The Weekly Cook Up – Irish Stew

Irish stew is a casserole that has been the key to keeping hungry people’s tummies warm and full for a very long time.

It’s simple to make, with few ingredients and is ideal for your slow cooker. The first time I ever ate it was at an Irish pub in my hometown of Geelong – and once I’d had it, I couldn’t wait to re-create it. So, this is my version of a very, very famous stew. There’s no spice and kids are sure to like its  gravy flavour. Irish stew also only has meat, carrot and potato, so no need to negotiate with them to eat anything too fancy, weird-looking or green, for that matter.

This freezes extremely well, so why not whip up a batch this weekend.

Irish Stew

• 1kg lamb four-quarter chops, cut into bite-sized cubes
• 1/2 a cup of flour, which has been seasoned with salt and pepper
• 2 large onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 3 carrots, peeled a cut into large chunks
• 3 large deseree potatoes, peeled and sliced into large chunks
• Enough beef stock to cover everything (about 1 litre)
• 1 tsp of fresh thyme leaves
• 3 tbs of Worcestershire sauce
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

Place the flour, salt and pepper in a zip lock bag and added the cubes of lamb. Close the bag and toss to coat the lamb with flour.

Heat some oil in a large, heavy based casserole and cook the lamb in batches until it is sealed and brown on the outside. Set the lamb aside.

Add a little more oil to the pan and cook the onion until it is soft and translucent, about 5 minutes.

Add the lamb back into the pan, along with all remaining ingredients.

Bring to the boil, cover and reduce heat to very low. Simmer for two hours, checking and stirring occasionally. At the end of the cooking time the sauce should be nice and thick and the vegies and meat nice and tender.

If using a slow cooker, add all ingredients to the ceramic dish and cook on high for 3 hours, or on low for 5.

Serve with some nice crusty bread and a big glass of your favourite red wine.

 

The Weekly Cook Up: Marinades

Marinating meat is a great way to not only save time, but to inject lots of awesome flavour into a week-night meal.

This week I’m going to share with you three really awesome marinades, which can be used on chicken, beef and lamb which will have your family raving not only about the great flavours, but also the tenderness of the meat.

Marinading meat is so convenient because you can do your weekly/fortnightly or monthly shop and marinate whatever meats you wish before popping them in the freezer. Once thawed, all that is left to do is cook it, and because it will be bursting with flavour, a simple salad or side of vegies is the only accompaniement required.

Don’t know much about marinating? Well, you’ll see from the below recipes that there are generally three main ingredients in each – acid (like lemon juice), oils and seasonings (herbs, spices, salt and pepper etc). The oils and the acids help tenderise the meat and break down the fibres to allow the seasonings to penetrate their great flavour. Once you get hold of a few good marinating recipes and start to understand what flavours work – then you’ll be making up your own before you know it!

Greek-style marinade

• Half a cup of olive oil
• The juice of a whole lemon
• 1 tsp of ground black pepper
• 1/2 a tsp of sea salt
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• 1 tbs of dried oregano

This marinade is great for chicken thighs or lamb chops, which can then be grilled on a hot pan or on the barbecue.

You could also spread it over a whole chicken or on maryland pieces (which is the cut with the thigh and leg bone, joined together) before roasting in a medium  oven (about 180 to 200 degrees C – cooking times depend on the size of your whole bird, but marylands should take about 45 minutes).

But this is most ideal on a leg of lamb before roasting, or ask you butcher to butterfly the leg – which means he’ll remove the bone, leaving a nice flat piece of meat. Marinate it, and then cook it on the barbecue. It’s just amazing!

 Spicy Asian Marinade

• 2cm piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 a red chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds to reduce spice)
• 1/2 a green chilli, finely chopped (remove seeds to reduce spice)
• 5 tbs of soy sauce
• 2 tbs of fish sauce
• 1/4 of a cup of peanut oil
• 1 tsp of sugar
• The juice of half a lime

This marinade is ideal for chicken and beef. Chicken strips can be marinated and stir-fryed with some Asian greens, or beef steaks will soak up these beautiful flavours before being cooked medium to rare on a barbecue and used in a Asian beef salad. It’s also great for meats you want to skewer and then barbecue. Beware though, it is quite spicy – so not one for the kids.

