Lamb is good

Well, I'm feeling a lot better than I did last night, and the food we ate today improved accordingly.

I made Nigella's caesar salad, roast lamb racks with mint, orange and redcurrant jelly, roasted garlic and shallots, and grilled asparagus.

381. Caesar salad (Dinner)
382. Roasted garlic and shallots (Dinner)
383. Mint, orange and redcurrant jelly (Weekend Lunch)

Nigella's Caesar salad is different from what I'm used to - there is no bacon or anchovies, the eggs are muushed up into the dressing instead of poached and separate, and she uses potato croutons.

The croutons are made in exactly the same was as the cubed potatoes I made on Thursday. You chop them up, and roast them for an hour in a dish with garlic and oil.

While they were cooking, I made the shallots and garlic. You peel the shallots and bake them for 45 minutes. Meanwhile, you boil some garlic cloves, then peel them, and add them to the oven with the shallots for the last 20 minutes of cooking. (This was done, again, in the microwave convection oven living in my pantry).

Next I made the mint, orange and redcurrant jelly, by stirring some freshly chopped mint and orange zest into some store-bought redcurrant jam.

By this stage the potato croutons were ready, so I pulled them out of the oven and let them cool while I put the lamb racks in (30 minutes at 220C). I put in a tray of asparagus towards the end of cooking time.

To finish off the salad, I had to tear up some cos lettuce leaves, and toss through olive oil, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, parmesan cheese and 2 eggs which have been boiled for exactly 1 minute. (This means they're just cooked, but still very liquid). This mixture of ingredients forms a thick, sharp and tasty dressing. All that remained was to add the potato croutons, and lunch was ready...


lamb racks, asparagus and mustard


roasted garlic and shallots


table


closeup of caesar salad


mint and redcurrant jelly

It was a fantastic lunch. The unmarinated lamb (bought from Rendinas, as usual), was tender and tasty, and the redcurrant jelly was a great accompaniment. We all loved the Caesar salad, especially my Dad who thought the croutons were deelicious. The only thing we didn't love were the shallots and garlic - even though they'd had their garlicky-oniony acridness cooked out of them, they were still a bit too hardcore for our palates.

Arctic Summer Lunch for 4

How ironic, that my cooking of Nigella's INDIAN-SUMMER DINNER coincided with the first truly cold day of the year. With a maximum of 18C, bitingly cold Melbournian winds and patchy rain, I was freezing! But on the upside, I got to wear my new red duffel coat from Dangerfield when I went to Rendinas to buy our meat.

317. Pea and Lettuce Soup
318. Lamb with Chick Peas
319. Couscous Salad
320. Turkish Delight Figs
321. Pistachio Crescents

And what a beautiful piece of meat it was. In the recipe for her lamb with chick peas, Nigella specifies "lamb noisette", which you slice into individual rounds and arrange atop the chick peas. Lamb noisette is not a cut of meat commonly found in Australia. The last time I was supposed to use lamb noisette was for the Cinnamon-hot rack of lamb, and there I substituted rack of lamb. In this case, though, I thought I should have a go at finding some actual noisette. According to a random butchery website, noisette is a "rolled saddle of lamb, wrapped in a thin layer of fat".

The fab butchers at Rendinas didn't know what noisette was, but were happy to improvise. Sadly, they were out of loin to make a noisette roll, so they got a lamb leg for me, tunnelboned it, and gave me a spiffy cloth-netting thing in which to cook the lamb. This was to prevent it from unfurling during cooking. How wonderfully helpful of them!


lamb!

Just before I start to describe the cooking process, let me just say - I only had 5 hours sleep the previous night, so I was kinda walking around the kitchen in a goofy daze, creating a huge disorganised mess as I went. So forgive me if this post follows the same pattern.

To start, I boiled my pre-soaked chick peas in water, to which I'd added an onion, and some garlic cloves. I then marinated the lamb in a mixture of chilli, garlic, and a finely chopped red onion.

