Lamb feast with friends

We had a dinner party on Saturday night. The kids equalled the adults. Three 3 year olds, a two and a one year old, and a 6 month old. With 6 adults all talking at once, and 6 kids vocalising and running from pillar to post, we had a very noisy household, a good noisy.

If I do say so myself, the food was good too. There is a certain satisfaction in successfully feeding a crowd, and seeing everybody happy. 

On Thursday night, I still had no idea what I was going to cook. That was until I watched Masterchef's masterclass with Heston Blumenthal, and his roast lamb. It was a lamb leg studded with garlic, rosemary and anchovies and slow roasted. I did however cook it for twice as long as he suggested, we prefer our lamb not still baa-ing and pooping in the paddick when it gets to the plate.

I roasted it for an hour on 100 degress, then roasted it at 150 for the next two and a half hours. I removed it from the oven and wrapped it up with alfoil and let it rest for about half an hour.

Roast browned and studded with garlic, anchovy and rosemary

  

I used my cake cooler as a rack (multi-purposing at it's best). I just bent it a bit
over the same pan I had just made foccacia in!

I made a burghul pilaf, garlic and mint yogurt and chick pea salad.

Just in case there were some less adventurous, plus the kids, I made roast potatoes, corn and broccoli and the Heston suggested jus(fancy for pan juices made into a sauce) to go along with it too. I also had a tossed salad and some homemade foccacia. 

It was a great feast that went down a treat. I was surprised at how the yogurt went down, it was amazing with the lamb, burghul and the bread, most of us were going back for seconds just to get a bit more garlic yogurt.

Garlic and Mint yogurt
375 grams greek yogurt
2 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped finely
1/3 cup of finely chopped mint
A small squeeze of lemon

Mix all together. Keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

I made this about 5 hours beforehand  the garlic really had intensified in that time. 

When it came to serving, I just put everything in the middle of our big table and let everyone help themselves. It was awesome. 

My delicious leftovers lunch on Sunday

Peruvian purple potato pizza

Mum grew these strange looking spuds this year, given to her by a friend. Brett commented they look like dog turds when he saw them on the kitchen bench. I thought they looked like short stubby fingers.

The smallest ones I planted in my garden and the rest I boiled up to use on a pizza. Below are the boiled potatoes I peeled and sliced up, check out the colour. 

Potato Pizza

I used my scone dough base.

Firstly I smothered on some oil. Call me strange or clever, but I always keep the jar of oil that is left over from anchovies. Flavour central! I use it for starting onions and garlic for pasta sauce or even for frying a flavoursome egg. If you are gagging at the thought, you could just use plain old olive oil.

Next I scatter and rub in a finely chopped clove of garlic. If you don't want to get your hands all oily, just scatter the garlic over.

Place sliced boiled potatoes on base, you could put them on all fancy like or just willy nilly like I did. I have used left over roast potatoes for this too. 

Scatter on some rosemary leaves and a drizzle of olive oil and bake at 200 deg.  for 15 - 20 minutes.

Eat it like that, or drizzle some more oil over it and eat. Very delicious.

Green Bean Salad

I love this salad, it brings back great food memories from my mums kitchen and the spreads she put on our kitchen table. I could eat a whole bowl full of this stuff.

I have just started getting beans aplenty from the garden, this is the first thing I have done with them. We had them cold, but makes an good warm salad as well.

I made this using a couple of handfuls of fresh green beans straight from the garden, boiled for about 5 minutes, not even that. You can leave the beans whole or cut in half.

I finely chopped up a small clove of garlic and threw it on top of the drained beans, in a bowl.

Glugged about 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil on top and a dash of vinegar(maybe a teaspoon), and mixed it all up.

  Love, love, love it!

Grilled polenta

   3 cups water

     1 1/2 tsp salt

     1 1/2 cups polenta

     1 tsp thyme

     a grind of black pepper

     1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese

     2 Tbs olive oil

     1 clove garlic, crushed

   In a saucepan heat the water and salt over medium-high heat.  Bring to a simmer, but don't let it boil.

   Slowly whisk the polenta into the simmering water. Whisk constantly until it begins to thicken, 2 or 3 minutes. Add the thyme, cheese, garlic and olive oil.   

    Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring regularly, for a few minutes until it is very thick

   

   Fill a loaf tin lined with cling wrap with the polenta. Smooth the polenta out evenly.

Cover and leave for the day or overnight.

(I leave an excess of cling wrap and use this to wrap over and cover)

        Remove from the refrigerator and flip over onto a cutting board. 

   Slice the polenta about 1/2" thick.

Brush the polenta slices with olive oil and fry in a pan or put under a grill for 4-5 minutes each side.

I had mine with some tuscan meatballs, but would be nice just with some salad. I haven't had grilled polenta for a long time, I used to make it quite a bit and was only reminded on the weekend watching Jamie Olivers  15 minutes meals on the telly. He served it with a tomato based sauce, mushrooms and chicken. Some wilted spinach and roasted cherry tomatoes would go down a treat too, topped with some fancy arsed cheese and maybe some black olives. 

Open Garden #3

I planted about 8 garlic cloves two weeks ago that had started sprouting in the kitchen. They have just started to poke up through the soil. They belong to the species Allium, garlic being Allium sativum. Chives are included in this species as well.

cute aren't they? :)

Peas, beans, cabbage and strawberries don't like growing anywhere it, but roses, tomatoes, apples and peaches will appreciate its presence, to keep the nasties away.

Look what I bought at Woolies, $14 marked down to $5.50, aren't they gorgeous. There is six bulbs all together, thats less than a dollar a bulb! Bargain! They are looking pretty on the table near the front door for now, before I find a spot for them.