Moroccan marinade

• 1/2 a cup of olive oil
• 1/4 cup of red wine vinegar
• 2 tbs of Moroccan spice blend/seasoning
• 1 tsp of lemon zest
• 1/2 a tsp of sea salt
• 1/2 a tsp of black pepper

This marinade is very versatile and is great for all cuts of chicken, is fabulous on lamb chops or back strap (cooked medium on the barbecue) or on tender cuts of beef.

Method and tips for all marinades

Combine all ingredients and whisk well. All these marinades yield enough for 1 to 1.5 kilograms of meat. The best way to marinade it to place meat in a freezer bag, add marinade and seal the bag, ensuring all the air is out. Toss, turn and massage the meat in the bag (having the bag sealed prior to doing this exercise saves your hands from getting all dirty, but ensures the meat and marinade is well combined). Ensure you use a large enough freezer bag for your quantity of meat.

Freeze for up to three months. To thaw – place the frozen meat in the fridge the night before you need it. This is the most hygienic way of thawing meat.

You can marinate the meat on the same day as you plan to use it, but the flavour won’t be as good. However, as long as the meat has at least 2 hours in the fridge, it will still be delicious.

This really is the simplest and easiest process to inject wonderful flavour. So, no more boring lamb chops or roast chickens. Inject some flavour – your family will thank you!

Any questions about marinating? Feel free to post them in the comments section below.

And before I forget – Uforic Food now has its very own Facebook page. Visit it here and don’t forget to ‘like’ us!

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Dinner party part 2: Cous Cous salad

One of the many dishes I whipped up on Saturday night was this cous cous salad. And while it looked and tasted yummy – the leftovers have also served us very well for lunches over the past few days, topped with the leftover barbecued marinated  lamb backstrap.

Cheers!!!

Cous Cous Salad 

1 cup of chicken stock

1 cup of couscous

2 tsp olive oil

1 red onion, halved and finely diced

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 tsp ground cumin

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground turmeric

2 large  ripe tomatoes, finely diced

1 x 400g can chickpeas, rinsed, drained

1 handful of chopped fresh coriander

The juice of half a lemon

freshly ground black pepper

Method

Place the stock in a medium saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat and add the cous cous to the hot liquid. Stir with a fork until combined. Cover and set aside for 5 minutes or until all the liquid is absorbed. Fluff the cous cous with a fork to separate the grains.

Heat the oil in a non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion with a little salt and cook, stirring, until onion softens. Add the garlic, cumin, cinnamon and turmeric and cook  for 30 seconds or until fragrant. Add the tomato and chickpeas and cook until heated through. Remove from heat.

Add onion mixture, coriander and lemon juice to the couscous and toss gently to combine. Taste and season with pepper.

 The lamb backstrap is awesome with this as a side dish – or for a really yummy, healthy lunch.

Tomorrow I’ll be sharing my beef shazlick marinade. Simple, fast and tasty.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

 

 

Day 25 – lamb shanks

Welcome to Day 25 of  The Inspiration Challenge – this is the day I am going to tell you all about my love for lamb shanks.

Back in the “olden days” nobody ate the shank part of the lamb, unless you were poor, because everyone seemed to believe the “cheap cut” wouldn’t taste good.

As I have learnt more and more about food over the years, I have come to the realisation that food today has benefited so much from the methods poor people, even many hundreds of years ago, used to use to not only make their food taste good, but also preserve it.

Take this as an example – many peasants in Italy could not afford to buy cheese to put on their dishes – so they ground their stale bread into crumbs, toasted them with a little olive oil (you can infuse them with other flavour too, like garlic and rosemary) and scattered them on top instead. If you haven’t tried this – it’s a definite must. It doesn’t taste like cheese, of course, but it’s a perfect alternative. It gives a beautiful texture to the dish with the crunch of the bread crumbs, but it also adds an excellent nutty flavour.

Meat really is no different. People with little money would take the pieces of the meat that no one else really wanted, like the lamb’s shank, and cooked them slowly – to make what would otherwise be tough meat, very tender.

