Lamb Tagine with a twist

My flatmate has a slowcooker, and I had some lamb I wanted to use - the perfect combination for lamb tagine. I got a little playful with the ingredients and spices based on what was lying around, but the flavour came out amazing - have posted it below at S's urging. It's really the easiest thing, it just requires some assembly.

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
600g lamb, de-boned and cut into 2-3cm squares
2 white onions
1 tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and diced
500g passata
3 small carrots, cut into coins 1cm thick
2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
20g woodear mushrooms
50g dried fruit (I used goji berries and sultanas because that's what I had lying around)
1 cinnamon stick
3 cardamon pods
1/2 tsp coriander seeds
1/4 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp chinese 5 spice
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp honey
2 tsp lemon juice

Saute onions, garlic, ginger and lamb in a pan until meat is browned. Add to slow cooker with the rest of the ingredients. Cook on low heat for at least 8 hours. Serve with couscous studded with flaked almonds, scallions and sultanas. (I did say it was easy!)

Mondrian Cake

Recently, a friend had a joint birthday with his girlfriend and invited us all over for a party. I wasn't sure what to get the girlfriend, but I remembered that she's interested in baking and she works in the art world. Well, that cinched the deal - Mondrian cake!

I used a basic sponge and icing recipe.

     Sponge cake

     8 oz butter

     8 oz sugar

     4 eggs

     8 oz self-raising flour

     Food colouring (yellow, blue, red)

     Blend the butter and sugar, add beaten eggs and flour. Mix well.

     Split into four bowls, and stir in food colouring until the colour is even.

     Bake in separate pans for about 30 minutes at 180C.

          Tip: for fun, add different flavourings to each bowl.


However, the hardest part of the recipe isn't the baking, it's the decorating. Once the cakes are cool, you are ready to start assembling! In the meantime, make the icing:

     Icing
     5 oz butter
     3 oz sugar
     4 oz chocolate powder

     Blend all ingredients together until smooth. Add black food colouring if desiring a darker shade

          Tip: gel food colouring does not blend well with buttercream frosting.

Once the cakes are ready, upend them on a chopping board or clean surface. Cut off any crusts, and slice into rectangular and square-ish strips.

Start building, using the icing as glue, until you get a square. Use pattern if you like.

Once done, cover in more icing. 

If you prefer a smoother casing, then use fondant. (I personally do not like it very much, so avoid using it where possible).

Fishy Fridays

One of my favourite (and easiest) recipes for a main course is baked fish. Essentially, it just just a fish fillet sprinkled with a variety of things (salt, pepper, paprika, and dill is my favourite combination), and a dash of paprika, and wrapped in aluminum foil. Fresh fish bakes at medium heat for 20-30 minutes, and frozen fish at 50-60.

Add to a salad

I added orange slices to this one.

When roasting vegetables at the same time, I just top it with fish and cover the entire thing in foil.

A sweet finish

Finally reaching the last of the Thanksgiving recipes. And how could you not have pumpkin pie?

Homemade pie crust (or just buy a pre-made one)
     1 1/2 cup flour
     1/2 cup sunflower oil (or another flavourless oil)
     1/4 cup milk
     1/4 tsp salt
     1 tsp sugar

Mix ingredients together, knead lightly, then line a 9 inch pan.

Pumpkin pie filling (makes 2
     2 pie crusts
     3/4 cup sugar
     1/2 tsp salt
     7 oz cream cheese
     1 can pumpkin
     2 eggs.
     cinnamon, nutmeg ground ginger, and mixed spice to taste

Pre-heat the oven to 350F/180C/Gas mark 4

Beat the eggs. Mix with pumpkin and cream cheese. Combine salt, sugar and spices, and stir in. Pour into pie crusts. Bake for half an hour.

Tada!

Now there's Christmas left...

Thanksgiving Sides

To continue with bringing this blog up to speed, here are all the sides!

Candied Sweet Potatoes
     1 bag sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
     1 can golden syrup
     4 strips bacon, chopped into bits
     1 pinch salt  
     cloves, to taste
     aniseed, to taste
     chilli powder, to taste

Add all ingredients to slow cooker. Cook on high heat for five hours, or low heat for twelve hours.

Garlic Green Beans
     400g Green beans
     1/2 white onion, diced
     3 cloves garlic, minced
     Olive oil
     Salt and pepper to taste
     chili powder

Heat up a oiled frying pan and add minced garlic and onion. Add green beans and saute. Season to taste.

• Hint: To spice it up, add slivers of bacon.

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Salad
     1 butternut squash, diced into cubes
     150g goat cheese
     1 white onion, diced
     1 bag rocket salad (or 50g rocket and 100g spinach)
     handful pumpkin seeds
     balsamic vinaigrette

Saute the butternut squash and onion. Add to salad and top with goat cheese. Sprinkle with pumpkin seed and drizzle with balsamic vinaigrette.

• Hint: Roast the pumpkin seeds before adding to salad.

Halloumi, Radish and Tomato Salad
     200g halloumi, cut into chunks
     10 baby radishes, diced
     3 tomatoes, diced
     100g rocket or spinach
     1 tablespoon olive oil

Fry halloumi. Meanwhile, toss the rest of the ingredients together. Add halloumi and serve.

• Hint: add shredded carrot or beetroot for an added twist.

Thanksgiving continued! (On this side of Christmas...)

Whoops! My personal laptop broke, and I had loads of trouble trying to load pictures from my phone onto my work laptop (I know, excuses, excuses). Well, I finally got my laptop fixed, so onwards with the recipes! But, as an apology, here's a triple whammy:

Bread Stuffing
     1 loaf stale bread, torn into bite-sized pieces
     2 eggs
     2 carrots
     3 stalks celery
     1 red onion
     1 white onion
     1 apple
    100g walnuts
     salt and pepper to taste
     olive oil or stock

Dice the carrots, celery, onions, apples and walnuts. Add bread and toss with salt and pepper, and olive oil or stalk. Beat the eggs until scrambled, then pour over stuffing mixture. Bake on medium heat (gas mark 5) for half an hour.

• Hint: If used to stuff a bird, the olive oil and stock is unnecessary.

Cranberry Sauce
     200g fresh cranberries
     100g brown sugar
     100g white sugar
     500g water
     100g orange juice
     1 cinnamon stick
     cloves to taste
     nutmeg to taste

Boil all the ingredients in a pot until the cranberries burst. To make thicker sauce, add less water or drain boiling.

• Hint: the leftover liquid goes great with vodka for a quick vodka-cranberry.

Mashed Potatoes
     1 bag potatoes
     milk or butter to taste
     dill or rosemary
     salt and pepper to taste

Wash and chop potatoes. Boil potatoes on low heat for an hour (until potatoes became mushy). Mash with a potato masher (or electric mixer). Add milk or butter as you go. Salt, pepper, and spice to taste.

• Hint: the smaller the pieces of potato, the shorter the cooking time and the easier it is to mash.