BILL GRANGER'S HOLIDAY

On the now defunct forum  Nigella.com, they had a cookbook review each month, I have to say that none of the books selected really grabbed my attention until Jutta chose Holiday by Bill Granger - it was a book that I had owned for a while but hadn't used, and I will be forever grateful to her as I have found winner after winner in this book, actually out of all the recipes I tried (and there were many!!) there was only one that we weren't mad about - not bad going.  The review has carried onto the replacement forum Through The Oven Door, which is a wonderful alternative set up by Jutta among others. (Although that said I'm having problems with it at the moment - I'm blaming all the new spyware we have installed!).

Place of honour goes to this cherry tart which beside tasting excellent has the easiest pastry of all time - no rolling out needed (yahaa!!!), I'm going to be using this time and time again. (recipe below)

 

 The Green Ratatouille, with some obvious replacements!!!  I'm not a big fan of green peppers, and I happened to have yellow courgettes (zucchini) in the house, it was a lovely vegetable dish pretty and tasty - works for me!!

 Crispy Skinned Salmon with Tamarind Caramel Dressing, the tamarind was a revelation to me, I have had some in the cupboard for some time and hadn't gotten round to trying it - boy am I glad that attempting this recipe introduced me to this wonderful flavour - a subtle bitterness, that doesn't cause the "sour lemon" face (!!) but still has that sour hit - I used the leftover dressing in a bowl of rice the next day (strange but delicious!)

This is the Never-Fail Birthday Chocolate Cake, before I added the Chocolate Icing, without doubt the least successful of all the recipes I attempted, its biggest failing was that there wasn't nearly enough chocolate in it - a "mortler" in my book!!  (A "mortler" being our childhood term for mortal sin, ie. a biggie!!!)

 Sweet Potato with Coriander and Preserved Lemons, an unusual combination I know but it really works.  The left overs were wonderful in soup. 

 A pretty awful picture, but this Leg of Lamb with Indian Flavours was as far from awful as you could get!!  A delicious combination of flavours served with the sweet potatoes (above) and the turmeric potatoes (below).

We're Irish, we eat potatoes by the sackful!!!  Any new ideas for potatoes are always welcome, this one particularly - it tastes great and with turmeric being sooo good for you, they are actually health food!!

 Flourless Chocolate and Hazelnut Cake, this is the cake to give as a gift to someone diagnosed with gluten intolerance - it will make them feel a whole lot better about a life without flour!!  The cake was moist and full of nutty chocolaty flavours, it went down really well when I served it to visiting relatives, worked well with all ages.

 Bills Garlic Mushrooms were probably nothing you wouldn't do anyway (I get really annoyed with cookery books that contain really obvious recipes - ham sandwich anyone? - you know the sort of recipes I mean!!!) he just added some chili to the usual mushrooms, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  To give him his due these excessively easy recipes were few and far between.

 The Roast Chicken with Coriander Chili Stuffing and Coconut Gravy, was a real departure from the norm for me, and it was a welcome change - although it in no way replaces my usual roast chicken with lemon and garlic in my affections!!  As you can imagine chicken stuffed (under the skin) with chili, coconut, coriander, ginger, lime and sugar is jam packed with flavour and it really works.  This dish made for wonderful leftovers - I heated up the leftover chicken meat in the coconut gravy, added this to pasta - mighty good I have to say!!!

 Chocolate Chip Ice Cream, it was great to try out my new ice-cream maker with this recipe, although nice it didn't reach the dizzy heights of the Raspberry Yoghurt Ice Cream - that said it was demolished in no time!

How pretty is this dish??  Poached Salmon and Risoni Salad was really tasty (and would be a great way to use up leftover salmon) I used some chard (from the veg box) instead of the specified spinach, and I think that the rougher texture of the chard worked really well, another one on the "make again" list.

Oh man oh man, this stuff is beyond good, and couldn't be easier!!  All you do is whisk 100g of sugar into 500g of greek yoghurt, tip into an ice-cream maker add a punnet of raspberries and  hay presto, fantabulous Yoghurt and Raspberry Ice-Cream.                                                                                  



Cherry Tart

Pastry

125g (4 1/2 oz)        butter, melted and cooled

90g (3 1/2 oz)          caster sugar

175g (6 oz)              plain flour

pinch salt

2 tbsp                      ground almonds

Filling

170 ml (5 1/2 fl oz)     cream

2                                eggs, lightly beaten

2 tsp                           vanilla extract

3 tbsp                         caster sugar

2 tbsp                         plain flour

550g (1lb 4 oz)           cherries, halved and pitted (Bill says fresh are best, I used frozen!!)

Preheat oven to 180 C/350 F

Grease a 24cm (9 1/2 in) round loose-bottomed tart tin.

To make the pastry, stir the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add the flour and salt and combine to make a soft dough.

Press this dough into the tin as evenly as possible with your fingers.

Put the tin on a baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes, until the pastry is slightly puffy.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the ground almonds.

Now for the filling, whisk the cream, eggs, vanilla and sugar together.

Add the flour and mix well.

Strew the cherries, slightly overlapping over the pastry base then pour the cream filling over the cherries.

Return the tart to the oven for 40-50 minutes until the filling is firm.

Remove from the oven, and allow to cool.

