Roast lamb for a Stutterfest at Easter

Roast lamb for Easter 2012

No lunch for free in this post, just a really good Easter feast. 

A Stutterfest is a gathering of my partner’s family. This Easter we hosted a Stutterfest in our flat. There were 10 of us in total – three vegetarians and seven meat-eaters.

This year’s Easter meal was as much butterfest as it was Stutterfest. Everyone said the food was delicious but I think it could have been better. Here is the menu and my suggested improvements. 

Menu

• Cheddar biscuits 
• Savoury feta cheesecake
• Chilli jam
• Roast lamb stuffed with with olives and sundried tomatoes 
• Potatoes in butter
• Kale with lemon and garlic
• Confit garlic 
• Chocolate truffle cake 

To start: cheddar biscuits

The recipe I used for these savoury biscuits is based on the one in the Great British Book of Baking, from the popular TV series of the same name.

These are the quantities used in the book.

Cheese and chilli biscuits

Cheddar biscuit ingredients

• 200g plain flour
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• ½ teaspoon dried chilli flakes, though I used more like 1 teaspoon
• 150g extra mature Cheddar
• 150g cold unsalted butter, diced into small pieces
• 1 egg plus 1 egg yolk

The extra egg yolk is unnecessary in my opinion, and you will end up with 1 unused egg white. While you can freeze this lone egg white for use another time, chances are you will forget about it then throw it away in a few months. So just add a splash of cold milk if you think your dough needs more liquid.

  How to make cheddar biscuits

1. Put the flour, salt, chilli flakes and cheese into a processor and pulse to combine.
   
2. Add the butter and process till fine.
   
3. Keep the processor going while you add the egg till you have a stiff dough.


4. Turn out onto a flowered surface and work into a cylinder.


5. Cut into 3 to make it easier to work with, then roll each cylinder till it is about 15–20cm long.


6. Wrap each in greaseproof paper and put in the fridge for about 30 minutes.


7. The dough can be stored uncooked for 3 days in the fridge or for 1 month in the freezer.


8. Heat the oven to 200⁰C and lightly grease a couple of baking trays. You will probably end up with about 6 trays’ worth of biscuits, but unless you live in a Greggs you probably won’t have the capacity to cook these all at the same time. In my oven (my enemy) I can fit 2 trays at once.


9. Cut the dough into 1ch thick slices and lay them out on the trays, slightly apart.


10. Bake for 10–12 minutes till golden.
    
11. Leave to cool on the tray for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

After 10 minutes the biscuits looked pale and undercooked. A nibble revealed they lacked salt and cheese. I added a sprinkling of salt and Parmesan before sticking them back in for another 10 minutes.

This recipe is a doddle to make and I like the fact that it can be stored in the fridge or freezer till needed. The cooked version, however, went soggy when I stored them overnight in a tupperware container, in a tin and in a kilner jar. However, another quick blast in the oven does revive them to crispness. (Thank you Kerry Gibson for that tip)

I don’t think the Great British Baking Book is that great. I’ve tried a few recipes from it that have disappointed – the Cornish saffron buns I made for my Not The Royal Wedding Party tasted of mould, and the shortbread biscuits were so inedible I threw them out before serving them. 

Unfortunately in my opinion this recipe notches up another black mark against the book – one more dud recipe and it will be consigned to the Oxfam shop. Dan Lepard does a cheese biscuit that uses equal quantities of flour, cheese and butter. He also includes additional flavouring with garlic and paprika, and added texture with almonds. I’ll give his version a go next time. 

Savoury feta cheesecake

This is a recipe I’ve been meaning to make for ages. Why I didn’t realise that this would mean serving a cold main course to my vegetarian guests I don’t know. 

This recipe is by Delia, and can be found online at:

www.deliaonline.com/recipes/type-of-dish/party-food/cheesecake/savoury-feta-cheesecake.html

To my mind this recipe looks long and complicated but maybe that’s just because it involves gelatine. I’ve therefore edited the instructions to make it seem more straightforward, which it is, and have slightly altered the quantities for the sake of convenience. I hope she doesn’t mind.