The next stage was to make the pistachio crescents, because I wanted them to be out of the oven before the lamb went in. (Because I was cooking a lamb leg, and not noisettes, I figured that I'd just have to cook it for as long as a normal roast - about 1 hour for that amount of meat). The pistachio crescents are just like those fabulous almond shortbread biscuits that my mum's Greek friend makes, which are delightfully crumbly and blanketed in icing sugar. To make the pistachio crescents, you beat butter with a wooden spoon until very very soft, and then add sifted icing sugar, flour and ground pistachios (which I ground in the processor). Then you shape them into crescent moons, and bake for about 25 minutes. You're supposed to get 12 out of the mixture, but I could only manage 8.


crescents

So, I baked the cookies...


baked crescents

And once they came out, I turned up the heat and put the lamb in. Placing the stocking on the lamb was a 2-woman job - one to hold the stocking open, one to put the meat into said stocking.


stocking'd lamb

It was during all that baking time that I got on with the side dishes. The pea and lettuce soup contains oil, peas, spring onions, peas (duh), iceberg lettuce and stock, cooked until soft, then puréed in a blender. It's meant to be served chilled, so I just stashed it in the fridge.

Next was the couscous salad - soak couscous in boiling water, add olive oil and vinegar, and then stir through finely chopped cucumber, tomato, red onion and parsley.

It's advisable to prepare the figs before you eat the main course, because this gives them time to cool to room temperature before youe at them. To make them, you make a syrup out of sugar, water, rosewater and orange flower water, and pour the hot syrup over the figs.

From here, all I had to do was finish off the chickpeas and slice the lamb. Once they're cooked and drained, you turn the chickpeas in oil and dried chilli pepper until oil-slicked and warmed through. At the end, you stir in some blanched, peeled, seeded and diced tomatoes.


cooked stringed lamb

And finally (after what seemed like an age for me), lunch was ready.


table


chick peas on plate


couscous salad


lamb on chickpeas


pea & lettuce soup

Dad really loved the pea and lettuce soup, which surprised me, as he is not usually a fan of cold soups. The rest of the meal was lovely as well - the flavours and textures of all the different dishes meld very well together to create a satisfying but not too heavy lunch.

And onto dessert...

Mum has, in recent times, become a huge fan of figs (especially the baked figs of the Fast Food chapter), and she was very excited to try these ones. And they were very, very nice.


crescents and figs

But even better were these amazing pistachio crescents! They were light, crumbly and full of pistachio-flavour. These were, without a doubt, the highlight of the meal. And definitely a recipe worthy of frequent repeats.


on plate

Mum: You only made 8?!?!?!

Happy Birthday Allstar, Part II [The Cooking]

Wednesday

Ok, so I started off by making the chocolate version of the birthday biscuits, with which I wanted to decorate Al's birthday cake. These are the same as the birthday biscuits which I made for DG last year, but with the addition of 1 tablespoon of cocoa.


Biscuits


tray of bix

There’s really nothing too complicated about these biscuits, so there's nothing much to say about them. Apart from the fact that they taste good, they’re easy, and I absolutely LOVE using my Living Kitchen cookie cutters!


Friday

274. Greek Lamb Stew (Cooking in Advance)

On Friday morning, I made the Greek lamb stew, in full quantities. With Nigella’s advice that “this should be plenty for about 10”, I knew that a full batch of this stuff would be enough to feed my mother and I that night, with enough left to tide me over for the weekend, and to keep my parents satisfied back home.

The method of making this stew is the normal one – brown bits of meat in a pan and set aside, cook vegetables and herbs in the same pan, re-add the meat to the pan along with a lot of liquid, and let simmer until tender. The meat in question was lamb shoulder, the vegetables were carrot, onion, garlic, the herbs were thyme and oregano, and the liquid was water and white wine. But actually, I didn’t use white wine. It was 30 degrees that day, too hot to walk to the bottle shop, and the only white wine I had in the house was my dad’s Cloudy Bay. Hah! No way I’d use a bottle of that just for a stew! So, out of laziness, I threw caution to the wind and decided to use a cheap bottle of sparkling wine which I had sitting around.


champagne and tomato stew

While this was simmering, I got on with the proper party food.

