*Improvised Gravy*
Makes about 360ml (1 1/2 cups)
360ml beef or chicken broth or stock (1 1/2 cups)
leftover drippings or butter |
Showing posts sorted by date for query lamb. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query lamb. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Red meat is not something we eat a lot of in our house. We eat it only very occasionally, and when we do, it is bound to be either a steak or pork chops, with the odd bit of lamb here and there, and we both enjoy a good roast or a stew now and then.
I adore steak. My husband adores pork chops. Today I decided to treat him to some tasty chops by way of this deliciously spiced dish, which is not only quick and easy, but cooks all in one pan. No fuss. No muss. Just the way I like things.
This easy recipe involves browning seasoned boneless pork loin chops on both sides. Simple enough. Once browned, you remove and set aside.
Onions and garlic are then cooked in the same pan, taking full advantage of any flavouring from the pork left in the pan, and adding a mix of herbs and seasonings and tomato puree towards the end.
Raw long grained rice is stirred in to coat and then you add a quantity of chicken stock. Those chops get nestled back into the mix, and the pan tightly covered.
This is cooked for a short time until the chops are cooked through, but still tender and moist. Loin is such a lean cut of pork, that overcooking them will definitely toughen them. Take them out and set them aside to rest while you finish cooking the rice.
You may find that you need additional stock to make sure that the rice is cooked through. Just keep testing it and if you think it is going dry, add a bit more stock.
I only ever very rarely need to add stock. Better to do it this way than to have soupy watery rice. You want the rice to be nice and dryish like in the photo.
The flavours are really spot on . . . onion, garlic . . . oregano, ground coriander, chili powder, cayenne . . . just spicy enough without it blowing your head off.
I am not overly fond of blow off your head heat. I want to taste my food thank you very much!
The rice cooks to perfection in that flavourful mix . . . you stir in some chopped dry roasted peanuts at the end and then the chops are sliced . . .
And returned to the top of the rice in a decorative manner . . . doesn't everyone do that?? I do anyways.
I made liberal use of the fresh herbs in my garden in that beautifully sweet and tangy lime and honey vinaigrette that gets spooned over top of the chops prior to serving.
I think that lime and honey vinaigrette is the star of this whole dish. All of the elements taste good in their own right, but when you spoon that vinaigrette over top, it just lifts and enhances everything beautifully!
So you get, meaty, spicy, savoury, sweet, tart, garlicky . . . all in one dish. These really are fabulous. Trust me.
No fuss, no muss, all in one dish . . . fabulously tasty . . . I am not sure what more a person could as for???
Serve with a lovely tossed salad on the side and perhaps some crusty bread. That's all she wrote . . .
*Pork Chops with Spicy Rice*
Serves 4
Did
you know if you slash the fatty edge of your pork chops, they won't
curl up when you cook them? Its true. This is delicious with
fabulously flavoured rice, tender chops, and a lovely coriander lime
dressing. All in one pan.
For the chops:
4 boneless pork loin chops, 3/4 to 1 inch thick
salt and black pepper
1 TBS oil
For the rice:
1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 TBS tomato puree (tomato paste)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp mild chili powder
1/4 tsp ground coriander
pinch cayenne pepper
315g of long grain rice (1 1/2 cups)
720ml chicken stock (3 cups)
( an additional 240ml/1 cup chicken stock, as needed)
You will also need:
4 TBS coarsely chopped dry roasted peanuts
For the dressing:
2 TBS finely chopped fresh coriander leaf (Cilantro)
1 TBS finely chopped fresh parsley
1 TBS finely chopped fresh oregano
1 TBS finely chopped fresh chives
2 tsp finely grated lime zest
salt and black pepper to taste
1 TBS liquid honey
3 TBS fresh lime juice
3 TBS extra virgin olive oil
Trim your chops and slash the fat along the edge at 1 inch
intervals. Pat dry and season all over with salt and black pepper.
Heat the oil in a 12 inch skillet which has a tight fitting lid. Once
the oil is hot, brown the chops on both sides, until golden brown, 2 1/2
minutes per side. Remove to a plate.
Add the onion to the pan. Cook,
stirring occasionally, over medium heat until softened. Stir in the
garlic and cook for a further minute. Add the oregano, tomato puree,
coriander, cayenne and rice. Cook, stirring to coat the rice all over
with the spice mixture.
Add the chicken stock and bring to the boil.
Reduce to a simmer and nestle the chops down into the mix, along with
any pan juices accumulated. Cover tightly and cook for 6 to 8 minutes
on medium low heat.
Transfer the chops to a cutting board, tend with
foil and keep warm. Stir the rice to recombine. Cover tightly and
continue to cook for a further 10 to 15 minutes, until the rice is
tender, adding additional chicken stock as needed. Stir in 3 TBS of the
dry roasted peanuts. Taste and adjust seasoning as required.
