Lamb and Potato Casserole.

I know it’s technically summer over here in Australia but the days and nights have certainly not been hot. I wanted to cook something a bit more substantial for our tea on Saturday night and came upon this delightful casserole. It’s not made with many ingredients either. Forgive the lack of pictures as yet again, I forgot to take photos till half way through making it.

Serves 6
Ingredients.
50gm butter, plus extra to grease
2 leeks, white part only,thinly sliced
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon olive oil
1kg lamb leg or shoulder, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Salt and pepper
800gm waxy potatoes,peeled and thinly sliced
300ml lamb,chicken or beef stock
1 teaspoon fresh thyme, chopped
100ml cream
3 tablespoon flat leaf parsley,chopped (optional)

Preheat the oven to 170C and grease an ovenproof casserole dish. Place the butter in a large frypan over heat and add the leak and onion. Cook for 5 minutes or until softened, then transfer to a plate and set aside.
Add oil to the pan and increase heat to high. When hot, add the lamb in batches and brown. Add the garlic whilst browning the lamb also.
Place half the potato slices overlapping on the base of the greased casserole dish. Layer the meat over the top and season well with salt and pepper. Next place the leek and onion mixture over the top and press down well with the back of a spoon to flatten. Top with the other half of the potatoes, overlapping them.

Pour over the stock and sprinkle on the thyme.

Cover with a lid or foil and bake for two hours in the pre heated oven. Take out of oven, remove the lid or foil and brush the potatoes with the cream. Pop back in oven for another 30 minutes or until potatoes are golden. Serve direct from dish sprinkled with parsley.

This lovely casserole reheats well and tastes even better the next day.
Enjoy 😄.

Butter chicken with red lentil dhal and rice.

Hello friends 🙂

Yesterday I made a rather delicious meal for our tea.  I actually found it in the state newspaper (The West Australian) in the recipes pages. This recipe was compiled by one of the duos that appeared on the MKR (My Kitchen Rules) TV show and I have to say it turned out very well for a first time try.

This amount will serve 4.

First assemble your ingredients.

For the Marinade,

400gm can of crushed tomatoes

190gm yoghurt (I used Goats milk yoghurt)

4 garlic cloves

90gm ground almonds

2cm piece of ginger, grated

6 cardamom pods, bruised

2 tablespoons brown sugar

2 teaspoons garam masala

1 cinnamon quill

1/2 teaspoon  ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

2 tablespoons tomato paste

1 pinch saffron threads

salt and pepper to season

1 kg boneless, skinless chicken thighs, halved

125gm Ghee

1 onion, diced

For the Red Lentil Dhal,

2 teaspoons vegetable oil ( I used Ghee again as I am in love with it!)

1 onion, diced

1 long green chilli, chopped

1 + 1/2 teaspoons cumin seeds

1 + 1/2 teaspoons black mustard seeds

1 + 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 + 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

3 curry leaves

1 tomato, diced ( I forgot to use it so I make this optional :D)

200 gm red lentils, rinsed, drained

400ml can coconut milk

250ml water

To make the marinade, combine all of the ingredients down to and including the salt and pepper in a six cup capacity baking dish.

Add the chicken and rub marinade all over it.

(Trust me, there is chicken in there!)

Cover and refrigerate for one hour to marinate.

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius.

Melt ghee in a small frying pan over medium heat, add onion and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes or until softened.

Add to chicken mixture, cover dish tightly with foil and bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and bake for a further 15 minutes or until chicken is very tender. I like cooking till those yummy caramelized bits form on top of the chicken 🙂

Meanwhile, to make the dhal, heat oil/ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add onion and chilli and cook, stirring for about 3 minutes or until softened.

Stir in seeds and spices. Cook for a further 1 minutes or until fragrant.

Stir in remaining ingredients and the water.

Bring to a simmer, then simmer, partially covered and stirring occasionally, for 25 minutes or until lentils are cooked and have absorbed all the liquid. Season with salt.

Divide rice between serving plates and top with chicken. Spoon dhal to the side and tuck in!

That is my appreciative husband Jason 😀

This recipe is completely gluten free, including that Naan bread you see in the picture. So happy to have found that the local supermarket (Coles) stocks the Livewell brand for Coeliac sufferers.