Savoury feta cheesecake ingredients

For the base

• 75g white breadcrumbs (I used some leftover homemade bread)
• 40g Parmesan or Pecorino Romano. finely grated
• 25g melted butter

  

For the filling

• 200g pack of feta (recipe states 225g)
• 200g pot curd cheese (recipe states 225g)
• 200g pot fromage frais (recipe states 175g)
• 4 heaped tablespoons chives
• 3 spring onions, finely sliced
• 2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons vegetarian gelatine powder
• 2 egg whites*

*Ah, could have added that egg yolk to the biscuits after all.

Now I have 2 spare egg yolks.

Method for savoury feta cheesecake

1. Preheat the oven to 200⁰C.
   
2. Mix the base ingredients in a bowl and season with pepper. As the cheese is salty you don’t need to add salt.
   
3. Lightly oil a deep 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin then press the breadcrumb mixture down tightly onto the base of the tin.


4. Bake for 15 minutes till golden.


5. Break up the feta into a food processor and blend with the curd cheese and fromage frais till completely smooth.


6. Transfer to a bowl then add the chives and spring onions.


7. Put the lemon juice in a small saucepan with 55ml water.


8. Sprinkle in the gelatine and stir to dissolve.


9. In a clean bowl, whisk the egg whites to the softy peak stage.


10. Bring the gelatine mixture to the boil then tip into the cheese mixture and combine quickly.


11. Fold in the egg whites a tablespoon at a time.
    
12. Pour the mixture over the base and chill in the fridge, preferably overnight.

Chilli jam

I thought chilli jam would make a good accompaniment to the savoury feta cheesecake, and as I forgot to order some from Ocado I made my own. The deep red colour was a pretty contrast to the white cheesecake, when I eventually remembered to serve it. 

Chilli jam ingredients

• 8 red peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 10 red chillies, roughly chopped
• Finger-sized (Jamie’s) piece root ginger, roughly chopped
• 8 peeled garlic cloves
• 400g cherry tomatoes
• 750g caster sugar
• 250ml red wine vinegar 

How to make chilli jam

1. Whizz the peppers, garlic, ginger and chillies in a food processor.
2. Add to a heavy-based saucepan with the rest of the ingredients and bring to the boil.
3. Skim off any scum and simmer for about 50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
4. Once sticky, cook for another 10–15 minutes, stirring frequently.
5. Cool slightly then pot into sterilized jars.

Refrigerate once opened. Can be stored for up to 3 months.

I used half the quantity above which made 3 small jars. I gave 2 away as gifts and kept one for myself. It goes lovely with the cheddar biscuits too. (Thanks again, Kerry Gibson. Actually, do you fancy being guest blog editor?)

Roast lamb with sundried tomato and olive stuffing

I bought jamie magazine about a month ago. I like the size, the matt pages and the typeface. So far, though, this is the only recipe I’ve tried. In the magazine, floury potatoes covered with lemon juice are cooked in the roasting tin along with the lamb, but I make a separate potato dish cater for both meat-eaters and vegetarians.

Lamb before it went in the oven

Roast lamb ingredients

• 2kg butterflied leg of lamb
• 150g drained sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped (280g jar)
• 150g pitted black olives, roughly chopped
• 100g drained capers
• 1 tbps finely chopped rosemary, plus 3 or 4 large sprigs
• 2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp dried oregano

Confit garlic ingredients

• 6 garlic cloves
• 3 sprigs thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• Olive oil

  

How to make confit garlic

1. Put the garlic in a small saucepan with the thyme and bay leaves, and pour over enough oil to cover.
2. Cook over a low heat for about 20 minutes, till the garlic is tender, then remove the garlic with a slotted spoon.
3. The oil can be reserved for use another time.

You need to be very careful not to burn the garlic, even on the lowest heat, which is what happened at my first attempt. I ended up warming the oil for a few minutes then turning off the heat and letting it cool for a few minutes before repeating. It probably took about 30 minutes of careful heating and cooling.

How to make stuffed lamb

1. Preheat the oven to 250⁰C.
2. In a food processor, blend the sundried tomatoes, olives, capers, rosemary, confit garlic and red wine vinegar.


3. I made the stuffing the day before I was cooking the lamb.


4. Bring the lamb out of the fridge at least an hour before you want to cook it to allow it to come up to room temperature.


