spork me

Lamb Rump Roast with Lentils

After a few weeks getting food at the pub while the oven’s been broken, and a terribly inconvenient case of bronchitis over New Years, I’ve gotten back into cooking. The lentils, we won’t talk about. They didn’t go so well. But, in general, lentils of some sort would be great with this roast.

Last time I made this, I had two smaller rumps, and it worked out great. This was a bit larger, enough for 2, but I still marinated for 24 hours prior and that really makes a big difference. The recipe is only altered slightly, and it’s served with greek yogurt that’s been blended with some mint and jalepeno for a bit of kick.

Ingredients (lamb):

1 lamb rump roast (enough for 2 people)
1/2 cup thyme
1/2 cup oregano
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, diced
3-4 tablespoons of olive oil
Salt and pepper

Mix the ingredients and toss into a tupperware to marinade overnight. Remove lamb from marinade, and set the herbs aside. Get an oven-proof pan smoking hot, add a bit of olive oil, and sear the fatty side of the lamb for about 5 minutes, until it’s starting to get really brown and burned. Flip it over, toss the marinade into the pan around the lamb, and bake for 30 minutes at 175C / 350F. Remove when the internal temperature is 50C, let rest for 5 minutes or until the temperature comes to 55C. Slice and serve on lentils.

Bacon, Thyme and Mushroom Stuffing

We’re now two steps removed from the original recipe I based last years stuffing recipe off of. I forgot how different the types of things you can get in New York are, but this is ‘same same but different’. Crispy salty meat, mushrooms, and herbs.

Ingredients:

10 cooked American bacon strips, broken into pieces
1 big loaf of ciabatta, cut into half in cubes
1 cup of chicken stock
3 tablespoons chopped dried chanterelle mushrooms, soaked in the stock
2 cups chopped baby bella mushrooms
2 carrots, diced
2 celery sticks, diced
1 onion, diced
1/4 cup chopped thyme
2 sticks of butter
Salt and pepper

Melt a stick of butter, and soften the onions in it. Add the carrots, celery, and baby bella mushrooms. Cook until soft and season with the thyme, salt and pepper. Melt in the other stick of butter, then add the bread and toss to coat. Pour over the stock with the dried mushrooms. Mix well, add the bacon, and stir through. Pop into a casserole dish, and bake for 20-30 minutes at 200C / 375F.

Confit Duck Breast with Spiced Rhubarb Sauce and Braised Lentils

Sigh. So, I’ve been fairly vocal for my dislike of Jamie Oliver, but on a hot tip I downloaded his app, and hate to admit, it’s brilliant. I’ve been cooking quite a lot from it, and some of the recipes are just amazing. There’s one for Moroccan lamb shanks that makes it worth it, but this was just fantastic too. The duck and sauce are from the app, but the lentils I made from what I had around.

On a side note, I always thought dried lentils needed to cook for hours, so I bought tinned. They only need 30 minutes before they’re soft, I’m never making tinned again!

Ingredients:

300 grams green/brown lentils
2 celery stalks, diced
2 carrot sticks, diced
1 cup diced fennel
1/2 cup diced spicy salami (or whatever cured meat you have)
3 bay leaves
5 thyme sprigs
1 leek, sliced
6 cups chicken stock
Salt, pepper, and olive oil

Saute the leeks for 3-4 minutes before adding the rest of the veggies. Cook about 5 minutes, and then add the rest. Simmer for about 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. If you prefer a soup/stew, just quit cooking a bit early, and for something more solid cook all the liquid out.

Celeriac and Feta Mash

This was a pretty tasty alternative to mashed potatoes, and much better for you (or at least, before I added all the cheese).

Ingredients:

1 bulb of celeriac, cut into 2 inch cubes
1/4 cup feta
1/4 cup chopped red onion
1/8 cup fresh thyme leaves
2 tbsp butter
Olive oil, salt and pepper

Rub the celeriac with olive oil, salt and pepper, and roast for 30 minutes, flipping halfway through. In a bowl, toss the rest of the ingredients together. Add the celeriac and mash.

