Grilled rack of lamb and duck fried potatoes

I have been absent from the blog for a few of weeks, as summer, catering and weekends out of town got in the way.  But the summer is over :( the catering is all done and time to settle back down in to my routines.  This meal is one that I cooked up at Pender Harbour earlier in the summer and was enjoyed by my good friend and I as we spent a couple of days capturing a little peace and quiet.

If the sun is not shining and you do not want to use the barbecue, these would be just as good cooked under the broiler.

1 rack of lamb
2 tablespoons of grainy mustard
Sprig of fresh rosemary stripped from the stalk
Salt and pepper

Cut the lamb rack into cutlets and then coat in the mustard salt and pepper.  then press the rosemary into the meat.  

I left this to mellow while we went for a walk. then heated up the barbecue. These cook quickly as lamb chops are really best when pink in the middle.

Pita bread and late summer greek dinner on the deck

Monday evening was the last vestiges of the labour day weekend the traditional end of summer.  The weather was sunny and warm, but there is a feel of fall in the air and we were trying to squeeze one more summer evening meal outside. As I had some fresh local lamb in the fridge (oh happy day) we picked Greek as a theme.  I have never made pita bread before so decided to give a go.

This was a bit of an experiment for me, but actually they turned out rather well I thought. I used a recipe I found on the internet on middle eastern food

1 package of yeast
1/2 cup of warm water
3 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons of salt
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 cup of luke warm water

Dissolve yeast in 1/2 cup of warm water. Add sugar and stir until dissolved. Let sit for 10-15 minutes until water is frothy.

Combine flour and salt in large bowl. Make a small depression in the middle of flour and pour yeast water in depression. Add 1 cup of warm water, and stir with wooden spoon or rubber spatula until elastic.

Place dough on floured surface and knead for 10-15 minutes. When the dough is no longer sticky and is smooth and elastic, it is ready.

Coat large bowl with olive oil and place dough in bowl. Turn dough upside down so all of the dough is coated.

Barbecued rack of lamb

The first night on the Sunshine Coast found just two of us for dinner, so we hunted and gathered down at the local IGA and found a lovely fresh looking rack of lamb.  It was a beautiful evening, so there was nothing to do but barbecue it.

I decided to do the simplest way that I could using traditional flavours that go so well with lamb, mustard and rosemary.  I cut the rack into cutlets, then smeared with Dijon mustard and chopped fresh rosemary, salt and pepper.

French style Barbecued leg of lamb

For the bastille day dinner, I had decided to cook lamb as the main protein and as there were going to be 13 of us I decided to cook leg of lamb rather than rack, for mainly financial reasons.  It was a very hot day, so having the oven on for any length of time was not on, so I cooked this on the barbecue.  As this is not a very French way of cooking, I used French flavourings and added a red wine sauce at the end, so that if fit the brief.

I deboned these legs myself, but you can buy them already deboned, or if you are lucky enough to be getting local lamb from a butcher, you could probably get the butcher to do this for you. I cooked to two legs and this fed 13 with a little barbecued chicken.

After deboning the legs I smeared the inside with a grainy dijon mustard and sprinkled on a thinly sliced garlic clove and a sprig of fresh rosemary and salt and pepper.

I folded the meat over itself enclosing the rosemary and garlic and trussed them up to hold it all together.

Spring roast lamb with lemon and rosemary

Saturday was warm and sunny, warm enough to eat lunch on the deck, finally spring is here.  This made me crave rack of lamb for some reason.  Probably because the day before I had seen some really good looking Canadian lamb at the local grocery store.  Any way I went back and picked up a very meaty 6 bone rack of lamb for dinner.  I had been browsing around on the Donna Hay magazine that I had on my Ipad and saw this rack roasted on top of potatoes, I thought that sounded like a really good idea, and so I decided to give it a try.

Serves 2

4 small potatoes thinly sliced
Sprig of rosemary
1/2 lemon thinly sliced
Rack of lamb
2 tablespoons of olive oil

Line a roasting tin or high sided cookie sheet with parchment paper and place the potatoes on the  bottom making a bed big enough to place the lamb on. Place on top a couple of slices of lemon and sprinkle on some rosemary leaves.

Sprinkle on some salt and pepper then place the lamb (which you have already dusted with salt and pepper) on top with the bone side down.

balsamic glazed lamb shanks

We had a big storm here on the West Coast on Monday with thousands with out power and most of the ferries cancelled.  But we were snug inside thankfully with power and I was able to spend the day quilting, something that I have not done in a while, but really enjoy.  For dinner I invited my Father and son over and I had 5 lamb shanks sitting in my freezer that needed eating.  I have based this recipe on a Gordon Ramsay one that I found on BBC foods.

I made this for 5 but I think if you used 4 lamb shanks and the same recipe you would just have a little more sauce and that is not a bad thing.

1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 medium onion chopped
2 garlic cloves sliced
5 lamb shanks
1 cup of red wine
1 cup of crushed tomatoes (still using home canned Yeh!)
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 cup of red wine
1 good size sprig of rosemary.

Lamb Popsicles

I was introduced to the concept of lamb Popsicles at Vijs restaurant in Vancouver they are the signature dish there and like everything I have ever had there, are out of this world.  They have now become a popular item at other restaurants and as an appetizer at parties.

