The Pleasures of Slow-Roasting..

As I just finished watching BBC’s Saturday Kitchen (as I do most Saturday’s if I can help it, check out another post on the show), I wanted to quickly post in response to the viewer’s call-in question about lamb shoulder. I’ve been meaning to catch up on my posts to write about the slow-roasted lamb shoulder I made last week, so I thought this was a good a time as any!

Last Friday, Chris and I had some friends over for dinner and I wanted to make something different, not too difficult but still have some ‘wow’ factor. I remembered that I recently watched an episode of Food Network UK’s Street Feasts (with British Chef Andy Bates who is renowned for his award-winning pies, check out at EatMyPies.co.uk). He’s been exploring the ‘street food revolution’ in the UK and then making his take on dishes back in the kitchen. On a side note, I went to check out Andy’s stall yesterday at the Whitecross Street Market and was a bit disappointed he wasn’t there, but his mum was delightful and very sweet.. My spirits were quickly turned around when I tried his chorizo pie and traditional pork scotch egg..

One of his creations is a Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Feta Salsa. I’ve never actually cooked lamb shoulder before (chops/rack yes, but no other cuts), and I’ve never ‘slow-roasted’ anything either. Since I had the time that day, I thought I’d take a stab at it. And let me tell you.. There was definitely WOW factor. I marinated it in the morning (not overnight as I forgot!) and it was just fuuulll of flavor. And the smells that were coming through were incredible. There’s something to be said about the satisfaction of slow cooking anything.. kind of like the feeling you get when you bake I think.. The effort, love and care you put into it and the patience you have to have when the delicious smells are permeating your clothes and house.. all of it is worth it when you take that tray out of the oven and sigh with relief that it looks just as amazing as it smells. My only regret is that I didn’t take more pictures because I was hosting, but that only means that I’ll have to make it again! This dish was so straight forward to make. The simplicity of the ingredients makes the flavors wholesome yet bold and comforting. Mmm I’m remembering how the meat just melted off that bone.. And that feta just melts into the rich garlicky olive oil. I was amazed at the depth of flavor that the lemon zest provides without being ‘lemony’ too.. I highly recommend this dish! It is particularly brilliant for a dinner party as it’s interactive. Also, because it’s slow-roasted.. it allows you to clean all your cooking up before guests arrive. Ours were amazed at how clean the kitchen was when they came in (our kitchen/lounge is open plan). All I had to do was pull the lamb out and pour the salsa over.

Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Feta Salsa

Now whether or not my starter was a classic pairing isn’t exactly certain, but I wanted to keep with the Mediterranean theme. So I made a dish I’ve made before which is also straight forward, doesn’t require a lot of cooking and lets you clean up before your guests arrive – Scallops with Sauce Vierge (Click here for the original post on it). It’s a great starter as it’s got lots of flavors and freshness with the herbs, but isn’t too heavy at the same time. I served it with a side of ciabatta toasts. I prepared the sauce in advance whilst my lamb was cooking and let the flavors marry whilst I cleaned up. Then when our canapes were finished, I just seared the scallops in some butter/olive oil until they were just golden brown. Happy to say they were perfectly cooked!

Scallops with Sauce Vierge

So for the canapes.. I have no idea how I came up with this but it suddenly occurred to me the night before our little dinner party.. Here’s my Steak, Roasted Onion, Crouton Canape with a homemade Roasted Garlic Mayonnaise (click here for my post on making mayo).. For this mayo, simply take a whole head of garlic, chop the top off (to expose the garlic cloves), place in foil, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, close it up tightly and roast until the cloves are just melting. Use this olive oil to make the mayo (add more oil of course if need be) and squeeze in the bits of roasted, creamy garlic. These were such a hit and fairly easy to make! If you don’t want to make homemade mayo, just add the roasted garlic oil to store bought mayo.. Hope you try this one! Again, easy but with WOW factor 🙂

Steak Canapes with roasted red onion and croutons

To be a bit cheeky, I presented them on little plates with the mayo in egg cups!

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WHAT I’VE BEEN COOKING..

Hi All. As I don’t have class today, I’m finally taking the time to catch up with my backlog of recipes and dishes I need to share! Before school started a couple weeks ago, I was keeping myself busy with making new healthy dishes. I also had to work my way through our cupboards and all the various pastas, grains and seeds/nuts I’ve accumulated. So here are a couple dishes but many more to come! Links to recipes are below but you can also go direct to the recipe pages.

Chesham High Street Market

First up is Scallops with Sauce Vierge. So for a couple of weeks, I was passing by the fish monger in the Chesham high street market, looking but never buying anything. But I finally gave in and bought some of the beautiful, fresh, giant scallops which is really one of my favorite seafood dishes. I wanted to be a little different though as scallops are very often wrapped in bacon.  I also had seen sauce vierge come up in many cookbooks/sites recently. It’s such an easy thing to make and is so versatile. The key though is to have a really nice extra virgin olive oil. If extra virgin is too strong for you, then use a milder olive oil. I didn’t use red wine vinegar, but some recipes call for it instead of the coriander seeds. Since scallops aren’t exactly the most affordable seafood, I made this dish as a starter with three scallops each. We mopped up the rest of the sauce with some fresh bread. But you could easily turn this into a main dish by serving on a bed of angel hair pasta. The sweetness of the scallops and tomato together are so nice. If you want contrast, some red chili flakes would actually be quite nice. And if you can’t get scallops or don’t like them, you can always serve with some large grilled shrimp or chicken. Hope you like it!

Scallops with Sauce Vierge

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NY TRIP (PART 1) : SUPERMARKET ENVY

Sunset on the Hudson with Adi

This past week or so, I made a much-anticipated return trip to New York to meet up with my boyfriend, many of my old friends from school and work, and even my good friend Bryce who drove down from Boston. Now because it’s me – all of my friends knew to prepare for a little drinking, a little dancing but most importantly a schedule organized entirely around where, when and with whom I would be eating. 🙂 

Over seven days, I walked all over NY, ate, drank and had great conversation with great friends. I don’t know how I’m really going to capture how wonderful (and long overdue) this trip was, but I’ll get there slowly. 

First up – supermarket envy. 

The first two days of my trip I spent with my dear friend Adi whom I’ve known now for almost 15 years (believe it or not). Adi is currently living in the Park Slope area of Brooklyn where I stayed with her the first two days of my trip. I’m embarrassed to say that in the year I lived in Manhattan (from ’06 to ’07), I only ventured into Brooklyn once and it wasn’t a memorable trip.  But this time I couldn’t believe what I saw – Park Slope is absolutely gorgeous! Of course, it didn’t hurt that the day I landed was the first day of great weather NY has had in awhile. I have to say, if I ever move back to NY, I might have to live in Park Slope! 

So – back to the point – Adi and I had a foodie-filled two days and one night from Park Slope to Chelsea to West Village. I’ll get to the eating bits in the next post. I wanted to start off with something Adi said only I would have – supermarket envy.

First stop – Union Market in Park Slope.   

The minute I walked into this place I gasped at the gorgeous display of fresh fruits ranging from the usual bananas and oranges to mini pineapple and plantains. I literally just turned my head to the left and another gasp came out when I saw that they sold heirloom tomatoes – big, giant ones. This was the first time I had ever seen them being sold before which probably doesn’t say very much about the super markets I go to. But nonetheless I was very impressed by their size and the variety of colors. There seemed to be a lot of mini-sized vegetables which I am always thrilled about (such as cauliflower and artichoke). 

   

 

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