275. Birthday Cake (Feeding Babies and Small Children)

The birthday cake. It is an ordinary sponge, which Nigella suggests making in a food processor for ease and stress reduction, at the expense of the cake not getting very high. I had the luxury of time, so I made it using the traditional creaming method, which results in a higher cake. It’s a pretty big one too – 275g each of butter, sugar and 5 eggs – which you cook in a 25cm tin. I used my 25cm Living Kitchen springform tin, which I also received as a gift last year.


cake mix in tin

It takes about an hour in the oven, during which time I iced the chocolate cookies with a mixture of icing sugar, cocoa and water.


cooked and iced – cookies

This is what the cake looks like when it comes out of the oven.


baked cake

276. Cheese Stars (Feeding Babies and Small Children)
As it was cooling, I made a double batch of cheese stars, which are fabulously easy to make. Simply stir together grated red Leicester cheese (being Australian, I had to resort to “red Leicester-style” cheddar), parmesan, flour, cayenne and butter and roll it out. The mixture is quite dry, but it comes together easily if you clump it with your hands.


cheese star mixture

They take about 8 minutes to cook. Nigella says that you’ll get 25 4-cm stars out of a single batch. With a double batch, and using the small star cutter from the Living Kitchen set of cutters, I got about 90. (Warning: No matter how many you make, it will never be enough. These cheese stars are addictive, compulsive, and amazing. See the next post for the verdict from my friends).


baked v non baked - check out my cheap champagne in the background

To ice the cake, I made a buttercream icing (butter, icing sugar, food colouring), because marzipan, roll-out icing, and all other packet icings are evil. (I’m also not mad on water-based icings for sponge cakes). I dyed my icing a lovely shade of feel-good blue.


cake w icing


finished cake

As I mentioned in the previous post, I had been planning on making jam tarts and periwinkles as well, but by this stage, I could not be fucked. Besides, it was time for a much-needed shower and then dinner.


stew bubbling

The last stage of cooking the stew is to add a packet of macaroni and let it cook in there. I absolutely adore stews in which pasta is cooked – they just taste sooo fabulous. Incidentally, they’re wonderful served with chili oil and are perfect salvation from hangovers. Nigella suggests serving this one sprinkled with a mixture of feta and fresh oregano. Again, I must admit to laziness – I didn’t feel like going to the shops, so I didn’t bother with fresh oregano.

I was afraid that substituting sparkling wine for white wine would make the stew taste munting, but luckily, it did not munt at all. In fact, it rocked!


stew w feta

Just as expected, I totally loved this stew, as did my mum. In honesty, I could have done without the feta, as it made the dish very rich, but the sharp saltiness was more than welcome.

And check it out… here’s my food, packed up and ready to go…


ready to go

HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY

***Don't forget to post any questions you may have for me regarding the project here***

Australia Day is not, as many foreigners mistakenly believe, “the day you guys gained independence from England, yeah?”, but the day the first fleet from England arrived in Australia. We’re still part of the Commonwealth, and we’re still under the Queen.

And speaking of which… this morning, my family went to watch the first session of Brokeback Mountain, which was absolutely fantastic. I urge every single reader out there to go and see this magnificent film. It was very appropriate to watch this film on Australia Day, because it stars Australia’s very own Heath Ledger!

And speaking of which… we had a delicious Australian hunk of meat for lunch.

257. Braise-roasted lamb with Caper Sauce (Weekend Lunch)
258. A Summer Lemon-Meringue Pie (Weekend Lunch)

You really can’t not eat lamb on Australia day, but you know what? This is the last roast lamb recipe in the book! I couldn't believe it. The point of this recipe is the caper sauce, so it really doesn’t matter what flavourings (if any) you add to the lamb itself. Forgetting that butchers would be closed today, I had to get my meat from the supermarket, and was not confident enough to have it plain. So, I rubbed it with a garlic-rosemary-oil mixture, à la Nigella’s roast shoulder of lamb, before putting it in the oven at 250C (yes really!) for 15 minutes, then adding 400ml of water and half an onion to the tin. This liquid forms the base of the caper sauce.


halfway roasted

Then you turn the heat down to 200C for 16 minutes per 500 grams.

