Roast lamb with garlic and rosemary and duck fat winter vegetables

Kinda feel like I'm winning at Sunday.  By 11:30 am I had been to the shops, cleaned the bathroom, mopped the floors and had a roast in the oven.  We had our friends Amy and Marty and their two adorable children Noah and Nina around for lunch, and we needed something low maintenance enough to allow us to turn the disastrous filth we'd been living in into a presentable apartment.  Somehow, we did it.  But this is the magic of a roast.  Once it's in the oven, you can walk away.

I'd never roasted lamb before, so I referred to my very old edition of the Woman's Weekly Complete Cookbook, or as Leith calls it, my book of women's tricks, and it informed me that I should roast lamb on a rack over a tray (to allow the fat to run off - don't worry, you'll use it later!) in a moderate oven for 25 minutes for every 500 g of meat.  So that's what I did...

Ingredients:

• shoulder of lamb (mine was 1.2kg)
• olive oil
• garlic
• fresh rosemary
• salt and pepper
• potatoes
• assorted Winter vegetables (beetroot, carrot and onion in this case)
• duck fat (can be found at bourgie produce stores and butchers)
• peas
• fresh mint

90 mins before you want to eat: I always start a roast with the potatoes.  They are non-negotiable in any roast dinner, and need longer in the oven than any of the other bits, and really blast them on a high temperature to get them going.  So set your oven to 200 degrees and peel and chop the potatoes and put them in a bowl.  Put about one large teaspoon of the duck fat in a ramiken and microwave it for 30 seconds or until completely liquid and translucent.  Then pour this over the potatoes and add a generous amount of salt and pepper, and toss them until evenly coated.  Put in your oven tray, scatter a generous amount of fresh rosemary over them and put the tray into the oven.

Next, prepare your shoulder of lamb.  Take a large clove of garlic and cut some chunky slices from it.  Then make deep incisions into the meat with a sharp knife and jam that garlic down in there.  Make a rub using good olive oil, lots of sea salt, roughly chopped fresh rosemary and chopped garlic.  Using your hands, smear this all over the lamb, getting into all the crevices.  Pour any remaining oil and stuff the last bits of rosemary into the incisions with the garlic.  Set up an oven tray over a baking dish, so that the lamb doesn't sit in its own fatty juices and crispens up. 

75 mins before you want to eat: Turn the oven down to about 180 and put the lamb in on the higher rack, moving the potatoes down to a lower one.  With a 1.2kg piece of lamb it will need to be in there about 1 hour and 15 mins.

Now prepare your vegetables by peeling and roughly hewing them.  Add a few whole cloves of garlic in their skin.  Put them in the same bowl you used for the potatoes and follow the same process.  Then add them to the tray your potatoes are in.

Now walk away for an hour and maybe clean the floor.

15 mins before you want to eat: Put your peas in a pot of boiling water.  Finely chop a bunch of fresh mint leaves.  When the peas are done, drain the water and mix the mint through them in a serving bowl, with a knob of butter on top that can melt into them.

When the meat has been in the oven the requisite amount of time, take it out and slice right into the middle to check it's sufficiently cooked.  If you err at all to under or overdone, err towards under, as it will continue to cook a few minutes longer even once it's out of the oven.  Place it on a plate and cover it in foil to help retain the heat.

Now take the tray that has caught the lamb fat and put it over a hot plate.  Add about two cups of boiling water and several spoonfuls of Gravox or powdered stock (I cheat, I love Gravox, it makes excellent gravy - lord knows what's in it but in this case I'm prepared not to think about it).  Bring it to the boil and stir it down until it starts to thicken to the degree you want.  After a few minutes, pick up the plate the meat is resting on and pour all the blood/juice that has drained from the lamb in this time into the gravy as well.  Keep stirring at a boil another minute or two.

Then take your vegies from the oven and serve!  I have one enormous platter I like to serve roasts on, and a matching bowl that is the perfect size for peas. And the best bit of all this roasting? Lamby leftovers to make killer sandwiches for work tomorrow.  Brilliant.

Caramel Sago (aka Sago Pudding)

I am sitting on the couch eating a bowl of sweet, sticky bubbly gloop.  It's the gloop my mother used to make when I was little and we were poor.  But it was still dessert, and dessert was rare, and I have a deep nostalgic love for this gloop.  Sitting in the office after 6pm tonight, it hit me: All I wanted was caramel sago.

