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
I think I am becoming more adventurous in my old age when it comes to food. That's probably because I don't have fussy children in the house to please any more.
My husband is not a fussy eater. He doesn't really like pasta or chocolate, but he pretty much eats whatever I put in front of him.
I really enjoy the freedom I have now to explore and cook whatever I desire (within reason) and a variety of flavours and ethnic dishes, etc.
I have discovered in later years that I really enjoy Mediterranean and Middle East flavours!
I was sent some lovely Greek Flat Breads the other day and took advantage of them to make these fabulous Easy Chicken Gyros. (Yee-ros)
The Greek Flat Breads are from Deli Kitchen and they are just beautiful. Soft and flexible they are perfect for recipes such as this!
Gyros are a Greek sandwich which consists of grilled meat (chicken, lamb, beef or pork) which has been marinated in a delicious marinade prior to grilling, sliced and layered onto a flat bread along with some salad and some creamy Tzatzki sauce.
Sound yummy? They are incredibly tasty to say the least!
They are a popular sandwich found in many takeaways here in the UK. Along with a lamb/beef version.
I prefer to make them at home so that I know exactly what goes into them. (I have seen too many horror stories on the television about the cleanliness in these types of establishments!!)
They are really a very easy sandwich to make and quite quick if you do a bit of planning ahead of time.
Today I used chicken thighs which I had marinated in a fabulously tasty, garlicky, yogurty, oregano rich marinade.
You want to plan ahead a bit as you will want to marinate the chicken for a while before grilling it. Ideally about 12 hours, but certainly no less than 2 hours.
This makes it the perfect quick supper for a week night. Just pop the chicken into marinate while you are out all day at work or school or whatever and then pop it onto the grill when you get home!
Along with the grilled chicken you will need Tzatziki sauce. This is a cool cucumber/yogurt sauce.
You can use a good ready made one, but it is really quite simple to make your own, and infinitely tastier!
You also will want a simple salad garnish. Tomatoes, cucumber, red onions, parsley.
You can mix all of this together with some seasoning and just spoon it on, or you can leave things individually so that people can help themselves.
That is the way we do it in this house as my husband doesn't like much cucumber, but he does like the tomatoes and onions. That way he can please himself.
The chicken is simply grilled. For the most flavour you can do it on the outdoor grill (especially nice in the summer months) or you can pop it under the oven grill, or even in an electric grill.
Whatever is easiest for you and brings you joy! Let it sit for a few minutes after to settle the juices and then slice into bits, ready for layering on the flat breads.
You warm your flat breads while the chicken is resting, then dollop on some of that Tzatziki sauce, some salad fixings and the grilled chicken . . . ready to roll up, secure and enjoy!
Now that's what I call proper tasty!
Quick, easy and DELICIOUS! What more could you want???
Easy Chicken Gyros
Yield: 2 - 3
A small proportioned recipe for the smaller family. Delicious marinated chicken thighs, grilled and served wrapped in a lovely flat bread along with Tzatziki Sauce, tomatoes, cucumbers and chopped red onion. Easily doubled to feed more.
ingredients:
For the chicken:
- 4 boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 tsp minced garlic
- 1 1/2 TBS fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 TBS olive oil
- 1 1/2 TBS Greek yogurt
- 3 tsp dried oregano
- 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
- freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the Tzatziki:
- 3/4 of an English cucumber, deseeded, grated and squeezed to remove as much juice as possible
- 1/2 cup Greek Yogurt
- 1/2 fresh TBS lemon juice
- 1/2 TBS olive oil
- 1/4 tsp minced garlic
- 1/4 tsp salt
- black pepper to taste
You will also need:
- 2 to 3 soft Greek Flat Breads
- 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and diced
- 1 ripe tomato, deseeded and diced
- 2 - 3 TBS finely chopped red onions
- a small handful of fresh flat leaf parsley leaves
- salt and pepper as needed
instructions:
How to cook Easy Chicken Gyros
- First put the chicken in to marinate. (You should do this at least two hours ahead of time, and up to 12 hours ahead of time. Mix together all of the marinade ingredients in a plastic refrigerator container. Add the chicken and turn it to coat on all sides. Put the lid on and then place in the refrigerator to marinate.
- To make the Tzatziki, make sure your cucumber has been squeezed quite dry, then put it into a bowl and stir together with the remaining ingredients. Set aside for about 20 minutes in order for the flavours to meld well together.