In the meantime, I decorated the summer lemon-meringue pie. This is basically a pavlova, (again, very Australia Day appropriate), covered with whipped cream, lemon curd and fresh raspberries. I made the shell last night whilst making the lemon curd, and it didn’t crack as much as my last attempt, but it was still cracked enough for me not to want to flip it over to decorate it. One day, I will develop the courage and skill to do so, but today was not that day.


less-cracked pav

Once the lamb is roasted, you can make the caper sauce. For this, you mix the water from the roasting tray with milk, and make a white sauce with it. Then add capers and freshly chopped parsley.


Roasted


caper sauce

I served them with green beans because that is what I had in the freezer, generously dressed with lemon juice, salt and pepper.


green beans


sparse but delicious

That caper sauce is brilliant! I would never have thought to serve that type of sauce with roast meat, but it’s highly addictive - rich and tangy and cheesy and fresh all at once. I started off carefully drizzling sauce on the meat, then piling it on, then dunking the meat straight into the sauce bowl, and finally eating it by the spoonful. Normally whenever you make gravy or sauce or dip or whatever, it never gets finished. This one was gone in no time.

This pavlova was much improved on my last attempt, much more solid and presentable.



I love the rigid billowiness of the sides, piled with soft cream and lemon curd. With the sunny yellow topping and gleaming raspberries, it looks like some sort of offering to the pie gods. (Or would it be to the lamb gods? I’m not sure). All the elements of the pav-pie come together wonderfully – the sour tang of the raspberries and the lemon curd against the sweet meringue bass. What bliss!


One slice gone

While mum and I were getting second helpings, Daniel got up from the table and said,

Daniel: Sarah, I’m going to get some of that cherry pie. This one is good, no, it’s great, but this is fresher, so I should eat the rest of the cherry pie first.

Clever boy! One thing my brother and I share is an insatiable appetite for pie.

Happy Australia Day everybody!

Summer Nights

Nigella's HIGH SUMMER AL FRESCO LUNCH FOR 8 is a table-borne eastern-Mediterranean style lunch to be eaten outside in the garden. We had this menu for dinner tonight, and thankfully, by dinner time, a cool change had come and we were actually able to eat outside!

227. Tabbouleh
228. Hummus with seared lamb and toasted pine nuts
229. Garlic chicken
230. Aubergine slices with pomegranate juice and mint

The day before you have to soak the chickpeas for the hummus in water with a halved onion, some garlic cloves and a bay leaf. Nigella says they need at least 24 hours soaking, and then 1-4 hours cooking, but the packet instructions were a lot more optimistic - they said 6-8 hours soaking and 45 minutes cooking. Having cooked chickpeas many times before, I figured that the actual cooking time would lie somewhere between the two.

Additionally, the chicken wings for the garlic chicken need to be put in their marinade the day before, and left in the fridge. The marinade is an unusual, yet simple one - boil some garlic cloves until soft, then slip them out of their skins, mash them up and add extra virgin olive oil to make a liquid gloop.

The rest of the preparations can be done on the day itself. I started by draining, rinsing and boiling the chickpeas. Surprisingly, they only took 50 minutes to be cooked - truly cooked, as Nigella insistently reminds you that they need to be. Once cooked, you just need to dump them in a processor, with lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, tahini (it's called "tahini" in Australia, not "tahina", for whatever reason), cumin and Greek yogurt. Then you can spread it into a shallow serving plate, cover it, and leave it until it's time to eat.

Tabbouleh is (in case you didn't know already) a mixture of herbs, cracked wheat, spring onions and tomatoes (peeled, seeded and chopped), dressed with olive oil and lemon juice. The cracked wheat needs 30 minutes soaking in cold water, before being drained and stirred through the rest of the ingredients.