Now, those of you with American or British sensibilities may think of it as sago pudding.  Those with Asiatic tendencies may lean towards gula melaka, or the more ubiquitous bubble tea (which I am still too scared to try what with the wacky flavours).  But my honest Mum turned tapioca into Caramel Sago, and Caramel Sago is what I'm eating today.


It needs milk, and sago or tapioca, and brown sugar.  And stirring.  Lots and lots of stirring.  And then there's the eating.  Lots and lots of eating.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups milk (I use soy because that's all we ever have in the house)
• 1/3 cup sago
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 cinnamon quill
• 2 cardamon pods

Put everything in a small saucepan.  Bring the milk to the boil, then reduce to a very low heat and simmer.  Stir constantly, making sure the spoon is in contact with the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking and burning.  Keep stirring until the whole thing arrives at your desired gloopiness, and the sago is more or less transparent (it's ok if there's still some white bits in the middle).

When you can't stir it any more and you just have to eat it, take out the cinnamon and cardamon and suck all the tasty goo off them.  Then serve your caramel sago and slurp away greedily.  Maybe your boyfriend doesn't like it? That's ok, he can have the last of the hedgehog and you can have more!  Caramel Sago: it's win/win.

Tomato and basil soup

 Some foods are so ubiquitous in their processed form that it's all too easy to get away with not making them.  Tomato soup is just such a food.  But if you always opt for the comforting tin you're missing out, because homemade tomato soup is so quick it takes about the same time, and is wonderfully delicious.  It's still insanely cheap if you're down your last pennies, and has a tangy robustness that a tin just can't give you.  And since today is the last day of Winter, it is absolutely the day for soup!


Ingredients:

• tomatoes
• powdered stock
• basil leaves
• shallot
• garlic clove
• cracked pepper

Chop up your garlic and shallot.  Don't be too precious about it, you're going to blend the crap out of them in a bit.  Put the kettle on to boil. Fry the garlic and shallot in a bit of olive oil on a medium heat.  Quarter your tomatoes and throw them in and fry for a minute or two, stirring them so they don't burn.  Add three cups of boiling water and a three teaspoons of stock powder, and six or seven basil leaves.  Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes.

Take your barmix blender and whizz the soup until it's all smooth. That's it.  You just made tomato soup and the News hasn't even got to the weather yet.

Fish tacos with black bean, corn and zucchini salsa

I hankered after fish tacos for about a week before I got around to making them.  I ended up having them on a Friday night when Leanne was coming round for dinner.  Apart from being a goal-kicking dinner at the best of times (healthy, tasty, colourful and you eat it with your hands!), this was a great option for a weeknight (when I rarely get home before 7pm) as I was able to prepare much of it in advance, and the rest was a breeze to whip up in about 20 minutes. 


Of course making fish tacos required also preparing the full gamut of taco accompaniment so for me this meant:

• Taco shells
• Fish
• Spicy capsicum and tomato sauce for the fish
• Black bean, corn and zucchini salsa
• Chipotle sour cream
• Guacamole

Honestly, all these things were so remarkably easy to put together and they complemented each other a treat.  Here's the blow by blow.


Ingredients - Fish Tacos:

• Small soft corn tortilla shells
• White fish fillets (I used rockling)

 Spicy Capsicum and Tomato Sauce:

• 2 large red capsicums
• 3 large red tomatoes
• Garlic
• Verjuice
• Coriander
• 1 lime
• Chilli powder

Black Bean, Corn and Zucchini salsa:

• 1/2 cup black beans
• Small tin of corn kernals
• 1 large or 2 small zucchini
• 1/2 spanish onion
• Coriander
• Olive oil
• Lime juice
• Salt

Chipotle Sour Cream:

• Sour cream
• Chipotles in sauce

Guacamole:

• 2 ripe avocadoes
• 1 tomato
• 1/4 spanish onion
• lemon juice
• garlic
• splash of olive oil

To prepare in advance

If you're using dried beans, prepare these ahead of time.  Whether soaking or cooking them, the danger is losing a lot of the nutrients of the beans in the excess water.  So to combat this I came up with a plan to cook them by absorption.  First I soaked them in about a cup of cold water for about 30 minutes.   Then I put them over a high heat and brought them to a simmer, in the same water they'd soaked in.  I left the on a low heat about 40 minutes (until they were soft but not mushy), and checked them regularly - at least every ten minutes - adding a quarter cup of water when they were looking dry and in danger of burning - until they were ready and all the water has been absorbed.  They sucked all their goodness back up into themselves! Winning!

