I was fortunate enough to be sent some lovely bits and bobs by the Welsh lamb board, and asked to write up a recipe. It was an easy ‘yes’ from me, as I am a massive fan of Welsh lamb, with it’s rich meatiness and deep savoury grassy notes. And this lamb was truly delicious, some of the best tasting lamb I’ve ever had. I’ve served it here with some spice; the strong lamb flavour can stand up to some heat and bashing around.
For a change I matched it with some butter beans mashed with some garlic. The simmering takes the edge off the garlic’s harshness – do give it a try.
For more Welsh lamb recipes, go have a snoop around Eat Welsh Lamb.
Spiced lamb steaks with mashed butter beans and roast carrots (serves 2):
For the lamb:
2 Welsh lamb leg steaks
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 teaspoon dried thyme
½ a grated nutmeg
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the carrots:
5 carrots, halved
5 agen prunes, roughly torn
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
For the bean mash:
1 tin butter beans
4 cloves garlic
Large sprig of rosemary, leaves picked
Juice of half a lime
To serve:
1 tablespoon creme fraiche
¼ teaspoon harissa paste (or as much as you can take!)
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Get some water on to boil and chuck the carrots in. Par-boil for about 6 minutes, or until just tender.
Meanwhile, get a frying pan over a very high heat (ideally, use a pan you can transfer to the oven). Season the lamb well on both sides and rub in the paprika, thyme and nutmeg. Smear in some oil and pop in the frying pan. Fry for about 2 minutes, or until golden brown on one side. Flip it over and put the pan in the oven. Depending on the size and thickness of your lamb these need to go in for about 12 – 15 minutes. Make sure you allow the lamb to rest out of the oven for about 5 minutes before serving.
When the carrots are tender, add them to a roasting dish with the prunes and cumin and toss in a little oil. Pop in the oven along with the lamb. These will take about 20 minutes, but do give them a stir half way through cooking to coat in the flavours.
While the lamb and carrots are in the oven, get on with the butter beans. Pop the whole tin, juice and all, in a saucepan and bring to the boil along with the garlic cloves and rosemary. When the beans are tender (about 5 – 6 minutes), turn off the heat and add the lime juice. Check for seasoning and mash it up a little. Ideally you’ll have some squished beans and some whole beans. Keep warm while you finish everything else.
To serve, stir the harissa into the creme fraiche and put on the side as a dip.
As I’ve mentioned before, Jamie Oliver’s30 Minute Meals is unfairly misunderstood. The Guardian’s had a pop and I can’t understand how they can get it so very wrong. It’s not “set your watch and in exactly 30 minutes you will have exactly this dinner”, it’s “look what is possible in 30 minutes”. If you have the same skills, prep and concentration as Jamie you’ll be laughing, but be realistic – if you know you don’t have enough pans for a meal and you’re going to have to wash up in between, it will take longer. If you know you dither a bit following a recipe, it will take longer. Why not drop an element of it? Cooking and recipes are all about inspiration, it drives me potty when people can’t see past exactly ½ teaspoon cumin and won’t think “I love cumin, I’m chucking 3 in”, or “I hate cumin, I’m not doing it”. Recipes are starting points, not doctrines.
Like in this one. I dropped the salad. There’s plenty of goodness in the sauce and very filling, so I was happy with just a bowl of pasta followed by dessert. I pretty much set my 10 year old son doing this, while I supervised. He did brilliantly. Dropping whole sausages in the food processor tube is enormous fun. The finished pasta dish itself is extremely tasty – entirely dependant on the quality of the sausage you use, so caveat emptor. The frangipane was a triumph, utterly delicious, nutty and fruity. They’re both corkers and well worth a try.
TO START Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Turn your oven to 190°C/375°F/gas 5. Fill and boil the kettle. Put a large frying pan on a high heat. Put the standard blade attachment into the food processor.
