not too far from Mennonite country and often saw them in their horse and buggies.
Anyways, this pie is one of the best apple pies you could ever want to bake and to eat, and its very simple as well.
Schnitz usually refers to dried apples, but in this case it refers simply to sliced apples. I don't want to start any arguments here. I know people can be very pedantic about terminology, etc.
I am only giving you the name by which it is listed in the book. A rose by any other name and all that.
This is a single crust pie, composed of a delicious streusel crumb that is used in three separate ways. First as a base in the bottom of the crust beneath the apples.
Second mixed into sour cream or cream as a creamy custard that gets poured over the apples, and finally, third as a cinnamon streusel topping that gets sprinkled over top of the pie before baking.
There is nothing extraordinary called for her, unless you consider cream or sour cream to be extraordinary.
For me they are just staples and something which I always have in my kitchen. It is the same with buttermilk and plain yogurt. Trust me when I tell you that they always, always get used!
You will want to use a nice all rounder when it comes to apples. Today I used some Gravensteins that are now coming into crop.
The Gravenstein apple is one of the earliest croppers when it comes to apples in Nova Scotia. They are great all rounders making for both great eating and great cooking. Firm, crisp and juicy.
As you can tell they hold their shape well in cooking. They are also generally quite large. I used one and a half for this pie.
The other half I ate out of hand and it was delicious! Best apple I have eaten in a while. Not long since being picked I am sure. I bought them at Goucher's farm market on Friday.
I had forgotten just how delicious fresh picked apples are. My first husband's family were farmers. They had orchards as well as chickens, eggs, lamb, beef cattle, and farmed vegetables as well for the local processing plant.
My late Mother In Law knew what to do with all of these things and she did it really well. Nothing was wasted. I learned a lot from her. Lois was a real treasure. She passed away a few years ago at the age of 100.
Normally I would make my own pastry for this but had a really busy day today so used a frozen pie crust. A Tenderflake crust. They are the best when it comes to ready crusts here in Canada.
Normally I would make my Butter & Lard Pastry. It is the best, flakiest pastry you could ever want in a pie, single or double, sweet or savory. Trust me on this.
*Butter-Lard Pastry*
Makes 2 nine - inch crusts
Makes 2 nine - inch crusts
Printable Recipe
This is a beautiful pastry. Flaky just right. You can add a touch of sugar to it if you are making a fruit pie.
2 cups all purpose flour (280g)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter (76g)
1/3 cup lard (or white vegetable shortening) (74g)
5 to 6 tablespoons of ice water
(note: if using for a sweet pie, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar.)
Mix flour with salt, and cut in butter and lard, until you have pieces of fat in the flour about the size of peas. Add ice water, one TBS at a time, tossing it in with a fork until pastry comes together. Form in to a ball and cut in two pieces. Form each into a round flat disc. Warp in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
This is a beautiful pastry. Flaky just right. You can add a touch of sugar to it if you are making a fruit pie.
2 cups all purpose flour (280g)
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter (76g)
1/3 cup lard (or white vegetable shortening) (74g)
5 to 6 tablespoons of ice water
(note: if using for a sweet pie, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of sugar.)
Mix flour with salt, and cut in butter and lard, until you have pieces of fat in the flour about the size of peas. Add ice water, one TBS at a time, tossing it in with a fork until pastry comes together. Form in to a ball and cut in two pieces. Form each into a round flat disc. Warp in cling film and refrigerate for 1 hour.
When the children were growing up, I always, ALWAYS had to make one of these for Thanksgiving along with the traditional Pumpkin Pie. The family loved it.
I also loved it. I would cut you a piece to show you inside the pie, but it really needs to stand overnight before I do that, and I am thinking I will bring it to my sister's tomorrow if I get invited for supper.
Do believe me however when I tell you that this is a DELICIOUS pie! (Sorry for shouting but I can't help myself when it comes to this pie.)
