Is not this a lamentable thing, that of the skin of an innocent lamb should be made food? Henry VI

Most definitely am carnivorous! Ate a neck yesterday.

Made this Matt Moran masterclass lamb dish last night that I had viewed on the viewing screen one evening:

"Roasted Lamb Rack and Braised Lamb Neck with Pumpkin and Sheeps Milk Feta."

Used lamb chops/forequarters instead of the rack  though as we are on strict budgets in this household. Just something that we could caramelise. The recipe also uses lamb neck- a first for us. Didn't even know one could buy it. Thankfully, lamb neck seems to be only about $2. Had never had a neck before but surprisingly, after being braised and cooked for awhile it is really tender meat. Both cuts of meat melted in our mouths and the pumpkin puree was beautiful and soft. I preferred it to mash as it was lighter and sweeter. Made a little salad on the side and it was quite an easy budget friendly and tasty healthy meal. 

Try it I say!

Braised Lamb Neck

• 2lamb neck fillets
• 2tablespoons olive oil
• 1carrot, chopped
• 2stalks celery, chopped
• ½ brown onion, chopped
• 2stalks rosemary
• 2cloves garlic, peeled
• 1Ldark veal stock- we used beef

Roasted pumpkin

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 500gblue pumpkin, cut into 1-2cm cubes
• 3cloves garlic, peeled

Roasted Lamb racks

• 4 x 4 point lamb racks or lamb forequarters as cheaper
• Olive oil

Pumpkin puree

• 300gpumpkin, peeled and cut into chunks
• 40g butter, softened
• 40-100ml hot chicken stock

Dressing

• 1teaspoon Dijon mustard

Dressing

• 1teaspoon chardonnay vinegar or just normal vinegar
• 40mlgrape seed or other oil
• 15mlextra virgin olive oil

Salad

• 80gsoft sheep or goats or blue vein
• 40gtoasted pumpkin seeds or pine nuts
• Small bunch rocket, baby leaves picked

Method

• 1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• 2. For braised lamb neck, season lamb necks with salt and pepper, pour oil into pressure cooker and brown lamb. Add vegetables, rosemary and garlic and cook for a few minutes to colour. Cover with stock. Bring to the boil, seal lid and bring up to pressure. Cook for 45 minutes until tender. Release steam and allow pressure cooker to cool before releasing lid. Remove necks, and tightly wrap individually into sausage shapes in cling film. Chill for an hour in the fridge to set firmly.
• 3. Pour braising liquid through a fine mesh sieve into a clean saucepan and simmer over a low heat until liquid has reduced to desired consistency. Cut chilled lamb neck into thick rounds, keeping cling wrap on the slice to hold shape. Add to reduced braising liquid and cook over a low heat, spooning the sauce over the neck slices. Cook until nicely caramelised and warmed through.
• 4. For roasted pumpkin, heat oil in a frying pan, add pumpkin and garlic and cook over a medium high heat until golden, place in oven and roast for 15-20 minutes until pumpkin is soft. Season with salt and pepper.
• 5. Meanwhile, season the lamb racks with salt and pepper and place into a hot pan with a little olive oil. Seal well on all sides, transfer to oven and roast for 6-8 minutes. Remove and rest for 10 minutes.
• 6. For pumpkin puree, bring a saucepan half filled with water to the boil. Add pumpkin and cook until pumpkin in tender. Drain well. Place in a food processor with butter and enough stock to thin to desired consistency. Season well with salt and pepper. 
• 7. For dressing, slowly whisk ingredients in a bowl until emulsified.
• 8. To serve, squeeze a round of puree onto a serving plate and spread with the back of a spoon. Cut the lamb racks in half and place on the plate. Place a lamb neck slice near the lamb and drizzle with reduced jus. Arrange roasted pumpkin on puree with feta and pumpkin seeds or pine nuts. Drizzle with some of the dressing, sprinkle with goats or blue cheese, olives and arrange baby rocket leaves on top.

Shakespeare's Soup Kitchen

Another night for a soup with this cold, wet and miserable weather! Something that one can eat while lazing on the lounge with Ugg boots and a "blanky." Decided to attempt (for the first time) the classic French Onion soup. And I'm amazed I never cooked this before because it practically uses only 4 ingredients.
Gary made this soup on Masterclass last week, so I loaded up the segment and cooked it as I watched. I halved the recipe however- 2 kg of onions eeek! Bit of butter, some herbs, beef stock, cheese, a splash of sherry instead of cider and some crusty bread. Pretty much stock standard ingredients you have in the pantry! Also a good recipe for walking away from as you're pretty much just cooking the onions and sweating them for long periods of time. It's minimal fuss and prep.

Caramelise. Simmer. Add. Pour. Ladle. Grate. Grill.

I pull the soup out from under the grill and dip my spoon into gooey bubbling melted cheese- a little too hot on the tongue, but I keep eating!  Then I move the crusty bread around so it soaks up the sweet onion stock and pop that into my mouth.

 It's just what I felt like. Now for a good book.

Tis an ill cook that cannot lick his own fingers- Romeo and Juliet

Pitter Patter. The rain has finally hit today and the clouds all rolled up and gathered into one. A perfect night to sit on the lounge and rug up and watch "Masterchef." Or maybe, I could attempt a collossal feat in baking to celebrate the end of the Term and the upcoming school holidays? This way I can surprise some of the staff tomorrow with a bunch of calories instead of eating them all myself. This could save the hips.  So here I am, currently in the kitchen constructing a Mojito genoise, as made in Masterclass by Lorraine Pascall! Mojito cake? You had me at Mojito. What a great idea for a birthday cake for an 18th? This is no easy feat though. It requires a lot of ingredients, steps, time and love - all worth it though don't you think! The cake looks fluffy and similar to hers, and the butter cream......well let's just say I've licked the bowl a few times. The sugar syrup was a bit thick but will let you know how it goes when we eat it tomorrow. Presentation looks awesome and the praline.....lucky there is left over!