To make the dressing, whisk together all of the ingredients until well combined.
I can't believe how fast the weeks are flying by. A day no sooner starts than it ends. Already we are at the weekend. I wonder what I will cook up next??? Stay tuned and Bon Appetit!
I adore fried rice. It is a fabulous way of using up all the bits and scraps in the refrigerator and makes a great main or side dish. We usually have it as a main dish, and this recipe feeds two quite generously, but it would also be an ample side dish for 4. In any case, I adore fried rice.
Its actually a very forgiving and adaptable dish. You an throw in pretty much any veg you want. My basics are always the same . . . onion, garlic, cabbage, carrot . . . you can use spring onions, or you can use proper onions, or you can use red onions, which is what I used today.
I added frozen peas and corn, but have also been known to throw in chopped broccoli, or cauliflower, or shredded Brussels sprouts. Literally any vegetable would work, except for maybe tomatoes.
I always add a scrambled egg as well, for extra protein. I beat it with a touch of cream, which makes is nice and fluffy. I also like to add some meat if I have it. Cooked pork, chicken, turkey, sausage, beef, lamb, ham, bacon . . . spam. Literally any kind of meat works, and no meat at all also works. I think even fish would work, especiall with this recipe today . . . which includes curry powder.
A nice big healthy spoonful of curry powder . . . which helps to colour the dish somewhat, and also adds a lovely flavour. Think Kedgeree . . . but with chicken, and a whole bunch of other odds and sodds . . . so maybe not quite kedgeree, which has boiled egg and smoked fish . . . scratch that.
In any case, this smells amazing when it is cooking. A M A Z I N G
Its quick. Its easy. Its simple. Its delicious! And also very economical.
Nice and filling too. I like mine with a nice dollop of a good mango chutney on the side. A bit of naan would also not go astray.
*Curried Chicken Fried Rice*
Serves 4
Serves 4
six savoy cabbage leaves, heavy centre veins trimmed away and discarded,
and cabbage thinly sliced (Roll up tightly and slice, easy peasy)
salt and black pepper to tasteand cabbage thinly sliced (Roll up tightly and slice, easy peasy)
I am betting you have everything in the refrigerator/larder to make this today. If you don't have any chicken think outside the box. I am sure you have something! You are going to love the flavours in this! I guarantee! Bon Appetit!
Going out for one of these was always a real treat. With tender roasted meat with gravy between two thick slices of white bread with more gravy ladled over top, they would be served up hot, on large platters, with plenty of hot chips, veg and coleslaw on the side. You could also have gravy on your chips (fries), or not as per your choice. In Canada we love gravy on our chips, and here in the UK, they also like gravy on their chips, or curry sauce. (Something I have yet to try.)
I had some leftover roast chicken today and so I made us Hot Chicken Sandwiches for a change, instead of the usual casserole. Of course with there only being two of us and with neither of us having huge appetites these days, we basically only each ha half of a sandwich, along with the suggested trimmings. It looks like rather a lot, but we only ever use a sandwich plate for our meals these days, never a full dinner plate. And it is plenty for us.
2 TBS of appropriate stock
about 720ml (3 cups) of hot leftover or fresh gravy 
Good chips/fries are a must! If you want to make your own from scratch this is a cracking recipe. You can also use oven chips. I like the crinkle ones in that case, or if you are really lucky and have a chippy close by, you can just send hubby out to pick up a large portion of chips. By the time you have the remaining elements ready, he'll be back and you'll be set to go!
There
are two things you need for perfect chips. One a really good potato.
You want a nice floury one, such as a Maris Piper. You cannot make good
chips with new potatoes. Old ones are best. Second you want to start
with pure hard fat or dripping, preferably an animal fat. Third . . .
patience. Good chips require several cookings. The first is a quick
poaching in lightly salted water. . Let them cool and then fry for
about five minutes just until cooked through, then a final fry in hotter
fat to brown and finish cooking. See . . . patience.
a good solid fat to half fill your pan when melted
a frying thermometer
a frying thermometer
I added a dollop of cranberry sauce to the top of mine . . . coz I'm crazy like that, and I love cranberry sauce with both roast chicken and turkey. You will want a nice gravy to serve with your hot sandwiches. You can of course use Bisto granules and make it that way, but if you have leftover drippings, etc. its really quite easy to make a better tasting gravy from scratch!
2 TBS plain flour
360ml pan juices, broth, water, wine or a combination ( 1 1/2 cups)
Coleslaw is a must. You won't get any meal at a diner in North America, that doesn't come with a small container of coleslaw on the side. At some places it might be a vinaigrette coleslaw, but more often than not it will be a delicious creamy slaw. Just like this.