PASTA Blitz the vegetables in the food processor. Add the sausages, 1 heaped teaspoon of fennel seeds and 1 teaspoon of oregano. Keep pulsing until well mixed, then spoon this mixture into the hot frying pan with a lug of olive oil, breaking it up and stirring as you go. Keep checking on it and stirring while you get on with other jobs. Put a large deep saucepan on a low heat and fill with boiled water. Fill and reboil the kettle.
TARTS Put the pastry case on a baking tray. Make a frangipane mixture by cracking the egg into a mixing bowl and adding almonds, butter, vanilla and sugar. Use a spoon to mix everything together. Spoon half jam into the pastry base. Top with most of the frangipane, add the rest of the jam, then finally the remaining frangipane. Put the tray in the oven on the middle shelf and set the timer for 18 minutes exactly.
PASTA Top up the saucepan with more boiled water if needed. Season well then add the penne and cook according to packet instructions, with the lid askew. Crush 4 unpeeled cloves of garlic into the sausage mixture and stir in 4 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and the tinned tomatoes. Add a little of the starchy cooking water from the pasta to loosen if needed.
PASTA Drain the pasta, reserving about a wineglass worth of the cooking water. Tip the pasta into the pan of sauce and give it a gentle stir, adding enough of the cooking water to bring it to a silky consistency. Taste, correct the seasoning, then tip into a large serving bowl and take straight to the table with the rest of the Parmesan for grating over. Scatter over a few basil leaves.
TARTS When the tart is golden and cooked, turn the oven off and take out. Serve warm.
I fancied something a little special for our anniversary and it had been a long time since we’d had duck. We also fancied some beetroot so I put the two together, along with a variation on the mash I did for the fish pie recently to make a delicious dinner.
Duck breast with pomme purée and roast roots:
For the roast roots:
4 fist-sized beetroot, skinned and diced
2 carrots, diced the same size as the beetroots
4 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
Sprig of rosemary
Sprig of thyme
Balsamic vinegar
For the potatoes:
4 charlotte potatoes, peeled and cut into 1cm thick slices
25g butter
100ml milk
For the duck:
2 duck breasts, skin scored with a diamond pattern
2 rashers of bacon
6 juniper berries, squished a bit
1 teaspoon flour
400ml chicken stock
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C.
Pop the beetroot, carrot, garlic, thyme and rosemary in a baking tray and toss in olive oil. Put in the oven for 45 mins – 1 hour until the veg is tender. After 30 minutes add salt, pepper and a sprinkle of sugar, then douse generously with balsamic vinegar and toss well.
For the potatoes, rinse in cold water then plunge into salted boiling water for 20 minutes or until very tender. Drain and pass through a sieve onto butter. When you’re ready to serve, get the milk to the boil in a pan and beat the potato into it.
For the duck, heat a dry frying pan to very, very hot. Season the duck generously on both sides and place skin-side down into the pan. When the skin has crisped (about 5 minutes), pop the bacon and juniper in the same pan and put the lot in the oven.
After 18 minutes remove the duck and allow to rest while you make a sauce. Take the pan on to a hob on a high heat and sprinkle over the flour. Stir in well then add the stock. Bubble furiously until it’s thick and reduced. Serve everything together and eat while piping hot.
Jamie Oliver’s latest turn is to ratchet up the speed and get us making 30 Minute Meals. It’s always great fun watching Jamie when he’s enthusiastic, and there’s a real purpose to what he’s doing.
The one that caught my eye was the roast beef dinner. After much pleading from a pregnant Jools after a late finish, he worked up a method that captures the essence of a roast dinner. So I gave it a go.
How long did it take? 34 minutes. I did mess up a couple of things though: I didn’t fetch enough herbs for some reason, so that meant dashing off to the garden mid-meal to hack off some more rosemary and thyme; I used an attachment on my food processor I’ve not used before and it kind of mushed stuff a bit instead of chopping so had to do it by hand; and I forgot to add flour to the gravy so had to dig out the cornflour to work that in. I think it’s doable in 30 minutes, though it is a mad-crazy rush. Someone did ask me if it was possible even if you didn’t do much cooking. I think it is because there’s not a lot of skills involved, just a cool head and keeping an eye on everything.
getting ready
The downsides? For it to work properly you need to get everything ready and set up beforehand. That said it’s great advice regardless of what you’re cooking. And it leaves a heck of a mess. And it must be said it’s not quite a roast dinner – very tasty – but not quite a roast dinner. I also don’t really see the point of the salad, it feels tacked on the side.