Nowadays, lamb shanks are the “in” thing. Long cooking is also cool these days, making shanks succulent and the fat on them means they are full of fabulous flavour and that melt-in-your-mouth texture of the meat is just incredible. Sadly now that demand has risen, the shank is no longer cheap – but well worth the money and the time to cook them.

This recipe is one I made up myself – and as I am totally obsessed with Moroccan flavours at the moment – I think that’s why I came up with this. As soon as it comes to the boil, the smell of cinnamon, cumin and other spices just fills the house. So amazing!

Lamb shanks with cumin and paprika

• 4 frenched lamb shanks
• 1/3 cup of seasoned flour (salt and pepper)
• 3 tsp Moroccan spice blend
• 2 tsp of paprika
• 2 dried bay leaves
• 1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
• 1 large onion, finely diced
• 3 cloves of garlic
• 1 zucchini, diced
• 1 red capsicum, cut into thick slices
• 5 button mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced
• 1 400gm can of chopped tomatoes
• 2 cups of beef stock
• 1/2 cup of chopped parsley

Pre-heat your oven to 150 degrees (c)

Place flour and salt and pepper in a large freezer bag. Put one shank in the bag and toss it around until coated with flour. Repeat for all shanks.

Heat a few good glugs of olive oil in a large, heavy-based pan until it’s hot. Cook the lamb shanks on all sides until they are browned, but not cooked. The browning process is about increasing flavour – not cooking.

Remove the lamb shanks from the pan and add a little more oil, if required. Add the onion to the pan, with a pinch or two of salt and pepper and sweat for about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, Moroccan spice blend, paprika, cumin and cayenne to the pan and turn the heat down. Stir the spices for a minute or two, or until they start to release their flavour. Don’t let them burn, or they’ll go bitter.

Now add the canned tomatoes, stock, zucchini, mushrooms and capsicum and return the shanks to the pan. Cover, bring to the boil and then once boiling, place in the oven.

Cook for 1 1/2 to two hours. Check after 1 hours to see how the meat is progressing. To tell if it is ready – the meat should almost be falling off the bone. Once the meat is cooked, stir the parsley through – this gives everything a really nice lift.

Enjoy with some steamed rice, or cous cous.

If you like all the warming flavours of cinnamon (which is part of the Moroccan spice blend), paprika and cumin, this is a recipe for you. The cayenne gives it a little kick, so if you don’t like it a bit hot, leave it out.

At this point I’d like to congratulate my friend Kat for starting her very own foodie blog – check it out by clicking here – I was lucky enough to get a mention in yesterday’s post, where she featured my slow cooked pork with chorizo and cannellini beans. Nice to see the inspiration is getting around. I loved her first post – where she talks about the Italian feast she made the other night – looked amazing! I was so chuffed to see she made her own version of Matt’s Meatlovers Pasta. Check our her version here.

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Day 20 – What world cuisines inspire you?

Welcome to Day 20 of the Inspiration Challenge and the day I hope to get your thoughts on the foods of the world.

Today I am going to pose a question – what culture most inspires you when it comes to food?

Throughout this challenge I have had a few comments about various recipes, and come requests too – but let’s make this a little more interactive.

For me, it’s most definitely Italian food. I love everything about it – the colours of yellow pasta, red tomatoes and green basil and the textures and flavours that come with it. After that, it’s a bit of a tie between Indian and Thai food. I love the spice and tongue tingling flavours that come from both. Just extraordinary.

But lately I have most definitely been inspired thanks to the SBS show – Food Safari. The show, in its own description, is a culinary globetrot across Australia. They have featured Turkish, Greek, Spanish and African food – just to name a few. It’s a fascinating look at the ingredients people from all over the world have brought to Australia – and there’s no doubt we are such a lucky country to be as inspired as we are by cuisines from across the world!

I was also very lucky to be treated to the most amazing dinner party on the weekend – hosted by my wonderful friend Ruza and her fiancee Sam. The meal was a fusion of Balkan and Persian food. It was wonderful how the meal wasn’t only delicious and fantastic, but Ruza and Sam were able to explain what each dish was, its traditional name and why it is important to their culture. It was such a great experience that I hope Ruza will agree to contribute one of her recipes to Uforic Food in the not-too-distant future 🙂

Today’s recipe is inspired by Morocco – I just LOVE the flavours they use in their cooking.