At the same time I prepared the sauce by seeding the capsicums and putting them in a pot with the tomatoes and two garlic cloves on a medium heat, with about a quarter cup of verjuice.  I wanted a thick sauce so I decided to not add any water - the tomatoes produce a lot of liquid when cooked.  I added a decent spoonfull of chilli powder and simmer them on a low heat, stirring occassionally, until they were all squishy. 

Then I threw in a big handful of coriander (stalks and all) and added the zest and juice of 1 lime and a pinch of salt, and whizzed them all up with my bar-mix blender until a smooth paste was formed.  Pop the sauce in a bowl in the fridge until you want to zap it in the microwave and use it.  This made so much sauce we also used some to make nachos and then a spicy pasta a few days later. 

Prepare 20 minutes before eating

Take your fish fillets from the fridge and cut them into thin, boneless strips.  Massage some olive oil into the skin, sprinkle with a little salt and cracked pepper and leave to rest for 10 minutes.

Take your cooked black beans from the fridge and put them in a large bowl.  Chop your zucchini and spanish onion into tiny pieces and add them to the bowl with the drained corn kernals.  Squeeze over the juice of one lime and a large handful of chopped coriander, olive oil and add a generous pinch of salt.  Toss.  That's it. (This also made so much salsa we had the rest on nachos with the sauce the next day and it was craptastically delicious).

Make your guacamole by mashing up your avocadoes with smashed garlic, lemon juice and olive oil.  Finely dice the tomato and quarter of spanish onion and mix these through with a pinch of salt. Da Na!

Make your chipotle sour cream by taking one big saucy chipotle from your tin (which you can find in Melbourne at Casa Iberica in Fitzroy) and chopping it into rough chunks and stirring it through a small tub of sour cream until it looks all marbled and pretty.  This will blow the minds of your fellow diners, and your own, and for good reason.

Now it's time to get your taco bits together.  Heat a griddle pan on a high flame.  While it warms, zap your tortillas in the microwave and then place them in the oven on a low heat to stay warm.  Grill your fish on a high heat about 5 minutes each side, if the pieces are small.  Because you've rubbed them with oil there's no need to add further oil to the pan.

Heat up your bowl of sauce in the microwave and serve everything! Taco shells can be wrapped in a pretty tea towel or cloth to keep their warmth.  Assembling the tacos gets messy pretty quickly but is also awesome fun.  Add tobasco or extra chilli if so inclined.  You can eat heaps and because they're not fatty or greasy you will still feel amazing afterwards. 

Chocolate mud cupcakes with coffee frosting

My Dad turns 60 tomorrow.  It's not an insignificant birthday, and requires some not-insignificant treats.  Now my Dad likes his treats rich, and he really likes coffee flavoured things (like custard and cream, for example).  So I scouted around for a few different recipes and concocted these for his birthday get-together tonight.  And dear me if they aren't phenomenally scrumptious! (I had to taste-test one... quality control and all that).

Ingredients:

• 250g butter
• 200g dark cooking chocolate
• 1 cup hot water
• 2 teaspoons instant coffee
• 1/2 cup Kahlua (or liqueur of your choice)
• 2 cups brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/3 cup plain flour
• 1/2 cup self raising flour
• 2 tablespoons cocoa

Frosting

• 250g butter
• 2-3 cups icing sugar
• two tablespoons strong coffee 
• vanilla essence

 
Heat the oven to 160 degrees.  Put the water, coffee, Kahlua, butter and chocolate in a saucepan on a low to medium heat for a few minutes, stirring constantly, until the butter is melted.  Turn off the heat and add the sugar, stirring fast until it's dissolved.  Insert your finger into the mixture and suck the gloop off.  At this point you can reflect that you've created the most delectable gloop ever.  If you're not sure, repeat the finger licking procedure a few more times.

Leave the mixture to cool for five minutes, and while it cools, sift the flours and cocoa.  Shake the dry ingredients into the wet mix in thirds and whisk thoroughly.  Then add the two eggs and whisk these in as well.

Pour into your patty pans and bake for 20 minutes.  Then leave to cool on a rack.

Prepare the frosting by putting the room temperature butter, vanilla essence and the hot coffee with a half cup of icing sugar.  Cream the ingredients and add the remaining icing sugar half a cup at a time.  Fill a piping bag with the frosting and decorate your cooled cakes.

Decorate them with chocolate coated coffee beans, and prepare to be your Dad's favourite (if only) daughter.