However accurate or inaccurate the 30 minute meal claim is for most people, Jamie’s trying to raise our expectations and make mealtimes great. Even if you end up a little over half an hour, it’s still great food in a respectable time.
TO START Get all your ingredients and equipment ready. Fill and boil the kettle. Turn the oven on to 220ºC/425ºF/gas 7, and place a 12 hole shallow bun tin on the top shelf. Put 1 large saucepan and 2 large frying pans on a medium heat. Put the fine slicer disc attachment into the food processor.
POTATOES Wash the potatoes, leaving the skins on. Chop into 2cm chunks and throw into one of the large frying pans. Cover with boiling water, season with salt and cover with a lid. Turn the heat right up, and boil for 8minutes, or until just cooked. Fill and reboil the kettle.
BEEF Quickly pick and finely chop the rosemary, sage and thyme leaves. Turn the heat under the empty frying pan up to full whack. Mix the herbs together and spread them around the chopping board with a good pinch of salt & pepper. Cut the fillet in half lengthways, then roll each piece back and forth so they are completely coated in herbs. Add the meat to the hot empty frying pan with a few good lugs of olive oil. You must turn it every minute while you get on with other jobs. Don’t forget to seal the ends.
CARROTS Tip the carrots into the saucepan and just cover with boiling water. Add 2 sprigs of thyme, a couple of bay leaves, a good pinch of salt, a splash of olive oil and 1 heaped tablespoon of sugar. Cook with a lid on until tender.
YORKIES Put the flour, milk and egg into the liquidizer with a pinch of salt. Blitz, then quickly and confidently remove the bun tin from the oven and close the door. In one quick movement, back and forth, drizzle a little olive oil in each compartment, then do the same with the batter until each one is half full (any remaining batter can be used for pancakes another day). Place in the top of the oven, close the door and do not open for 14 minutes, until golden and risen.
POTATOES Check that the potatoes are cooked through, then drain and return to the same frying pan. Leave on a high heat and drizzle over some olive oil. Add a pinch of salt & pepper, speed-peel in strips of lemon zest and add 4 sprigs of thyme or rosemary. Halve the bulb of garlic widthways, squash each half with the back of a knife and add to the pan. Toss everything together, then roughly squash down with a masher. Toss every 3 minutes or so, until golden and crisp.
GRAVY Reduce the heat under the beef a little. Peel the red onion half. Finely slice in the food processor. Add half the onion to the beef pan with a splash of olive oil, the other half to a salad bowl. Rinse the mushrooms in a colander and slice in the processor, then add to the beef pan. Stir everything around and remember to keep turning the beef regularly for 5 minutes.
WATERCRESS SALAD Add 2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar, 1 tablespoon of caster sugar and a good pinch of salt & pepper to the onion bowl. Scrunch with one hand. Add 4 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil. Empty the watercress on top and take to the table, but don’t mix until serving.
GRAVY Remove the beef to a plate. Drizzle with a little olive oil, then cover with foil. Stir 1 heaped tablespoon of flour into the pan. Add a small glass of red wine and turn the heat up. Boil down to nearly nothing, then stir in 300ml of chicken stock and simmer until thick and shiny.
TO SERVE Drain the carrots, return to the pan, toss with butter and take to the table. Turn the potatoes out on to a platter. Smear 2 spoonfuls of horseradish sauce and 1 teaspoon of English mustard on to another platter. Quickly slice the beef 1cm thick, using long carving motions. Sprinkle over a pinch of salt & pepper from a height, then pile the beef on top of the horseradish sauce and mustard. Add any resting juices to the gravy and serve in a jug. Toss and dress the salad quickly, then get the Yorkies out of the oven, and take them to the table and tuck in with a glass of wine.