Bon appetit!

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup.

We went out for dinner one evening a few weeks back. As soon as we walked through the door, we were hit by the most memory evocing smell. I smelt my Grandmothers kitchen from years ago! Lovely smells of sage and thyme and roasted things 🙂 . What we ended up eating that night to start with was the bringer of that memory. It was a beautiful Chestnut soup that just transported our tastebuds to nirvana. Best tasting soup ever.

The nearest recipe I could find is the one following that is so, so close in flavour.

Mushroom and Chestnut Soup.

First assemble all your ingredients.

You will need,

30gm butter

1 tablespoon of Olive oil

100gm pancetta, chopped

1 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

500gm mixed mushrooms, sliced (use Shitake, oyster, shimeji,cup etc) We used dried shitake and porcini mushrooms as well.

285gm can Chestnuts, drained (we used chestnut puree, unsweetened!)

1 potato, diced

4 cups of good quality vegetable stock

1 tablespoon Sage chopped

1tablespoon thyme

1/2 cup of cream

In a large saucepan, heat butter and olive oil on high and saute the pancetta, onion and garlic for 2-3 minutes until onion is golden.

Add the mushrooms, chestnuts and potato and cook 3-4 minutes, until mushrooms are tender.

Stir in the vegetable stock and herbs. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes. Stir in cream and cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Remove from heat and using a hand/stick blender (or food processor), process until smooth. I also rubbed it through a drum sieve for a velvety texture. Season to taste and reheat if necessary. Serve soup with a swirl of cream.

We sprinkled ours with black pepper and made gluten free goats cheese toasts to have with it!

This worked as well!

Wonderful flavour. Just about the same as the restaurant. Next time, I’ll use the whole tin of pureed chestnuts and less dried mushrooms and see how that goes. It was a lovely satisfying Sunday night dinner with the rain pouring down outside and sitting in front of the fire to eat 😀

Potato and Lamb Soup

Now that the weather has decided it’s about time it was Winter in the south West of Western Australia, I felt I should share this most wonderous hearty soup that could also double as a stew it’s that thick. I call it a stoup when I make it because of it’s stew like texture. I think you could add more beef stock to thin it down or vegetable stock if that suits.

Recipe.

1 tablespoon of oil

1 kilogram of lamb shanks (about 4 shanks)

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 medium carrots (about 240gm) diced

2 sticks of celery, chopped

810gm can tomatoes, crushed

1 and a half litres of Beef stock

5 large potatoes, peeled and diced

2 medium zuchinni, diced skin on

2 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

Half a teaspoon of sugar

Heat oil in large pot and brown the shanks all over. Remove from pan and set aside. Add onion, garlic, carrots and celery to the same pot and cook, stirring until onion softens. Return shanks to pan, add undrained crushed tomatoes and beef stock and simmer covered, for about 1 hour or until lamb is tender.

Remove the meat from the shanks and chop roughly, discard the bones. Bring soup back to the boil and add the chopped meat, potatoes, zuchinni, tomatoe paste, basil and sugar. Simmer uncovered until potatoes are tender. Serve with some crusty bread.

This tastes even better the next day.

Bon appetit!

My Chilli Marmalade tryout!

All praise for this delicious recipe must go to Emily over at chillimarmalade.com. She has the best food site i’ve discovered, plus she’s an expat Aussie so she’s great in my books 🙂

Here is a picture some of the ingredients you’ll need.Recipe follows.

Ingredients,

10 Red capsicums (Peppers), diced small

10 Long Red chillies, sliced with seeds left in

1 head of garlic minced

1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, sliced finely

750gm Raw castor sugar

250ml Red wine vinigar

Combine all on top of stove and cook, stirring often until it resembles jam. Bottle into hot, sterilized jars and seal with lids immediately.

I made a heartful of chillies!

Boil all together just like this!

And this is what you end up with! It actually made 3.5 one cup jars of lovely sticky hot (but not devestatingly hot) chilli marmalade. One of the nicest I’ve tried. Great with cheese, steak and inserted into stirfries. Yummo!

Bon appetite!