The aubergine slices are griddled (much like the ones we ate for lunch today), and sprinkled with salt, pomegranate juice, chopped mint and pomegranate seeds. I had a bit of a drama looking for pomegranates; they seemed to be everywhere the week before Christmas, but when I went shopping this morning, they were nowhere to be found. But by the time I realised there were no pomegranates, I'd already bought all the other ingredients! GRRRRR! I was going to substitute with diluted pomegranate molasses. But, at the last minute, I remembered that I had a little baggie of pomegranate seeds in my freezer! Hazaa! So I squeezed some seeds with my hands over the cooked aubergines, and reserved the rest for sprinkling over.

The chicken wings just need an hour in the oven while all this is going on.

And at the very last minute, you need to do the lamb for the hummus. Nigella says to stirfry little strips of lamb in garlic-infused oil, so I just used the remaining marinade from the chicken wings. Once cooked, you squeeze some lemon over and then pour the whole lot over the hummus.

Here's the table, with a bottle of champagne, some fresh tomatoes and chunked cucumber. We also had more of that pane di casa bread that we ate with lunch. Notice the rose petals I scattered over the table. They really added a nice touch as we were eating. I've never been one for decorations or table settings, but I think I'll have to start doing it more now.


Dinner


Eggplant


Garlic chicken - crispy and delicious


Hummus - this hummus is fucking awesome! It's seriously the best hummus I've ever had. It's creamy and soft and sharp and garlicky and full of wholesome chickpea goodness. It makes such a difference when you use dried and soaked chickpeas instead of canned! And the Greek yogurt makes it so light and smooth.


Tabbouleh


one plate

After those Christmas meals, you have no idea how good it feels to be eating so many green vegetables all at once.

This was a fantastic meal, and it was so lovely to eat it outside during the warm evening. The only criticism I have of it is that it takes a lot of work to put it all together, which could be annoying if you're trying to create a non-fussy, laid-back lunch for guests who don't necessarily appreciate or realise how much energy goes into creating it. However, I found a quiet afternoon of cooking be most enjoyable, and my parents were very appreciative of all the effort.


Quotes:

Dad: Well done. This is really fantastic. It's just as good as eating at Abla's. (The fabbest Lebanese restaurant in Melbourne!)

Mum: I'm really happy you're doing this project.

DINNER PARTY

Now this really is the “look at me I’m so fabulous post”. Excuse me while I wallow in my own crapulence. During my exams, (which I passed!), I took a break from cooking and blogging. To this entry, the lovely Ilana posted a wonderful comment of encouragement…

awww, sarah, i'm going to miss your posts... but school comes first, girlie! best of luck and you will do GREAT!!!!!! don't worry about catching up; you are a trooper and you could knock off six recipes in one dinner party!
ilana xoxo

I wouldn’t say I did “GREAT” in my exams, but she was right about the dinner party. Last night, I did SEVEN recipes. On reflection, I actually have no idea how I pulled it off, but somehow it all came together. I suppose some things just work out better when you don’t think about them too much.

When I got my roster for work last week, I noticed that I was working seven nights straight! Like, hello? I mean, yay for pay but what how bad would this be for my recipe count? But wait, on closer inspection, I noticed that I was working on Saturday during the day, not at night. Could I perhaps arrange a dinner party for that night? It was tenuous; Saturday’s a busy night, but there was a chance…

I emailed my friends Georgina, Mark and Tim, on Tuesday, inviting them for dinner at my place on Saturday. George told me yes Wednesday, and Mark and Tim told me the same on Thursday. Yay! I’ve wanted to cook for Mark ever since his birthday in September, and I knew the perfect menu.

SUMMER DINNER, WITH WINTER POSSIBILITIES, FOR 6

196. Chicken Liver Crostini
197. Grilled Pepper Salad
198. Marinated, Butterflied Leg of Lamb
199. Garlic Potatoes
200. Watercress & Raw Mushroom Salad
201. Poached Peaches
202. Sauternes Custard

I slightly scaled down quantities for 5 of us (Me, Mark, Tim, George and Mum).