And the smells wafting through the house are delicious; the oven warming the living area on this cold wintry evening. Perfect baking weather methinks!


Great excuse to pull out the Bacardi and maybe reward myself with a Mojito cocktail too. Bottoms up!

Sugar Syrup

• 150 g (5.3oz) Soft light brown sugar
• 40 ml (1.4fl oz) Water
• 2 Finely grated zest and juice of limes
• 80 ml (2.8fl oz) White rum
• 1 Bunch of fresh mint, leaves only

Praline

• 400 g (7.1oz)Granulated sugar – Pecan coating
• 200 g (7.1oz) Pecans – Pecan coating                           
• 1 Dash of vegetable oil, for oiling – Pecan coating

Genoise Sponge

• 260 g (9.2oz) Caster sugar
• 115 g (4.1oz) Butter, melted and cooled, plus extra for greasing
• 260 g (9.2oz) Plain flour
• 6 Eggs, lightly beaten

Buttercream Icing

• 300 g (10.6oz) Butter, softened
• 600 g (21oz) Icing sugar
• 2 Vanilla pods or 4 drops of vanilla extract
• 1 large or 23 small Lime – Finely grated zest and juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C; grease a 20cm cake tin and line the base with baking paper. Feel free to mix yourself a real mojito for consumption later – (although for this you’ll need more mint and sugar).
2. Make the sugar syrup first to give the mint and lime plenty of time to infuse. Zest 2 limes and put zest aside.
3. Place soft light brown sugar, water, the juice of the limes and 80 ml white rum in a medium pan over a low heat.
4. Cook until the sugar dissolves, then boil for 2-3 minutes until the syrup thickens.
5. Remove from heat and add the leaves from a bunch of fresh chopped mint (leaves only) and the lime zest .
6. Set aside to infuse.
7. Line a baking sheet with paper.
8.  Put sugar in a medium-size pan over a medium-high heat and leave to melt.  Don’t stir it, just swirl the pan to move the sugar round.
9. Once the sugar is melted, bring the mixture to the boil and cook until caramel colour is reached. Be careful not to burn it!
10. Add 200 g pecan nuts, swirl the pan to coat them a bit in the sugar and pour on the lined baking tray. Leave to cool.
11. Once this has cooled right down, blitz the praline in a food processor (or alternative place in a plastic bag and smash with a rolling pin). Put aside.
12. Place a large pot around a third full of water and bring to the boil while you lightly beat 6 eggs in a heatproof bowl. You’ll want this bowl to fit snugly over the pot of water, which is the next step. Now’s also a good time to melt the butter gently, and measure out the flour so you have them to hand.
13. Remove the pot from the heat from heat and place the bowl over the top, containing the eggs and caster sugar. Make sure the base isn’t touching the water
14. Beat like crazy with an electric handheld mixer – trust me; you do NOT want to do this by hand. You should beat for about 10 minutes over the pan of hot water – this might be a good time to throw back another mojito, because you won’t be going anywhere for a while!
15. Remove the bowl from the pot and continue beating for 5 mins or so. You need to get to a ribbon stage – when if you take a spoonful and trail it back in, the resulting ribbon should hold itself for at least 3-4 seconds before blending  back into the mixture.
16. Pour the melted butter around the sides of the bowl, so as not to knock out the air (which is what happens if you pour it in the middle.
17. Fold the melted butter into the egg mix, moving the bowl around and scooping down to the bottom to fold the mixture over itself, using as few movements as possible to retain maximum air.
18. Repeat the process with the flour, again using as few movements as possible. Be aware though that those rotten flour lumps lurk at the bottom of the bowl, and you don’t want to be pouring it into the tin and finding a dry pocket at the bottom of the bowl!
19. Pour the mixture gently into the prepared tin, and bake in the centre of the oven for 30 mins. Keep an eye on it, as it’s easy to burn.
20. Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so, then remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool completely.
21. Once cool, divide the cake horizontally into two. I use a cake separator, but on Masterchef Lorraine used kitchen string stretched around the cake and then pulled tight to slice the cake evenly in half.
22. Prepare the buttercream by adding 300g softened butter, 600g icing sugar and the seeds of 2 vanilla pods (or the vanilla extract) into a bowl and whisk until pale and fluffy. Add the jest and juice from the lime.
23. Assembly time! Place the bottom of the sponge on the plate and brush with the reserved sugar syrup. Be quite liberal to make the cake really moist.
24. Put a big dollop of buttercream on top of the sponge bottom and, using a palette knife, spread the buttercream over the cake until it is level.
25. Take the top half of the cake, turn cut side up and brush with the sugar syrup. Turn it back over and put it on top of the buttercreamed sponge.
26. Next, cover the whole cake with the buttercream, including the top and sides, making sure it is a smooth as possible with straight sides and top. Put the cake in the fridge for 10 minutes or so to firm up a little.
27. Use the praline crumbs to coat the sides of the cake, picking up the fallen crumbs and gently patting onto the cake.
28. Gently indent the cake top into sections, to work out where you will place whole pecans and lime slices.
29. Top with one pecan and one lime eighth per slice, and serve.

 It was demolished!