Crisp buttery crust, sweet, rich apple filling with a creamy sweet brown sugar custard and cinnamon brown sugar streusel on top. Now if that doesn't get your taste buds to tingling, I don't know what will.
I am only sorry it took me so long to share this with you! Now get off here and go and bake one for your family. This pie is guaranteed to make you one of their most favorite people ever!
Cream & Crumb Schnitz Pie
Yield: Makes one 9-inch pie
Prep time: 15 MinCook time: 50 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This is quite simply my favorite apple pie. I have been baking and eating it for many years. The original recipe comes from a book entitles Food That Really Schmecks by Edna Staebler, published in 1968.
Ingredients
- Pastry for one 9-inch single crust pie
- enough apples to fill the pie shell (I used 1 1/2 large gravenstein apples)
- 1 cup (200g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 TBS cold butter
- 1/3 cup (47g) all purpose plain flour
- 2/3 cup (160ml) cream (sweet, sour or turning)
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 425*F/220*C/ gas mark 7. Have your unbaked pie crust ready.
- Measure the flour, sugar and butter into a bowl and rub into crumbs. Sprinkle half of them into the bottom of the pie crust.
- Peel, core and slice your apple into slices (schnitz). Place them in the pie crust on top of the crumbs.
- Divide the remaining crumbs in two. Mix the cream into one portion and mix the cinnamon into the other portion.
- Spoon the cream portion over top of the apples to cover them completely. Sprinkle the cinnamon crumbs over top of all evenly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Bake for an additional 35 to 40 minutes. The crust will be golden brown, the apples tender and the cream set and golden brown as well.
- Let cool to at least lukewarm before cutting into wedges to serve.
I learned to love two things over the 20 + years that I spent in the UK. One of them was lamb, and the other was the cooking of Nigel Slater.
Lamb was not something I had ever really had when I was growing up. My mother did buy lamb chops once, but they smelled like burning mittens when she was cooking them so nobody would eat them.
It was probably not good lamb. I only came to love and appreciate lamb after moving over to the UK. Our wedding supper was held at a restaurant and we were allowed to pick whatever we wanted from the menu.
I decided to be brave and picked Saddle of Lamb. It was delicious. I fell in love at first bite and have been cooking lamb ever since. They had beautiful lamb in the UK.
I know you are all familiar with what lamb is, but you may not be so familiar with who Nigel Slater is. Nigel Slater is a cook who writes. He is not a classically trained Chef, but he is every bit as popular as any celebrity chef.
He's been writing a food column for the Observer every weekend for 27 years, and is the author of multiple cookbooks. He has also had several very popular series on the television, and a movie made about him called simply "Toast."
He is a man who loves to cook and who loves to eat and who loves to write about it. He cooks the way I love to cook and to eat. Its that simple.
I have a few of his cookery books. Not as many as I used to have because I am having to replace the ones I left behind, but I am starting off with his best (in my honest opinion), The Kitchen Diaries. There are three volumes and they are exactly what the title says. Kitchen Diaries.
Taken from Diaries he kept throughout the year of his adventures in the garden, kitchen, etc. Recipe journal, kitchen chronical. I find them fascinating and filled with loads of inspiration and great recipes.
What I love most about his recipes is that they are great jumping off points for doing my own thing. I have replaced all three of the kitchen diaries (one at a time) and have just gifted myself with the two Volumes of Tender (again one at a time.)
The recipe which inspired what I am sharing with you today comes from the first volume of The Kitchen Diaries, which is something which he cooked on the 7th of May. I am cooking it a tiny bit later in the year.
When my sister and I were at the Super Store the other day I spied some lamb chops. I have not had lamb since I arrived back in Canada last November and I was so tempted by them that I picked up a small package.