Serve with cream of ice-cream.

Enjoy.

SUMMER DINING

The weather has been really fantastic recently - a very unusual occurrence in these parts.  The past two years, summer consisted of a good week in May, when we all dashed out and bought wardrobes full of summer gear -  followed by wintry weather spent looking longingly at our lovely (and totally unsuitable) clothes, while dressing in warm tops and jeans!!!

Well I have been making hay while the sun shines (so to speak) and doing lots of cooking on the barbecue.  These are some burgers I threw together using just lamb, chopped mint and a nugget of feta cheese in the center of each one - yumm, and as easy as you can get.

 

I served these aubergines with the burgers, they come from Nigella Summer (I've been referring to it alot recently) and were a great match with the lamb.  I sprayed my sliced aubergine with olive oil* and then barbecued them - they came out just perfect (aubergine can be very oily if you're not careful).  They are stuffed with a mixture of feta, chili, mint, lemon juice and zest - I am using zest every time I use lemon or lime juice since I heard that the zest prevents skin cancer, double win (flavour and health)! 

I mirrored these flavours in the salad dressing, mashing up some feta in lemon juice, grated in some garlic and added this mixture to a low fat plain yogurt with a very small amount of olive oil.  All in all a pretty healthy meal.

* I have a plastic bottle with a spray top (bought it in Boots Chemist, in the travel section) which I  fill with equal amounts of extra virgin olive oil and water.  Far cheaper than the "light" oil sprays in the supermarket  and zero nasty additives.

SIMPLE SAUCE

As you are all well aware by now, I am an enthusiastic subscriber to the "maximum taste, minimum effort" school of cooking - and this sauce could be the school's emblem!!!

This is a redcurrant jelly, mint and orange sauce and it goes beautifully with roast lamb, wonderfully with lamb cutlets and is simply heavenly in a lamb sandwich!!!!!!

I use it to glaze  lamb chops (cutlets) before I cook them on the barbecue or ridged pan, and then add some more just before I serve them.  I use it instead of butter in a sandwich - virtuous deliciousness.  It is just sooo much nicer than mint sauce to serve with roast lamb, particularly if your lamb has been studded with garlic, rosemary and lemon.

The one stipulation is that you use a good quality redcurrant jelly, with as high a fruit content as possible - it really makes a difference, I have made the mistake of using an own brand jar (they had run out of the good stuff) and would never do it again!!  This recipe is a "Delia"!



Redcurrant, Orange and Mint Sauce

4 tbsp           redcurrant jelly
Finely grated zest from 1 medium orange
2 tbsp           finely chopped mint

Place these ingredients in a bowl and stir well , making sure that there are no lumps.
Decant to a serving bowl.
Wait for the ohhhs and ahhhs!!

LOVELY LAMB

I wondered why there were no photos of this dish in Tamasin Day-Lewis's "Simply the Best" - and now I know!!!  Although not the prettiest meal you will ever serve up - it could well be the tastiest (certainly if you take work/taste ratio into account!!!)

TDL calls this Estouffade d'Agneau, but it is called the "nice lamb" here!!!  It is so simple that you will find it hard to imagine how good it tastes - no wine, no garlic, no herbs - just a really good quality olive tapenade (TDL specifies Carluccio's crema do olive nere - this is what I usually use, but I have used my local delicatessen's home made tapenade and it was really good too).

She also specifies lamb shoulder - but I have such fat averse people in this house that I always use a leg of lamb, and it works perfectly. 

Lamb with olive

1kg/2 1/2 lb         cubed shoulder (or leg) of lamb
200g/7oz              Carluccio's crema di olive nere
                                               or
                             Excellent quality black olive tapenade with 1 tsp capers and pinch oregano.

Preheat oven to 150 C

Put the cubed lamb in the bottom of a heavy casserole
Empty the jar of tapenade over the meat.
Cover with a greaseproof paper lid and then the casserole lid.
Leave in the oven for 2 hours.
That's it !!!!!!!

I served it with mashed potato (to get maximum soakage!) and these veggies:

I fried a punnet of mushrooms in olive oil and a small amount of butter, then added asparagus, spinach and some left over cabbage - delicious (and worked really well with the lamb).

P.S. The photo of the lamb was taken after a couple of servings - you get more than that from 1kg meat!!!

WHAT SUNDAY'S ARE ALL ABOUT

I love, love, love a proper Sunday dinner - a succulent roast, crispy roast potatoes, and loads and loads of vegetables, and of course gravy.  This would have to be my last meal on earth (given the choice of course!)

This week I tried something a bit different, I knew things would be hectic towards the end of the week, so I bought my leg of lamb early,  spread a marinade on it and popped it in the freezer until Saturday evening.

I made up the marinade with what was at hand, and it turned out beautifully - the spice was nice and subtle.  This is going right up there with garlic, rosemary and lemon for future lamb roasts.


Marinade for a Leg of Lamb


Tbsp of fresh thyme (or half that of dried)
Tsp Cumin
Tsp Coriander
Tsp Harissa
Zest of half a lemon
Tbsp Olive Oil (more if needed)

Stud the meat at regular intervals and rub the marinade with it.  This should be done as long before roasting as is convenient.  I really recommend the freezing with marinade option.

Enjoy.