Mark messaged me the day before, asking me what wine he should bring. This was very exciting, a serious dinner party guest! Most friends my age don't even think about wine or dinner party guest ettiquette. They usually just rock up, sometimes with nothing in hand, somtimes with flowers (good move) or chocolates (bad move - it ruins my menu!). Once, one of my friends asked me if I "would be requiring assistance in the kitchen". HRMPH. Needless to say, she hasn't been invited over again. "Requiring assistance", my ass.

But about the wine, I just said "well, it's lamb, so I'd guess red... but in the recipe book they suggest a rich white burgundy or Californian chardonnay.... your call". I'm not really fussy about wine, and actually, this was the first time I even noticed John Armit's Wine Recommendations which accompany each Dinner menu. I'll pay closer attention next time.

So, dinner was scheduled for 8pm on Saturday night, and I was working Friday 5:30 – 10:00pm, and Saturday 9:00 am – 6:00pm. One advantage of this menu was that most things could be done in advance, and everything else could be done on the night itself.

Friday:

After lunch on Friday I made the sauternes ice-cream, which is a runny custard that you can make in the oven (i.e. no stirring on the hob, and less fear of curdling!) Dammit, I wish I'd discovered this back when I couldn't make custard. Because now that I have the ability and confidence to make custard on the stove (as normal), this whole oven thing seems like a bit of a palaver. You warm the cream and sauternes in separate pots, and then whisk them into eggs and sugar. However, at this point, rather than stirring the mixture over a low heat until it thickens, you put it into a bain marie, cover it with foil, and bake it for 1.25 hours. The whole foil-water-dish fandango seems a bit complicated compared to 15 minutes of unenergetic stirring. But, if you are afraid of custards, or have a tendency to curdle them, like I used to, then this method is definitely the way forward.

Whilst the custard was in the oven, I walked up to Rendinas Butchery and bought the lamb leg, which I got the butcher to bone and butterfly. I can't tell whether the butcher likes me or hates me. One one hand, I spend a shitload of money there. On the other hand, I'm always buying weird cuts of meat (lamb neck, lamb shoulder, beef flank, un-minced topside) and asking them questions and making them do things to the meat. Stuff like, "Look, can you bone and cube the lamb shoulder? What's your sausage skin made of? Do you have any bacon with MORE fat on it? Can you score the pork rind, then cut the fat and rind off in one piece and drape it back over the meat?". This time, I asked for "a small lamb leg, and could you please bone it and flatten it out?" He looked at me funny and asked me if I wanted the fat removed from it. Sarky bugger.

Anyway, I brought it home, marinaded it as per the recipe - olive oil, lemon zest, garlic, rosemary and peppercorns - and shunted it in the fridge.

And shortly after it was time for the custard to come out!


Baked runny custard

The ironic thing is, even though this method is supposed to alleviate the fear of splitting and curdling, when I took the thing out of the oven and poured it into a fresh bowl to cool, it had started to split and curdle anyway! This was alleviated by plunging the bowl into a larger bowl of iced water and whisking furiously. Phew, crisis averted.


Custard - cooking it in the oven meant it got thicker than I'd ever dare let it do on the stove. However, because of the fact that it almost curdled, it ended up slightly grainy. At this point, I put it in the fridge to cool completely, and put it in the ice-cream maker when I got home from work on Friday night.

I delegated the task of roasting the peppers to my mum, and marinaded them myself when I got home.


Saturday:

I awoke at the ungodly hour of 7:00am, so that I could get to work in the city by 9:00am. The city is practically deserted at this time - all the normal people of the world are at home, in their nice, comfy beds. Anyway, there weren't very many customers, so my manager said I could leave early - instead of staying until 6:00pm, I left at 3:30. SWEET. This meant I had time to make crostini! I'd defrosted the livers the night before and bought a baguette just in case, but if I hadn't finished work early, I wouldn't have had time to make them.

I sliced up and toasted the baguette, and then worked on the topping...