Mechoui (marinated lamb backstrap)

• 1kg lamb backstrap, cut into 2 cm thick strips
  
  Marinade
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 1 tbsp sweet paprika
• Sea salt
• 2 tbsp chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped
• 1 tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Good drizzle of olive oil

Method:

Put the lamb into a bowl and add all the marinade ingredients. Use your hands to combine. Cover and leave for 1 hour in the fridge before grilling medium/rare on the barbecue.

Serve with minted yoghurt

 This is soooo yummy and the meat is all succulent and tender. Serve with some natural yogurt.

I’ve told you what world cuisines inspire me – share your stories in the comments section below.

Be Inspired~

Lisa 

Day 15: Lamb ragu

Welcome to Day 15 of The Inspiration Challenge and the official half-way point of the challenge. YAY!!

When I first came up with the idea to blog about 30 recipes in 30 days – well, I was so excited because I do like a good challenge and wanted to jump in and get going.

Now I won’t lie to you and tell you it has been a breeze to stay inspired and share these recipes – in this time I have finished selling my house, we have put a deposit on a block of land and I have been flat out trying to pack and move … ok, the moral of the story is that I have been soooo busy.

But while I have had so much on my mind – I have enjoyed getting in the kitchen and whipping up the dishes I love in order to measure everything (have I mentioned previously that I detest measuring?), photograph it, sometimes in stages, and then share it with you.

Now I haven’t actually cooked all of the recipes as I have gone along – most of them I know so well that I don’t have to do that – and due to my current living arrangements (half the time spent at my house, and the other at Matt’s) – I don’t cook every night.  But I have cooked 80 per cent of them for the challenge and I think that’s pretty good.

Today’s recipe is another Giana Di Laurentis-inspired creation. I saw it on her show Everyday Italian ages ago and as she put it together – I thought ‘wow, that must taste fantastic’ – I wish there was such a thing as tasteavision. Seeing as it doesn’t exist – I went on the hunt for the recipe. A big feature of this recipe when Giada made it was mint. Now I know mint and lamb are the best of friends – but I just don’t like mint. So I use fresh, flat-leaf parsley instead. But feel free to use mint if it’s your thing.

Lamb Ragu

• 400gm of rigatoni pasta
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 shallots, chopped
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• 500gm of  lamb mince
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup red wine
• 4 cups the Uforic Food marinara sauce recipe from Day 3 (click here for how to make it)
• 1/2 cup fresh, flat leaf parsley (or fresh mint, if you like)
• 1/2 cup of smooth ricotta cheese

Method:

Bring to the boil a large pot of salted water. Add the pasta and cook until tender but still firm to the bite – this should take about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain the pasta.

Meanwhile, in a large frypan warm the olive oil over a high heat. Add the shallots and the garlic and cook until tender, about 3 minutes. Add the lam mince, salt, and pepper and break up the meat as it cooks with a wooden spoon. Cook until it’s browned. Add the wine, scraping up any brown bits from the bottom. Simmer until the wine has reduced by half. Add the marinara sauce and simmer over a low heat for about 10 minutes. Add the parsley or mint and ricotta and stir until mixed. It makes the most lovely noise as you stir the cheese through. You just now it’s going to taste amazing. Add the pasta and stir to coat.

Serve this with some nice, crusty sourdough. It’s a great one to cook if you have a lot of hungry people to feed – this recipe makes enough to feed 6.

See you tomorrow!

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Day 14 – Greek-style roast lamb

It always really surprises me how some people think that cooking a roast is a bit of a difficult, time-consuming task.

The truth is, roasting meat is the simplest and most satisfying thing – with a few minutes dedicated to seasoning the raw meat – you just bung it in the oven and out pops a yummy and succulent dish.

However, there is one very important thing to remember when roasting – you MUST rest the meat after you take it out of the oven. It doesn’t matter if it’s, pork, chicken, beef – rest it for 10 to 15 minutes covered in some foil to keep it warm. This allows all the juices to settle within the meat, so that it doesn’t ooze out when you calve it and end up all over your chopping board, leaving the meat dry and flavourless. It’s a simple tip, but an absolutely vital step in cooking the perfect roast.