They were a bit pricey at over $8 for three chops, but sometimes you just have to fill your yearnings for what you love and enjoy, especially food wise. I have only me to please now, so why not
They were nice thick chops as well, with abundant tenderloin bits on the sides. Loin chips are like the T-bones of the lamb kingdom, with a nice little chunk of meat on one side of the T-bone and a little nugget of tender lamb on the other. (No surprise that is my favorite part!)
Of course I wanted to cook them perfectly. I didn't want to be wasting these prime cuts of meat. I looked to Nigel for inspiration and found this recipe, amongst a few others.
This felt and read like what I wanted to cook today and I happened to have some new potatoes in my cupboard. I did improvise on the recipe quite a bit, but most good cooks do.
He starts off by boiling some new potatoes in a pan of lightly salted water. I did that as well. His chops were simply seasoned with salt and black pepper.
Freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to be exact.
He heated some olive oil in a heavy based skillet along with the finely grated zest of one fresh lemon and some fresh mint. I did not have fresh mint, so used dried and it worked fine.
I took the liberty of adding two fat cloves of garlic that I peeled, bashed and split open. These helped to flavor the oil that the chops were going to be fried in.
Simply fried, just until golden brown, seared really so that the lamb inside stays nice and pink and tender. But the juices of the lamb mingle with the olive oil, mint, lemon and garlic to make a lush pan juice.
He had merely crushed the potatoes into the pan juices at the end. I decided that I would fry them in the pan juices and brown them off a bit, before adding the lemon juice at the end.
The potatoes are boiled until tender. I lightly crushed them before adding them to the pan. Cracked them more or less, that way there were lots of craggy bits to brown and get a bit crisp. (I removed the lamb to a plate, keeping it warm and tented.)
That afforded me the time to really get the potatoes a bit crispy. And then I added the lamb back to the pan and squeezed over the lemon juice.
Leaving the skin on the potatoes and cracking them open rather than slicing or mashing them, gave them added interest I thought.
Well, the picture speaks for itself. Nothing there but the pan juices and golden crispy edged potatoes, lightly flavored with the lemon at the end.
And then I threw them into the pan with the potatoes and the lamb, coating them with some of those lush pan juices as well.
This was a beautiful combination. Tender moist pieces of lamb . . . crispy tender potatoes . . . lemon, mint and garlic pan juices.
Crispy tender beans . . .
You can see how perfectly cooked the lamb was. Just pink. Succulent. Delicious.
This combination made for a really wonderful dinner for myself. Cooking for one or two doesn't have to be boring. In fact if it is, then you're doing something wrong! (Now you know why I look the way I do.)
Many thanks to Nigel for the delicious inspiration!!
Lamb with Lemon, Mint & Potatoes
Yield: 2
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 25 MinTotal time: 30 Min
I wanted to take advantage of the flavors of the new potatoes that are showing up in the shops and paired them with some tender lamb chops. Inspired by Nigel Slater.
Ingredients
- 1/2 pound smallish new potatoes
- 4 lamb loin chops
- one medium fresh lemon, zest and juice
- 1/2 tsp dried mint
- two fat cloves of garlic, peeled and mashed
- fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
- light olive oil
Instructions
- Bring a pot of salted water to the boil. Add the potatoes and bring back to the boil. Cook for 10 to 15 minutes until they test tender when prodded with the sharp end of a knife.
- While they are cooking, heat the olive oil, mint, mashed garlic cloves and lemon zest in a large heavy bottomed skillet. Add some seasoning.
- Season the lamb chops all over with some salt and pepper.
- Once the oil begins to sizzle, add the lamb chops. Cook for two minutes on one side until it begins to color, then flip over and cook the other side, again until brown. Remove from the heat and tent with some foil.
- Scoop out your cooked potatoes into the pan with the oil, mint, garlic, etc. Mash lightly with a fork. Allow them to brown before flipping them over to brown lightly on the underside. Add the chops back to the pan. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over top and heat everything through.
- Serve two chops each, along with some of the browned potatoes and pan juices.
- I like to eat mine with some mint sauce or jelly.
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