5. Lay the lamb out flat, season well then spread the stuffing over it.


6. Roll it up tightly and secure with cooking string. You will need someone to help you with this unless you have 4 hands. Some of the stuffing was squeezed out of the sides of the roll so I smeared this over the top of the lamb.


7. Put the rosemary sprigs into the roasting tin and place the lamb on top. Sprinkle the dried oregano over the top of the lamb.


8. Roast for 30 minutes, then reduce the temperature of the oven to 180⁰C and cook for another 1–1 ½ hours.
9. Rest the lamb on a warm plate, loosely covered in foil, for at least ‘15 minutes before serving.

The lamb was delicious, if a little well done. The stuffing brought a deep savory flavour to the dish, but the quantity given in the recipe wasn’t necessary – I reckon about half the amount would have been ample.

Potatoes in butter

This is my name for what Nigel Slater calls ‘A thin cake of potatoes and Parmesan’. I love Nigel Slater, and Nigel Slater loves butter. For this reason he’s known as Tubby Slater in my house, although he is nothing of the sort.

Potatoes in butter ingredients

This is double the recipe found in his book Tender Volume 1

 

• 2kg waxy potatoes
• 250g butter
• 4 garlic cloves (this still seemed a lot, I used 3 small cloves)
• 60g Parmesan, finely grated 

 

How to make potatoes in butter

1. Heat the oven to 220⁰C
2. Peel then slice the potatoes so thin that you can see through them.


3. I bought a mandolin especially for this job, or rather, this gave me an excuse to buy a mandolin. I haven’t figured out why I need all of the attachments yet, as most of the functions seem to be pretty much covered by my cheese grater which, now I think of it, has a slicing function too.


4. Melt the butter in a small pan


5. Crush or finely slice the garlic.


6. I crushed, so as to distribute the garlic as evenly as possible over the potatoes. I actually used my garlic crush today – normally I don’t as I hate washing it up.


7. Brush a little butter on the base of a baking dish then start layering your ingredients: potatoes, butter, garlic, salt, pepper, Parmesan.


8. I started off by using a pastry brush to brush the butter over the potatoes but in the end found it easier just to drizzle it over with a teaspoon.
9. Bake for about 45—50 minutes till the edges are golden. Remove from the oven and let the dish stand for a few minutes before serving.

This dish was delicious, but very, very buttery, and I found the taste of garlic quite strong. As part of an Easter feast though it was spot on.

Kale with lemon and garlic

Another delicious recipe from Nigel Slater’s Tender Volume 1. I’ve meddled with the quantities slightly which seemed to work well.

Kale with lemon and garlic ingredients

• I large bag curly kale (probably about 250–300g)
• A knob of butter (probably about 15g, rather than the 30g Tubby suggests for 2 people)
• A splash olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of half a lemon

How to make kale with lemon and garlic

1. Wash the kale then cook in boiling water for 1–2 minutes. You’ll probably need to do this in batches.


2. Drain the kale and put in a large serving bowl.


3. Warm the butter and the oil in a pan and add the crushed garlic and lemon zest.


4. Once the butter starts to foam, add the lemon juice.
   
5. Tip the butter mixture over the kale, season and toss everything together.

Steamed purple sprouting broccoli was my final savory dish.

I normally misjudge the amount of vegetables people will eat and end up with tons left over. At the end of this meal, however, I was left with just 1 stem of purple sprouting broccoli – success!

Something sweet for after

I am not one of life’s chocolate lovers. I wouldn’t really be upset if I never ate chocolate again. But O asked that I make a chocolate dessert to round off the meal and this time I obliged. Dan Lepard’s layeredchocolate truffle cake is a stunning-looking, sickly-tasting mass of chocolatey goo containing over a kilo of chocolate. My teeth hurt just making it.

This recipe requires 3 separate layers to be chilled before the next can be made, so start making it well in advance of when you want to serve it.

This is my own cake, I promise

As directed I used a 20cm loose-bottomed cake tin but found that I ended up with far too much of each of the chocolate layers – enough to fill 4 ramekins. A 23-inch tin would probably have worked better.

Removing the cake from the tin didn’t work quite as successfully as I had hoped (see photo) but it still looked impressive. I didn’t notice this at the time but when I came to clearing up found that the brownie base was pretty much still intact on the base of the tin, so I’d served the cake without the base. There were no complaints.