Haloumi, Chorizo and Pesto Pizza

After thawing out some dough I froze over the course of the day, I used a few spoons of some homemade pesto as the base, topped with tomato slices, haloumi, chorizo, fresh thyme leaves, and seasoned with salt and pepper. Be sure to follow these instructions for a crispy crust and you’ll have stellar pizza.

Beef Rib Eye Roast with Ricotta, Fennel and Pomegranate Barley Salad, and Roasted Mushrooms

This salad is great leftover and pretty easy to make in big batches. I made a bunch of barley, and sadly didn’t photograph the lunch version I made, which had salmon, ricotta and dried fruit.

Ingredients (beef and mushrooms):

1kg (or a bit bigger) beef rib eye roast
2 rosemary sprigs
5-6 thyme sprigs
4 tbsp butter
2 cups of mushrooms
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Marinate the steak in olive oil, salt, pepper, and the herbs for as long as you can. Overnight if possible.

In a really, really hot oven proof pan, removing the herbs (but keeping them), sear the steak for about 3-4 minutes until browned. Flip the steak and add the mushrooms to the pan, mixing with the herbs and pan juices. Put 2 tbsp of butter on the steak, over a couple of herbs, and bake for 10 minutes at 200C / 375F. Flip and repeat with the remaining butter, and cook for 10 more minutes. Remove the steak from the pan and let rest on a plate for 10 minutes. Slice to serve. Mine I cooked for a bit longer and overcooked, so if you’re unsure, use a meat thermometer.

Ingredients (barley, serves 4):

3 cups cooked barley
3/4 cup pomegranate seeds
3/4 cup ricotta
Juice and zest of 1 lemon
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
Salt, pepper
1.5 cups chopped leftover caramelized fennel… or make some below

If you don’t have leftover fennel (why would you?), saute the chopped fennel with 1 tablespoon of fennel seeds, 1 tablespoon of sugar, olive oil, salt and pepper, until golden. Mix with the rest of the ingredients and season to taste.

Date and Thyme Stuffed Chicken with Roasted Carrots

Even though the dates are under the skin, the sugars go through it and carmelize the outside of this chicken. I probably used less dates that this, but it needed a bit more so I’ve added them into the recipe.

Ingredients:

1 whole chicken, flattened
1 cup chopped and pitted Medjool dates
1/4 cup chopped almonds
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
Juice of half a lemon
2 garlic cloves, crushed
Olive oil, salt and pepper
5-6 whole carrots

In a mortar and pestle, mash up the garlic, lemon, almonds and thyme with a bit of olive oil, seasoning with salt and pepper. Mix in the dates, and stuff the mixture until the chicken skin. Season the top of the skin with salt and pepper.

Sear the chicken in an oven proof pan with a bit of olive oil, skin side down, for about 7 minutes, until skin is golden. Flip the chicken over, and add the carrots, making sure they’re coated in olive oil and pan juices. Bake for 25 minutes at 200C / 375F. Let rest before serving.

Eggy Crumpets with “Roasted” Tomatoes and Mushrooms

Last weekend I was looking breakfast with limited ingredients and limited time. I had some tomatoes that needed eating but had overdosed on fresh ones, but there wasn’t enough time to roast them in the oven. This method worked well enough and cut the time down significantly.

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 crumpets
2-3 eggs (depending on size)
1/2 cup milk
Chili, salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 cups quartered mushrooms
3 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
1 tomato, cut in half

In a bowl, mix the eggs and milk, and season with chili flakes, salt and pepper. Submerge the crumpets, coating them, and set aside while you prepare the rest.