Lamb Popsicles basking in the setting sun

On Friday afternoon when Nancy and I were at Costco shopping for a community event this Saturday we both spied these wonderful looking lamb racks from Australia. I know these are not local in fact they really could not have come from further away, but never the less we both had a single thought "lamb Popsicles.

Beautiful Australian rack of lamb cut into Popsicles

We cut the rack in to chops, the bones had already been frenched (scraped clean) so that was the only prep that we had to do. I made a quick marinade based on what I could remember of the recipe in Vijs's cook book.

1/4 cup of white wine
2 tablespoons of grainy mustard
1 teaspoon of salt.

Coconut lamb curry

This is another of the delicious Indian dishes that we had on Saturday night.  Both Connie and I were craving lamb curry, so we picked up a boneless lamb shoulder at the big TNT shop, then searched for a recipe when we got back, which we almost followed.

We used one whole shoulder and it fed 9 with a spoonful for dinner on Monday night.

1 small boneless shoulder of lamb chopped in to small chunks
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 cloves
4 whole black peppercorns
1 small stick of cinnamon
1 star anise
2 medium onions chopped
2 large garlic cloves crated or finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ginger finely chopped
1 tablespoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of garam masala
1 teaspoon of salt
1/4 cup of cashew nuts whizzed in a spice grinder
1 can of coconut milk
2 green chillies very finely chopped.
Garnish with fresh coriander

Place the oil and the first 4 whole spices in a large pot, cook them for a couple of minutes until they are fragrant.

Ground lamb and Peas - Indian style

This is an old favourite and comes from Madhur Jaffrey my favourite Indian cook book author see Cook books. She says that this is a dish that many young Indian people arriving in London would cook to remind them of home. I was feeling like Indian food and I had 1/2 Kg of ground lamb in the freezer so I phoned my Father (if he saw me blogging Indian food and he had not been invited I would be in trouble)
All though in this case it was not a week night this is definitely week night dinner material.

2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 Jalapeno and 2" of fresh ginger all finely chopped (or see make ahead Indian base)
1 Onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 medium tomatoes chopped (or equivalent canned)
1 1/2 lb of ground lamb (or beef)
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of frozen peas

Barbecued lamb

First night back in London from Italy Jacky's husband (from New Zealand) volunteered to barbecue a leg of lamb for dinner, this is his speciality and I was really looking forward to it.  We decided to make an appetizer using the buffalo mozzarella and lemon oil that we had bought in Italy.  And as we still had celeriac left over from last week we thought we would make a variation on the previous weeks side dish using sweet potato and regular potato along with the celeriac.

This was a meal made with whatever we found in the house.  O happy day when you find fresh buffalo Mozzarella from Italy in your fridge.

We had a whole leg of lamb which Jacky studded with garlick and surrounded with beautiful fresh rosemary from the garden, then wrapped in foil and baked in a medium oven for 40 minutes.

ready to bake

After the lamb was baked Howard (Jacky's husband) took it outside to their built in wood fired barbecue where he had readied the fire so that the wood was mostly burned down to charcoal.

Comfort food at its best - Cassoulet

Earlier in the week I was bemoaning the lack of time for a long slow cooked meal, well Sunday night my craving was sated with the wonderful french Cassoulet. Though the sun was shining you could feel winter in the air and it is just a matter of days until all the trees are bare. Also it was Halloween so I felt like Cooking the ultimate in slow cooked dish.

The autumn leaves soon to be just a memory

This is a dish from the south west of france where it is a way of life and there are probably as many recipes for it as there are cooks cooking it. In fact every time I make it, it is a little different, changes made based on meats, sausages and beans available.  So I will write up how I cooked it this time with some suggestions for other variations.

These quantities served 8 of us and there was enough for lunch for one left over.

last minute lebanese

Every year I declare a food theme, this is generated from a new piece of kitchen apparatus such as a tagine, or a trip, or as was the case this year a restaurant.  Earlier this year a friend at work recommended the restaurant Nuba a Lebanese restaurant down in gastown.  I was blown away by the fresh flavours and interesting food and so 2010 has been the year of Lebanese food. I have been exploring the cuisine for the last few months. So when I asked Connie what she would like for her birthday meal she said "what have you been doing in Lebanese recently?"

You have to understand this was 5:00 and I was still at work, so it had to be quick and mostly with what I had at home in the fridge.  She told me she had some cauliflower and would make some foccacia bread, and her daughter was going to make a cake. I had some lebanese cucumbers in my fridge and some good tomatoes so I picked up some ground lamb and beef and greek yogurt on the way home and the menu was set.

Kefta
Lebanese cucumber and tomato salad
Crispy cauliflower tossed with lemon and spices
Foccacia bread
Chocolate cake

Rogan Josh

I love Indian food and when it is done well the flavours can be rich and complex There are so many different styles of Indian food, it upsets me to see them all lumped in to a generic curry. In true Indian food there is no such thing as curry powder, there are different mixtures of spices, but really if you use the whole spices or grind them fresh the flavours are so much better.

Rogon Josh

There are 3 ingredients which are in almost every Indian dish, garlic, ginger and chili pepper.  I was taught by a friends wife, who owned an Indian Restaurant, that the easiest way to deal with these was to process a large batch and then keep them in the fridge and just spoon them out. This is a great idea if you cook Indian food every day (or own a restaurant).  But this year I got another suggestion from a local cook book author that you can freeze small quantities and pull them out and use from frozen.  I added my own twist which is freeze in an ice cube tray.