I managed to eat about one third of my slice.

Dahl

Dahl

The only red dahl recipes I could find included ingredients I didn't have so I made this one up. A couple of tomatoes would have been a good addition.

Dahl ingredients

• 1 teaspoon whole cumin
• 1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
• red lentils, rinsed – somewhere between 100 and 150g. No need to be precise here, we’re not making a cake
• ½ thumb’s worth of ginger (mine not Jamie’s), finely chopped
• 3 small garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 teaspoon turmeric
• 1 large onion, half chopped finely and half sliced thinly

How to make dahl

1. Dry roast the cumin seeds for a few minutes till fragrant, then remove from the pan and crush is a pestle and mortar.
2. Add a little flavourless oil such as groundnut or vegetable and warm before adding the mustard seeds. Fry for about a minute or until they start to pop.
3. Add the chopped onion and fry for 2-3 minutes.
4. Add the spices (including the roast cumin seeds), garlic and ginger and fry for about a minute.
5. Add the lentils and stir to coat them, then add enough water to cover.
6. Bring to the boil then simmer until the lentils are cooked and the dahl is the consistency you like it, stirring occasionally. If it becomes too dry add more water.
7. While the lentils are cooking fry the sliced onion in a little oil till crispy.
8. Top the dahl with the crispy onion slices to serve. 

I like a little dahl as an accompaniment to another curry, but it makes a great lunch too and freezes well so its worth making in a large batch.  For lunch, you only need a toasted pitta bread and maybe a squeeze of lemon or lime juice to make a tasty, filling, healthy and incredibly cheap lunch. Lunch for free at its best. 

Squash and satay soup

Here’s a soup that I really do consider free, since it is made almost entirely of leftovers. 

Before you turn your nose up at the idea, let me explain that after I made squash and sausage salad yesterday, I had some leftover Crown Prince squash and sweet potato. This had already been roasted in some rapeseed and chilli oil with a pinch of chilli flakes and ground coriander for the salad, so was ready to use.

Of course my initial thoughts were of turning this into soup, and at first I contemplated playing on another favourite salad by adding chickpeas and feta to a base of onions and vegetable stock.

Then I found a tiny tub of leftover homemade satay sauce in the fridge and hit upon the idea of making satay soup. Although quite healthy, this feels like a decadent soup to have for lunch at work on a Tuesday, so think of it as a reward for being almost halfway through the week. It is also reminiscent of the delectable Bolivian sopa de maní that is only served on Sundays.

Squash and satay soup nigredients

• I medium onion, finely chopped
• About ¼ Crown Prince Squash, roasted
• About ¼ sweet potato, roasted
• About ½ litre vegetable stock
• About 1½ tablespoons satay sauce
• Finely chopped mint leaves, to serve

How to make squash and satay soup

Couldn’t be easier, provided, of course, you have some ready made satay and leftover squash. Otherwise I wouldn’t bother.

1. Heat a tiny amount of oil in a pan.
2. Finely chop the onion and add to the oil.
3. Fry till soft.
4. Add the stock and the roasted squash and potato.
5. Add the satay sauce.
6. Bring to the boil then simmer for about 30 minutes.
7. Either liquidise roughly or smoothly to taste, or simply squash the squash and potato against the back of a spoon.
8. Add a little finely chopped mint.

Asian mushroom soup

Marshroom soup

Today I got a text from my blog chum Mars saying I had inspired her to make vomit soup. Since she is full of cold I thought I’d make up a new slightly less vomit-looking recipe for her with a good kick of ginger and chilli to make her feel better.