*Creamy Coleslaw*
Serves 8 to 10A deliciously cream coleslaw that has just the right amount of crunch and flavour! There is no sogginess here!!
10 ounces of white cabbage, trimmed, cored and very thinly cut
(about 1/2 of a medium cabbage)
5 ounces of carrots, peeled, trimmed and julienned
(1 medium carrot)
4 inches of an English Cucumber, trimmed, seeded and cut into small dice
(Do not peel)
2 - 3 large dessertspoons of good quality mayonnaise
1 TBS of Dijon mustard
2 TBS white wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
1/2 tsp celery salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 tsp onion powder
Place the vegetables into a large bowl. Whisk together the mustard, mayonnaise, white wine vinegar, sugar, celery salt, black pepper and onion powder. Mix well. Pour over the vegetables and toss to coat. Cover and chill for at least one hour before serving.
Note - the amount of mayonnaise you use depends on the cabbage, some cabbages take more mayonnaise than others. It also depends on how creamy you like your coleslaw!
Of course there may be times when you don't have any leftover gravy, or even gravy granules, but don't worry! That doesn't mean you can't still make a delicious gravy as this next recipe proves quite deliciously! Adapted from a recipe found in the Fanny Farmer Cookbook. (So you know that it just has to be good!)
This isn't something which we have very often, maybe only once a year. Back in the day I could eat a whole one of these sandwiches, and then a polished of a slice of cream pie as well. Mind you, back in the day I was a very busy and active mother of five. Things change . . . Bon Appetit!
My last year in high school I started collecting a series of books by the people at Better, Homes & Gardens. They came one every couple of months or so and I thought they were just fabulous. They were some of the very first cookery books I used. There were quite a few volumes, each one pertaining to a different cookery subject. One on meat, another on chicken, there was a casseroles one, one on entertaining, etc. This recipe today came from a volume filled with money saving budget recipes and became a real favourite of my family through the years.
Its a great way to use up some of the ham left over from a roast ham, and in fact, I will sometimes pick up one of those small dinner hams at the grocery store, just so I can make this old standby of mine.
Cubes of cooked ham are mixed together with cooked macaroni and slices of sweet apple in a delicious, creamy sauce which is lightly flavoured with mustard and brown sugar. I am sure that it sounds a bit unusual, but it really is quite tasty. The original recipe called for plain ordinary mustard, but I now use Dijon, which is not as bright yellow in colour and has a nice depth of flavour without being too sharp.
Of course ham and mustard are perfect partners anyways, and who hasn't enjoyed a brown sugar glazed ham? I have often heard of people glazing their hams with apple butter, so really using sliced apple in this is not much of a flavour stretch, and the apple is a flavour partner, albeit it somewhat unusual, that goes amazingly well.
The sauce is creamy without being too rich. You can use whole milk in this but more often than not I use 2% or semi skimmed. It works just fine. I have even made it with re-constituted evaporated milk in the past when I was really having to pinch the pennies. All work well.
You can use white bread for the crumbs, although nowadays I am more apt to use whole wheat. I actually have come to prefer whole wheat bread now because of its almost nutty taste and texture, and of course it is much better for you. I usually serve this with salad and pickled beets.
*Ham and Mac Bake*
Serves 4 to 6
Serves 4 to 6
This is a wonderful casserole that is not only very tasty, but also very easy on the budget as well. My children always loved it when they were growing up and it was something different to do with the ham that was leftover from Easter. I often buy a slab of ham at the shops so that I can make this as well.
225g of uncooked macaroni (2 cups)
65g cup butter (1/4 cup)
45g flour (1/4 cup)
2 TBS Dijon mustard
salt to taste
1/4 tsp pepper
480ml milk (2 cups)
2 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
2 cups cubed, fully cooked ham (about half a pound)
2 medium eating apples, peeled and thinly sliced (about 2 cups)
1 1/4 slices of bread made into soft bread crumbs (about 1 cup)
2 TBS butter melted
Cook the macaroni in lightly salted boiling water until done, according to the packet directions. Drain well, rinse with cold water and drain again. Set aside until needed.
Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ Gas mark 4. Melt the 1/4 cup of butter in a saucepan. Whisk in the flour and cook, stirring, for one minute over low heat. Blend in the mustard, salt, pepper and sugar. In the meantime bring the milk just to the boil. (Just until bubbles appear around the edges) Slowly whisk the heated milk into the flour mixture, cooking and stirring it until thickened, smooth and bubbly. Stir in the cooked macaroni, ham and apple slices. Turn into a greased 2 litre casserole dish.
Toss the bread crumbs with the 2 TBS butter and sprinkle evenly over top of the casserole. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes or until bubbly and lightly browned on top.