In a large skillet with a splash of olive oil, saute the mushrooms, sprinkled with 2 tbsp of the thyme leaves, in one half of the pan until they’re soft. Season the inside of each tomato half with salt, pepper, and the remaining thyme, place in the other half of the pan. Cook on medium high for about 5-7 minutes on each side.

In another skillet with a touch of oil, after making sure the crumpets have soaked up maximum egg mixture (press the center and when you release it will suck more in), remove from the mixture and cook for 4-5 minutes on each side.

Pulled Pork with Cannellini Beans, Butternut Squash and Tomato

I miss proper barbeque. More so, I miss Dinosaur BBQ. There’s nothing that comes close in Australia, and there are certainly no sauces you can get that compare.

Note: If anyone from Dinosaur is reading this, for the love of God, open up a restaurant in Sydney.

In the meantime, I found a recipe for their sauce online, and made so many substitutions that it was hardly the same recipe. And you know what? It was pretty damn good. The below is enough for two big batches of pulled pork, so stock up and freeze it if you have 20 minutes to put this together. Hell, even double it.

Ingredients (BBQ sauce):

1.5 cups of diced onion
1 apple, cored and diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
2 bullseye red chilis, diced
4 garlic cloves, diced
1/2 cup red wine vinegar
1/2 cup worcheshire sauce
1/4 cup wholegrain spicy mustard
1/4 cup ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup rice malt
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 cup water
3 400g cans of diced tomato
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
Olive oil
1 tbsp chili powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Juice of half a lemon

Saute the onions, chili and garlic in a splash of oil. Add the apple and cook for a couple minutes before adding in the powdered spices, and seasoning with salt, pepper, and cayenne. Add everything else. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until it has a nice thickness. Process with a hand blender or food processor, check the spices, and go nuts.

Ingredients (pulled pork):

1-2 kg pork butt or shoulder. I used a bone-in pork leg with the fat still on top because I couldn’t find a shoulder, and it was alright, but it definitely needs the fat on it.
Half the above BBQ sauce recipe (about 4 cups)
Salt and pepper

I’ll give you a few options for cooking this;

1) Season the pork with salt and pepper, and put it in a slow cooker with the sauce for 8 hours. Stick a fork in and pull it apart.

2) Season the pork with salt and pepper, sear it on a grill or in a pan, and put it in a slow cooker with the sauce for 8 hours. Stick a fork in and pull it apart.

3) Season the pork with salt and pepper, roast in the oven for about 20 minutes on high heat, until browned. Add the sauce, cover, and cook at 170C for about 3-4 hours. Stick a fork in and pull it apart.

Ingredients (cannellini beans):

1 can of cannellini beans, drained
2 cups of diced butternut squash, in 1cm cubes
1 punnet of cherry tomatoes
1/4 cup fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup verjuice or white wine
1/2 tsp of nutmeg
Salt and pepper

Saute and serve.

Goat’s Cheese and Sage Stuffed Chicken with Caramelized Fennel, Roasted Mushrooms and Pomegranate

I’ve been making this style of chicken quite a lot, but am trying to mix up the stuffings. So what’s the #1 way to improve a recipe? Add cheese. It’s the American way.

Ingredients (chicken):

1 whole chicken, cut up the backbone and flattened
1/4 cup goats cheese
3 garlic cloves
1/2 bunch of sage, chopped
2 tbsp fresh thyme leaves
Juice of half a lemon
Salt, pepper and olive oil

Mash the ingredients, starting with the garlic, and add a few tablespoons of oil. Season with salt and pepper, add the rest of the ingredients, and mix well. Stuff under the skin of a flattened whole chicken, and the brown skin side down in a skillet for 5 minutes. Flip and cook for 5 minutes more before putting in the oven for about 30 minutes at 220C / 400F.

This side, on it’s own, is a lovely vegetarian dish and would have been very sufficient as dinner. The caramelized fennel I got from the book Plenty I’ve been raving about, and served with oven roasted mushrooms and fresh pomegranate. Buy this book.