Asian-tasting mushroom soup ingredients

• Approx 150g red lentils
  Unlike most pulses, lentils require no pre-cooking soaking or rapid boiling.  
• 3 shallots, finely chopped
• I stalk lemon grass, finely shredded, or, in my case today, a squeeze of lemon grass paste (not as good as the real thing but an OK substitute for soup)
• A piece of root ginger, about the size of Jamie Oliver’s thumb*
• 200-250g chestnut mushrooms (I happened to have 127g, yes I actually weighed them). Oriental mushrooms would be good but you would need to reduce the quantity as things like oyster or shiiake mushrooms are expensive.
• Small can coconut milk – Blue Dragon do a 165ml can which is the perfect amount. The tin looks dinky too
• Approx ½ litre or 1 pint chicken stock. Vegetable stock will be fine for this recipe. In fact, non-vegetarians may not even notice the lack of meat since there are so many other strong flavours in here.
• Fish sauce – a large dash
• Coriander leaves and stalks, chopped (if you have the roots from the plants, all the better)
• Mint leaves, chopped
• Lime juice from 1 lime
• Fish sauce, a splash

*Thumb-size is the international measurement for root ginger. Although this recipe isn’t Jamie’s, he frequently uses this measurement so I assume his thumb is the accurate size.

1. Gently fry the shallots and the ginger for a few minutes in some light-flavoured oil, such as groundnut or sunflower.
2. Add the mushrooms and fry until they have started to collapse and release a deep mushroomy smell.They will sizzle like sausages or, if you are vegetarian, like mushrooms. 
3. Add your chicken stock, lemongrass, chilli and rinsed lentils, then bring to the boil.
4. Reduce to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes or until the lentils are cooked.  
5. Add a splash of fish sauce and the coconut milk and cook for about 5 minutes. 
6. Turn off the heat and add the lime juice.* 
7. Ladle into serving bowls and sprinkle each with some chopped coriander and mint.

This made enough for 3 portions, ie 3 free lunches.

*Don’t add the lime if you’re going to reheat this soup at work – take half a lime to work with you and squeeze it in after its been reheated.

Spaghetti bolognese

For Kate and Nellie

I’ve been meaning to write up my spag bol recipe for my friend Kate for ages but it’s been a while since I made it and I had no idea what quantity of mince I use. I always buy meat from the butcher’s so I ask for the amount I want by eye rather than weight. Today, though, they had 500g packs of minced lamb already weighed out, so that’s what I’m using. You can of course use minced beef if you prefer.

I heard Antonio Carluccio on Woman’s Hour once saying how spag bol should take half an hour to make, not 3 hours. This version takes somewhere in between. He also insists that minced pork should be included – I have tried this and agree it does make for a tasty version but don’t think a porkless version is any the worse for the omission.

Others also insist on including pancetta or streaky bacon. I find this totally unnecessary – this dish already contains a large amount of meat, I don’t see that you need to introduce more, especially cured, given the other strong flavours in this dish. In fact, I often add some Quorn to my spag bol to make it ever so slightly healthier. Don’t be taken in by the adverts though, a Quorn-only spag bol would be insipid, but you can get away with adding a little.

Spaghetti bolognese ingredients

• 1 large or 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 2 fat cloves garlic
• 2 carrot, grated
• 2 celery sticks, finely chopped
• 500g minced lamb or beef
• 2 tins plum tomatoes
• Chestnut mushrooms, sliced or quartered, as you prefer. Oops – I forgot to weigh how much. Probably a supermarket punnet worth
• Dried oregano
• 1 bay leaf

Optional spag bol ingredients

• A splash of red wine – I say optional if Kate is making this for 3-year -old Nellie, though I wouldn't dream of omitting this in my version
• Fresh rosemary, leaves picked and finely chopped 
• Quorn – probably about 100g
• Red lentils – I sometimes add a handful to thicken the sauce

How to make spaghetti bolognese 

This really is one of the simplest meals to make.

1. Heat a little olive oil gently in a large casserole pan
2. Add the onion and fry till soft
3. Add the garlic, celery and carrot, and fry for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently
4. Turn the heat up to high and add the meat
5. Cook, stirring, until the meat is browned
6. Add the wine, if using, and continue to cook on a high heat till it has almost all evaporated
7. Add both tins of tomatoes.
8. Rinse out the tomato tins with a little water to get any juice left on the side of the tin, and add this too
9. Season with salt and pepper and the oregano and rosemary if using, and bring to the boil.
10. Add the mushrooms then reduce the heat to a lively simmer.
11. Simmer for about an hour, or until most of the liquid has evaporated and you are left with a concentrated sauce.

This makes enough for 2 very large portions served with wholemeal spaghetti and freshly grated Parmesan, plus enough to make a lasagne for 4 people.