I chopped up the chicken livers, and cooked them with onion, celery, garlic, parsley, tomato ketchup (I'd run out of tomato purée, and had to improvise, but don't tell anyone!), then whizzed them up in a processor, and cooked the mixture in butter with anchovies and capers.


Raw chicken liver - now, I'm not one to be squeamish or precious, but these were pretty bloody gross.

In the meantime, I chopped up the potatoes, tossed them in the marinade that the lamb had been sitting in, chucked them in the oven, and lighted the barbecue for the lamb. You can cook the lamb in the oven if you want, but let's not forget that it is summer, and I am Aussie Sarah, mate. I then assembled the roasted pepper salad and sprinkled it with parsley. (And I should mention that whilst I was cooking, my mum, the doll that she is, cleared up the kitchen and made it presentable for company. This is no mean feat, considering what a grub I am).

Then I assembled the crostini, and just as I was finishing them off, Georgina arrived!


Crostini - soon-to-be-poached peaches in background

She was shortly followed by Mark, with whom came something quite lovely - the wine! Oh yeah, and some bloke named Tim. Hehe. The wine was a delicious Evelyn County Estate "Tierra Negra" 2004 Tempranillo.

Mark: Oh my god, you MADE paté?!

The crostini, despite my fears of gross-out factor, went down very well.

I chucked the lamb on the barbecue outside, and got Mark to chop up the mushrooms for the watercress and mushroom salad. I actually substituted rocket for watercress, because they both taste peppery, and only rocket is available in ready-washed supermarket packets. All it is is the salad leaves with mushrooms, tossed through a dressing. Nigella says you can use the marinade from the lamb, but the idea of eating the oil that raw meat had been sitting in turned me off, frankly. So, I just used oil and lemon.


Mark & I

The lamb was taking longer than expected, so I poached the peaches too - in a mixture of sugar, water and sauternes. I found these cute, cute little mini peaches, which I thought would be perfect, and only needed a bare couple of minutes poaching. You have to let them cool before peeling them, so I decanted them into a bowl...


Poached peaches

... and finally it was time to eat! I brought the lamb in off the barbecue to a round of appreciative oohs and aaahs from my patient friends.


MEAT


Dinner - with a chux cloth to catch delicious drips


MEAT sliced

Me: Oh, I hope these potatoes aren't too hard.
Mark: No! You know chips, the dark, crunchy hard ones are the best! This is like a WHOLE BOWL of them.


George


Mark & Tim

Dinner was so awesome! And by "dinner" I mean the company and the atmosphere, not just the food. You know how sometimes, just preparing the meal is so draining that you have no energy left to talk to your friends? This totally did not happen tonight! It was just very relaxed, with good atmosphere and great conversation. (For some reason, we started talking, in great detail, about mosquitos and other bodily parasites, which was hilarious... and luckily no-one got turned off the food!)

After we finished eating, I got up and peeled the peaches, whose skins slipped away easily, revealing the gorgeously toned pink and white flesh beneath.


peeling peaches

To finish them off, you boil down a ladleful of the syrup until thick and sticky, and pour it over the peaches. I couldn't believe how beautiful they were, just like a stained-glass window.


Peaches


Peaches and sauternes ice-cream

I just loved how lovely and perfect they looked! With their blushing pink colour and peach shape, I thought they looked just like the mythical peaches that Monkey Magic ate in heaven to give him immortality. And the combo of peaches and ice-cream was just wonderful.

After dinner we came into the loungeroom to watch some Futurama (why is it that all the best dinners/lunches end with us watching Futurama?) before calling it a night.

And what a great night it was! It was so awesome just to relax after 6 hard days of work with good food and in good company. I dare say this is the best menu out of How to Eat that I've made so far. All the elements just complement each other so well - the peppery rocket, the sweet and soft capsicums, the crunchy potatoes, the juicy lamb - and it wasn't too heavy. For once, I wasn't left in an uncomfortable "topor of post-prandial bloat"! Furthermore, this menu is perfect for the hot weather, and it's deceptively simple to put together!

Nigella, you rock!