- To make the salad for the Gyros, mix together the cucumbers, onion, tomato and parsley. Season to taste with some salt and black pepper. Alternately you can just lay the ingredients out on a plate and let people help themselves.
- When you are ready to serve, heat the grill to high. Remove the chicken from the marinade, discarding any marinade. Grill the chicken on the grill for about 2 to 3 minutes per side., until golden brown and cooked through.
- Cut the chicken into pieces. Keep warm while you warm your flat breads as per package instructions.
- To serve top each flat bread with some of the Tzatziki sauce, a portion of the chicken and some of the salad. Roll up, secure and enjoy!
Oh so yummy. You can get these new Deli Kitchen Greek Flat breads at Sainsburys! They're excellent! The Canadian in me just loves messy eat with your hands food. My husband . . . he prefers a knife and fork. He is just so proper British!
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If you are a regular reader of my page you will remember that a few months back I went with a friend to a Moroccan restaurant for lunch one day and fell totally in love with Moroccan food . . . exotic North African food which is big on flavour, aroma and spice.
A Tagine is a type of a Moroccan stew which has been named after the clay pot it is traditionally cooked in. Wide and round at the base with a lid that is tall and tapered at the top with a small circular opening which is designed to return a lot of the condensation to the bottom of the dish, resulting in a stew which is rich, moist and luscious. You can of course replicate this effect by adding a paper cartouche to an ordinary flame proof casserole dish with a lid.
A cartouche is merely a circle of crumpled grease paper with a hole cut out of the centre. It works just as beautifully. Today I used my Le Creuset casserole dish with a cartouche.
Some of the flavours traditionally used in Moroccan food would be things like cinnamon, cumin, turmeric, ginger, coriander, saffron, mace, nutmeg, cloves, fennel, anise, cayenne, fenugreek, caraway, black pepper and sesame seed . . . so think warm spices, sweet spices, fragrant spices . . .
Their food can also be characterised by the use of dried fruits and citrus, which when combined with meat, fish or poultry, and the warm fragrant spices makes for a wonderful combination . . .
You will also find sauces which are frequently thickened by using ground nuts. Wholesome and again . . . flavourful.
This dish today uses chicken thighs . . . traditionally you would use bone in and skin on thighs, but all I had was the boneless, skinless ones, because we try to eat as lean as we can. They worked fine.
Along with the chicken thighs . . . I have used ground cumin, cinnamon, ginger and paprika . . . along with salt and black pepper . . . very aromatic.
The sauce also contains finely chopped onion and ground almonds . . .
Whole dried apricots provide a sweetness that goes very well with the chicken and other flavours . . .
I always buy the natural ones for the most part, which haven't been treated with sulphur They are not as bright orange and jewel-like as the other ones, but they are filled with untainted flavour . . .
Just use what you have . . . I am thinking a handful of prunes would also go very well.
A handful of chopped mint goes in along with the apricots . . . adding a lovely flavour as well . . . mint is a really under-used herb. Its quite common to serve it with lamb, but it goes very well in this dish.
Our house smelled lovely while this was cooking . . .
I served it with some cooked brown basmati rice, but couscous would be much more traditional.
Tagine of Chicken with Apricots & Mint
Yield: 4
A delicious Moroccan stew of chicken thighs and apricots. You can either cook it in a heavy flame proof casserole dish or a clay tagine pot.
ingredients:
- 3 1/2 TBS butter
- 6 X free range or organic chicken thighs
- 1 medium onion, peeled and finely chopped
- 1/4 tsp ground cumin
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp sweet paprika
- freshly ground sea salt and black pepper to taste
- 100g ground almonds (1 generous cup)
- the juice and finely grated zest of one large orange
- 600ml light chicken stock (2 1/2 cups)
- 175g of soft dried apricots (I use the ones cured without sulphur, scant 1 cup)
- 3 TBS chopped fresh mint, plus more to garnish
instructions:
How to cook Tagine of Chicken with Apricots & Mint
- Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.
- Melt the butter in the bottom of a large heavy casserole dish. Add the chicken, 3 pieces at a time, and brown until golden brown all over, removing to a plate as you go along, and repeating until all the chicken has been browned. Add the onions to the drippings, along with the spices, and cook, stirring, until the onions have begun to soften and the whole mixture is very fragrant. Stir in the ground almonds, orange zest and orange juice. Nestle in the browned chicken thighs and pour the stock over all, giving it a good stir.
- Cover with a cartouche. A cartouche is a circle of crumpled baking paper with a hole cut from the centre. Cover with the lid of the casserole dish and place into the preheated oven. Roast for half an hour.
