Cookbook Challenge 2013 - Week 14

Easter isn’t really Easter without lamb but instead of serving it on the Sunday I chose to do it the day before, as my lovely cousin was coming to stay and I thought I should make her a decent meal – well, give it my best shot anyway. I had very kindly been given a slow cooker for my birthday and thought that this was the ideal opportunity to try it out and so I chose to cook Sticky Spiced Lamb Shanks from BBC Good Food. Having browned off the onions and the lamb in a little oil I popped all the ingredients into my new toy and hoped for the best. It’s a little disconcerting when something has been ‘cooking’ for 4 hours but doesn’t seem to have progressed at all (despite some condensation on the lid), but then around the 5 hour mark I did a little jump of joy at the sight of it bubbling away. By the time the 9-10 hours was up you could see that the lamb was ready to come away from the bone with just the merest prod, and the smells coming from the corner of the kitchen were divine. Luckily with all the cooking taken care of I could sit back and enjoy a few cocktails with my guest before we ate – so after a few French Martinis I returned to the kitchen to reduce the sauce and stir some olive oil, lemon juice and pomegranate seeds through some couscous I had just cooked. These were easily the best lamb shanks I have ever cooked, the mix of spices was absolutely delicious and the little burst of sweetness from the pomegranate seeds in the couscous complimented it really well. It seemed to go down well with both hubby and my cousin so I couldn’t ask for more than that. For dessert I made Rose Cream & Raspberry Jellies from a New Year copy of BBC Good Food, and I served them in Moroccan tea glasses, which I brought back from honeymoon in Marrakech, with extra raspberries and pistachios on the side. It was a very relaxing evening, thanks to the slow cooker all the effort was taken out of preparing the meal and I didn’t feel like I spent more time in the kitchen than with my guest. Thumbs up for the slow cooker and a big thanks to my very generous In-laws for a wonderful birthday present! Oh and just a quick footnote on the evening, my cousin made me a super tasty rosemary cake (a lovely surprise) which I shall definitely be making in the future – as I always say, everything’s better with a little bit of Rosemary!

 

It’s been a fair few weeks now since I’ve mentioned Ottolenghi so it seems only right that on a long Bank-Holiday weekend I should head back to Jerusalem, and this time I chose to make Mejadra. The most time consuming part of this is frying off the onions until they’re crispy, but this is well worth doing as the texture they add to the finished dish is just wonderful. I served this with some yoghurt that I had stirred some chopped herbs through, the combination of the creamy yoghurt and the spiced lentils and rice was lovely – I think that without this it might have been a little dry.

Having received a new copy of BBC Good Food magazine just before Easter I spent most of the weekend with my head buried in it, and for my final dish of the week I decided to make the Pea & New Potato Curry. With plenty of spices and a creamy yoghurt sauce this dish was really tasty and very easy to whip up after a long day at work – this will definitely be going into my recipe file.

Recipe Count: 45
Target: 52