Simple, old fashioned and delicous, this recipe would be the perfect way to use up some of that Easter Ham. Over here most people cook lamb for Easter, but the North American in me always wants a baked Ham at Easter. Old habits die hard. Bon Appetit!
Lately I have had a hankering for a lamb stew. Lamb was not something I had really eaten until I moved over here to the UK. My one and only experience with it had been one time when my mother cooked lamb chops.
They smelled like burning mittens when they were cooking. None of us liked them. My ex also was not fond of lamb, so it wasn't anything I had much experience in tasting or cooking.
For our wedding meal, the members of our church congregation took us out to a pub for supper and we could order anything we wanted from the menu.
There was Roasted Saddle of Lamb on the menu and so I decided to throw caution to the wind and I ordered it.
It could have gone so badly, but happily it didn't. I fell in love with lamb right then and there and I have been enjoying a loving relationship with it ever since!
This stew that I am showing you here today is a very simple one, but when you think about it, traditional Irish food is really very simple. There is a great history of poverty in Ireland for its people.
They would not have had meat very often, and in fact, the potato was their main form of sustenance through the years. They learned to cook simple foods and make them taste really good.
This is a simple stew that uses simple ingredients and I don't mind telling you, it is the most delicious stew I make. We both love it.
I used diced leg of lamb for this the other day. I picked it up at the local butchers and had them trim all of the fat from it that they could. This is then quite simply browned in a bit of oil. I put the lamb on to brown while I am prepping the vegetables.
That way I tend to forget about it, which means it gets nicely browned without me worrying it every few minutes and stirring it about. (One of the secrets to any good stew made with red meat, is in a good and proper browning. The meat won't brown nicely if you keep moving it about.)
The vegetables used are simple. Carrots. Celery. Onion. Potatoes. That's it. Nothing more and nothing less. I used lamb stock cubes to make the stock.
Lamb stock is not normally something I keep in the freezer. If you can't get lamb stock, feel free to use chicken stock.
You will want to brown the meat really well . . . so you get all of those caramelized lamb juices to flavour the stew with.
There is really no other flavourings, save salt and pepper. I add a couple of sprigs of thyme, but traditionally there would have been no herbs added.
Once you get the meat nicely browned, you add the chopped vegetables and you sweat them for a bit in the drippings from having cooked the lamb. More flavour.
Don't discard any of those drippings. They are what's going to give your stew it's flavour and colour.
Once you have sweated and lightly caramelized the vegetables, throw in the sprigs of thyme and return the lamb to the pot, along with its juices.
Again . . . flavour, and every little bit counts. This gets covered in stock.
At the last you cover the top of the stew with thick
slices of potato. You can keep the potato in rounds if they are small, or cut them into half moons if your potatoes are larger.
A light seasoning with salt and black pepper, and dotting with butter is all you have left to do. Just tightly cover it and then bake it in a slow oven.
Your oven will do the work, and you will be rewarded at the end with probably one of the tastiest stews you would ever want to eat! Crusty bread is a must to soak up all those lovely juices!
2 TBS light olive oil
2 large carrots, peeled and chopped
2 sprigs of thyme
salt and black pepper
1 1/2 pounds potatoes, peeled and sliced into thick rounds
(cut into half moons if the potatoes are largish)
600ml lamb stock
Heat a medium, heavy bottomed flame proof casserole (with a lid) over medium heat. Add half of the oil and heat. Once the oil is heated, add the lamb and brown, over medium heat until well browned. Working in batches if necessary. Remove the lamb from the casserole and set aside. Add the vegetables and the remaining oil. Cook, stirring occasionally, over medium low heat, until they have begun to soften a bit. Return the lamb to the pot along with any juices. Season with salt and pepper. Add the sprigs of thyme. Pour over the lamb stock. Lay the potatoes on top covering and pushing them down a bit into the stock. Dot with butter.
Cover tightly. Bake in the heated oven for 2 hours, until the meat is beautifully tender and all of the vegetables are cooked, uncovering the casserole for the last fifteen minutes to lightly brown the potatoes. Spoon out into heated bowls to serve. Sprinkle with parsley if desired. Crusty bread goes well.
Because there are only two of us we had plenty of leftovers to enjoy the day afterwards. There is a special magic that happens with soups and stews in that . . . after being left overnight in the refrigerator, they always taste even better.
Its a delicious alchemy that I don't comprehend, I only know is that it always happens. This would be the perfect dish for you to cook to celebrate Saint Patrick's Day.
It would go down really well with some crusty soda bread for the main dish, and finishing off with a nice slice of my Irish Apple Cake along with some custard for dessert. That's Saint Paddy's well sorted! Ithe sásta!! Sláinte!!
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