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| July 2009 | |
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Lamb chops are a fine emergency meal. Shona made some
spinach with onions and yoghurt, from Jane Grigson's vegetable book. A
generous heap of ground cinnamon give a lovely middle eastern tinge. The
chops I just cooked plain, as the Shetland lamb we brought back has
quite a delicate flavour, unlike the in ewe face (sorry) Hebridean lamb
from Wark farm. Just cooked on the flat plate of the bbq, to avoid
incineration in copious fat flames from the chops. I do like the way the
meat caramelises when you cook it this way. I couldn't resist some
proper mint sauce. I just adore it, though Shona disapproved of the
excessive acidity with such a fine wine; Montes Alpha 1999 Merlot,
wonderful stuff. Oh yes, plain bulgur wheat was the carb
companion. A very fine supper indeed.
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Hare is a touch aseasonal, but the road-kill needs
used up. The Mull beef marrow bone in the freezer called for risotto
Milanese, and hare takes almost as long a beef shin, so why not try
using a similar method?Mirepoix of onion and celery (no carrots in the
cupboard), sweated and removed. The hare legs browned and flambéed in
brandy, then the veg reintroduced and a little water, simmered on a low
heat topping up with some Chianti when dry, as per osso bucco. This was
done the day before, maybe 2-3hrs. Next day, the risotto with the onion
sweated in the marrow fat, what a fantastic aroma. Saffron, rice and
then a moment of genius; put the bone in too, since there was no stock
to be had. I also had the notion of using some rose petals somewhere in
the meal. I minced the liver and kidneys with some beef, onion,
breadcrumbs and grated Willy's chocolate to make forcemeat balls. Well,
not really, just meat balls. Anyway, I put some chopped rose petals in
here, and fried them in some marrow fat. Once the hare was reheated, I
mashed the onion and celery and then added the hare blood producing a
wonderful thick, rich sauce. More chopped rose petals here. In the end, the risotto would have made a great primi piatti, rather than being served with the meat, and maybe a bit more marrow for richness. The balls were just too intense, though the boys still ate them. I think I preferred the previous effort where there was more bread than meat (offal), and also crispier for it. The rose petals were just fantastic. The Leoville Poyferre 2001 was our first sample of our fancy en primeur wine, and boy, what a corker. Sublime. |
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| Gravadlax with fried skin | |
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| It's not often we produce something 100% vegetarian, but Shona was on fine form. The first outing was aubergine with Simon H's satay sauce. First the aubergines were halved and slashed, brushed with oil and baked. The satay consisted of peanut butter, tobasco, stem ginger(grated) and syrup, soy sauce, lemon juice and sesame oil. This thick paste was applied liberally to the aubergines and then grilled with some sesame seeds on top until browned. Some corriander from the garden and plain rice, and plain spinach. Yum. | |
| Strangolapreti. A simply fantastic name for a dish from Alastair Little's Italian cooking. Since this recipe calls for 600g of chard/ spinach, and our garden is currently heaving under the strain of said rainbow varieties, it just had to be done (by Shona). | |