Rack of lamb with braised summer vegetables

Marinaded and ready for the grill:

Oh my god this is gorgeous!!!! I think we’ll be making this throughout the summer it’s THAT good.

We saw a very similar recipe in (we think) Sainsbury’s magazine and adapted it slightly. You don’t want to exclude the anchovies (even if you’re not keen on them) as they melt into nothingness but impart a really nice flavour in to the broth.

Ingredients (serves 2):
Rack of lamb (6 or 7 cutlets)
1 leek, diced
6 shallots, peeled and halved
6 mushrooms, sliced
2 anchovies, chopped
1 little gem lettuce, cut into quarters
½ cup of peas
250ml chicken stock
50ml white wine
Small knob of butter
1 tbl sp olive oil

Marinade for lamb:
Pinch of sugar
Pinch of salt
Pinch of black pepper
1 tbl sp white wine vinegar
1 tbl sp good quality olive oil
A small handful of mint leaves chopped

Plus new potatoes, to serve

• In a frying pan, fry the diced leek and halved shallots in the butter and oil until they start to soften.
• Then add the mushrooms and anchovies and cook until the anchovies dissolve.
• Add the stock and wine and turn the heat down to a low simmer. Allow to cook for 10-12 minutes.
• Meanwhile, pre-heat the grill to high. Prepare the marinade for the lamb by mixing the sugar, salt, pepper, oil, vinegar and chopped mint in a bowl.
• Place the rack of lamb on a grill tray and pour over the marinade.
• Grill the lamb until cooked to your liking, approx 10 minutes should be plenty for lamb which is cooked on the outside and slightly pink in the middle.
• Remove the lamb from the grill, cover loosely with foil and allow to rest for 5 minutes.
• Add the peas and gem lettuce quarters to the broth and turn the heat up a little until the lettuce has wilted slightly and the peas are cooked. Carve the rack of lamb into cutlets.
• Pour the veg and broth into deep bowls and place the lamb cutlets on top.
• We had this with new potatoes which was perfect.
  

Cheese, onion and potato pie

Basically a pimped up cheese and onion pasty.

Ingredients: serves 3-4 with accompaniments
1 large onion, diced
3 medium sized potatoes, peeled and chopped into small chunks
A couple of large handfuls of grated cheese (whatever you have available, we used cheddar and a little parmesan)
1 large tbl sp of soft cheese
Leaves from 3 thyme sprigs
1 bay leaf
½ glass of white wine
1 pack of puff pastry
1 egg
Olive oil
Knob of butter
Salt and pepper

• Pre-heat the oven to 170 degrees.
• Take the puff pastry out of the fridge so that it comes to room temperature.
• Melt the butter in a large non-stick frying pan and add a little olive oil.
• Add the diced onion and allow to cook for 5 minutes until soft.
• Add the diced potato and continue to cook for 10 minutes, stirring often so the potatoes don’t stick.
• Add the wine, thyme and bay leaf and allow to simmer until the wine has almost completely evaporated.
• Check that the potato chunks are tender, if not, continue to cook for another few minutes.
• Remove the bay leaf and pour the potato/onion mixture into a large bowl. Add the grated cheese and soft cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir everything well.
• Line an oven tray with greased baking parchment.
• Cut the puff pastry in half (or use circles if you prefer a circular pie) and place one half on the baking parchment.
• Tip the cheesy potato and onion mixture on top of the pastry and use a spoon to spread it out evenly. Leave a 1cm gap around the edge.
• Lay the other half of the pastry on top, and pinch the edges to seal the two layers. Score a couple of lines across the top of the pie to allow steam to escape and egg wash the top and edges if you like.
• Cook in the pre heated oven for approximately 30 minutes until golden brown.
• We had ours with a pile of pea shoots but it would be good with any salad or green veg to counter balance the carb overload.

Summer fish pie

It's not really summer yet but it seemed like an appropriate name for this dish. It's a deviation from our regular fish pie recipe which we make the usual way by poaching the fish and making a roux before adding the poaching liquor etc etc. We always use some smoked fish in our regular fish pie and although delicious it can be time consuming to make, and a bit too “heavy” in Spring/Summer.

So we decided to experiment with a more summery, all-in-one approach making it more acceptable for week night cooking. The result was a very tasty, but lighter fish pie … and mum, if you’re reading this, yes we did save you some!