- Remove from the oven. Discard the cartouche. Stir in the dried apricots and the chopped mint. Return to the oven and roast for a further 20 minutes, uncovered. at this point the meat should be tender and falling from the bones. The apricots should be lovely and plump and the sauce thickened.
- Taste and adjust seasoning as required. Sprinkle with a bit more mint and serve. Couscous or rice go very well with this.
If you are a family that usually opts for a Chinese or an Indian meal on Saturday nights, I challenge you to try Moroccan for a change! I think you will be pleasantly surprised! A flat bread would be nice with this to help sop up all of that delicious gravy!
With Saint Patrick's Day being on Sunday I thought it would be fun to make a smaller batch of Irish Stew for the smaller family. This recipe will serve 3, or 2 people generously. Or two people on the day and one with the leftovers the day after.
Its a simple and yet attractive stew, using simple methods and simple ingredients, because lets face it . . . the Irish were basically a very poor people, a humble people, without artifice, and many did not have stoves or ovens, but cooked over an open fire on the hearth.
This is a recipe I adapted from one I found in this book. It is originally meant to feed four people generously. This is a great book by the way. I have had it for a few years now and every recipe tried has been a real winner. Its from the Love Food people.
All you need for it is some stewing lamb . . . you could use neck fillets if you wanted to, I just used cubed stewing lamb I got at the shops. British or Welsh lamb is not quite in season yet, so suspect this was NZ lamb.
There is no browning or faffing about with the meat, which also lessens the fat calories. You just season and dust the cubed lamb with flour and lay it in the bottom of a heavy casserole dish. (I used my medium sized Le Creuset.)
Once the lamb is in the bottom, you layer on diced onion and sliced carrots. I like to lightly season each layer.
Once you have those layered in, you cover the top with wedges of potato. I used two medium/large potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges. I got kind of fanciful when I layered them on top. I thought it looked quite pretty.
Finally you just pour over a mix of hot stock and dried thyme. The recipe called for beef stock. If I do it again, I will use chicken stock. I thought some of the integrity of the lamb was lost by using beef, but that may just be me.
After that you just cover it up tightly and let the oven do the work. Go read a book, do some knitting, housework, whatever . . .
The recipe didn't call for it, but about 15 minutes before it was done, I took it out of the oven and brushed the potatoes with some butter, then popped it back into the oven at a higher temperature. It browned the potatoes up a bit, which I thought was a nice touch.
This was a really lovely stew. I am thinking if you didn't have lamb, you could do beef or pork in the same way, probably even chicken would be good done this way.
This is something I have done with stew since I was a child. I like to mash the potatoes up a bit and dab some butter on them. (Don't judge me.) Its really good that way. I also love sweet pickles with stew, but those don't exist over here, so I just think about how good they used to be and settle for what I have.
Yield: 3
Small Batch Irish Stew
prep time: 15 minscook time: 2 hour and 30 minstotal time: 2 hours and 45 mins
A small batch Irish Stew for the smaller family. Simple and delicious. This will give you a hearty meal on the day.
ingredients:
- 2 TBS plain flour
- 1 pound stewing lamb
- 1 onion, peeled and chopped
- 3 medium carrots, peeled and sliced
- 2 largish potatoes, peeled and cut into wedges
- 1/4 tsp dried thyme
- salt and black pepper
- 600ml hot beef stock (2 1/2 cups)
- small knob of butter
- parsley flakes to garnish
instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 165*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.
- Season the meat and roll it in the flour, shaking off any excess. Lay it in a single layer in the bottom of a casserole dish. Top with the chopped onion, then the sliced carrot, and finally the potato wedges. Season each layer lightly as you go. Whisk together the stock and thyme. Pour into the casserole dish. Cover tightly.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 2 1/2 hours. About 15 minutes before it is done, remove the cover and brush the top of the potatoes with the knob of butter and return to the oven. Increase the oven temperature to 190*C/375*F/ gas mark 5. Let the potatoes brown a bit. Sprinkle some parsley flakes on top and serve.
calories
302.37
302.37
fat (grams)
10.34
10.34
sat. fat (grams)
5.09
5.09
carbs (grams)
38.40
38.40
net carbs
33.63
33.63
protein (grams)
15.31
15.31
sugar (grams)
5.56
5.56
Created using The Recipes Generator
Todd had the leftovers today for his dinner and he said it tasted even better than it had the other day when I made it. That is often the way with stews. They seem to taste better upon "ripening" overnight. Yum! I think the Irish would approve!
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