Ingredients (serves 3-4):
1 large fillet of cod, cut into large chunks
1 pack of small prawns
1 tin of white crab meat (or equivalent quantity of fresh cooked crab meat if possible)
Approx 4-5 potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
1 white onion, peeled and finely diced
A large handful of mushrooms, sliced
½ bag of spinach, roughly chopped
½ bunch of parsley, roughly chopped
1 cup of frozen petit pois
½ tub of crème fraiche
½ glass of white wine
A generous sprinkling of grated parmesan (or cheddar), we used quite a lot
Salt and pepper
Olive oil and butter

• Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees.
• Put a large pan of salted water on the hob to boil. Add the potato chunks and cook until completely tender. Mash in the usual way, adding milk/butter etc as you like.
• Meanwhile, fry the diced onion in a large non-stick frying pan until soft. Then add the sliced mushrooms and cook for a couple of minutes.
• Whilst you’re cooking the onions and mushrooms, get your fish pie dish ready. We use a square dish which is about 10cm deep. There’s no need to pre-cook the crab, prawns or peas so spread them evenly across the bottom of the dish.
• Once the mushrooms/onions are soft add the cod chunks and white wine into your frying pan and allow to simmer for a couple of minutes. Then add the crème fraiche, parsley and spinach and stir everything carefully, trying not to break the cod chunks up too much.
• Carefully spoon this mixture into your fish pie dish, on top of the peas, crab and prawns. You can stir everything again if you like but it’s not necessary.
• Sprinkle ½ of your grated parmesan on top of the fish and add a little black pepper.
• Add a layer of mashed potato to the top of the fish pie, using a fork to spread it out evenly.
• Sprinkle the remaining parmesan on top of the fish pie before baking in the oven for around 40 minutes

Chinese beef noodle soup

This was very easy and quick to make...

Ingredients (serves 2):

800ml beef stock

1 fillet steak, finely sliced

splash of sesame oil

splash of chinese cooking wine

splash of soy sauce

1 pinch of chinese 5 spice

1 chilli, de-seeded and diced

1 clove of garlic, peeled and minced

1 thumb nail sized piece of ginger, minced

1 star anise

3 spring onions, sliced

6 mushrooms, sliced

pack of ready cooked noodles

1 chinese leaf, finely diced

• Fry the mushrooms, garlic, spring onions, chilli and ginger in a little sesame oil
• Add the stock, star anise, chinese 5 spice, cooking wine and soy sauce. Allow to simmer for 10 minutes or so
• Add the sliced beef and noodles and cook for a couple of minutes until the steak has poached
• Add the chinese leaf and allow to simmer for another minute or two
• Remove the star anise and serve in warm bowls

Lancashire hotpot

I hadn't had a hot pot since primary school and I was a little worried that ours would be as horrible as I remember the school version being. Luckily ours tasted very nice.

We used diced mutton from Alternative Meats.

Ingredients (serves 2-3)

500g diced mutton

1 large white onion, finely sliced into half moons

2-3 large potatoes, peeled and cut into slices

2 carrots, finely chopped (optional)

2 celery sticks, finely chopped (optional)

handful of mushrooms, sliced (optional)

300g lamb stock

1 bay leaf

butter and olive oil

salt and pepper

• Pre-heat the oven to 160 degrees.
• Brown the mutton in a little olive oil in batches, then set aside.
• Fry the sliced onions in the same pan as you browned the mutton. Once the onions have started to soften, add the carrot, celery and mushrooms and continue to cook for 5 minutes.
• Add the mutton back into the pan with the veg and add the bay leaf. Season with salt and pepper.
• Place a layer of potato slices on the bottom of a deep casserole dish, spoon the mutton and veg on top of the potatoes.
• Add a final layer of sliced potatoes on the top.
• Pour over the stock so that it comes at least half way up the sides of the casserole dish.
• Dot the top layer of potatoes with a little butter and season the top layer with salt and pepper.
• Cover the dish with a lid or a layer of tin foil and place in the oven for 2-2.5 hours.
• Then remove the lid/foil and continue to cook for another 20 minutes to brown the potatoes.
• You could serve this with extra veg or go for carb overload and serve it with big chunks of crusty bread to mop up all the juices.

Rhubarb for breakfast

This was the first time we've had rhubarb this year. We stewed it in the usual way with a spoonful of sugar, until it was completely soft. We had it for breakfast with mini pancakes and creme fraiche.