Lamb is my favourite roasting meat – and I have been cooking it since I was about 11 or 12. I always used to watch mum do it as a child. So, here is my roast lamb recipe, with a greek, lemony twist.

Greek-style lamb

• 1 leg of lamb
• 3 lemons
• Fresh rosemary sprigs
• 2 onions
• 2 garlic cloves
• Olive oil

Method
– Preheat oven at 180 degrees (Celsius).
– With a sharp knife, stab the lamb (about 5cm deep) about 7 to 10 times evenly all over the top of the roast.
– Drizzle olive oil over the top, season it generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, as well as the dried oregano and rub it, with your hands, all over the lamb.
– Peel and dice 2 large garlic cloves and stuff the garlic into the holes that you have made. Best to use your fingers to do this.
– Put a sprig of fresh rosemary in each hole too. It looks really pretty sticking out of the holes :).
– Peel two large onions and cut them into large pieces and lay then on the bottom of a roasting tray.
– Cut three lemons into wedges and lay them in the bottom of the tray also. This makes a nice bed for the lamb to rest on and ensures the bottom doesn’t burn (don’t serve the onion and lemon, they are just there for flavour, so you discard them after the lamb is cooked)
– Place the lamb on top of the onion and lemons. Drizzle the juice of half a lemon on top of the roast.
– Cook for 30-35 minutes per 500gm of meat. So for a 3 kilo leg, it will take about 3 hours. To check if it’s done, poke it with a skewer and if the juices run out clear (with no blood) it’s cooked through. If you want it medium (so a bit pink), reduce the cooking time to about 2.5 hours.

Helpful tip: If you think the lamb is getting a bit too brown as the cooking time goes along, just cover it with some tin foil to stop it from burning.

Make sure you rest the lamb after it’s cooked, as mentioned above. So take it out of the oven, leave it in the tray and cover it with foil (which keeps it warm) for about 10 to 15 minutes before you calve it.

You can serve this with some roast veg – or, seeing at it’s getting warmer – why not service the meat drizzled with yesterday’s tzatziki recipe – and perhaps a greek side salad of rocket, olives, fetta, cherry tomatoes and a light olive oil and lemon dressing?

Be Inspired~

Lisa

Uforic Roast Lamb

It always really surprises me how people think that cooking a roast is a really, really difficult task.
I remember the day my brother called me because he had promised to cook a roast – but didn’t know how.
However, after a few instructions over the phone he admitted cooking it was a breeze and his dinner guests were left very impressed with his efforts.

This week I had an email from a wonderful friend of mine saying she had a mammoth task of cooking for 10 people and that she wanted to cook a roast lamb.
Now cooking for 10 people is always going to be tough, unless you’re having a barbecue. But, in this instance, I think roast is a really terrific choice.
The truth is, roasting meat is the simplest and most satisfying thing – with a few minutes dedicated to seasoning the raw meat – you just bung it in the oven and out pops a yummy and succulent dish.

However, there is one very important aspect of roasting that people don’t realise. You MUST rest the meat after you take it out of the oven. It doesn’t matter if it’s, pork, chicken, beef – rest it for 10 to 15 minutes covered in some foil to keep it warm. This allows all the juices to settle within the meat, so that it doesn’t ooze out when you calve it and end up all over your chopping board, leaving the meat dry and flavourless. It’s a simple but absolutely vital step in cooking the perfect roast.

Roast lamb is my favourite meat – and I have been cooking it since I was about 11 or 12. I always used to watch mum do it as a child.
So, here is my roast lamb recipe, with a lemony twist.

The Ultimate Roast Lamb

– 2.5 – 3kg of lamb (this will feed up to 10 people – but feel free to use a smaller cut and just vary the cooking times
– three lemons
– fresh rosemary sprigs
– two onions
– 2 garlic cloves
– olive oil

Method
– Preheat oven at 180 degrees (Celsius).
– With a sharp knife, stab the lamb (about 5cm deep) about 7 to 10 times evenly all over the top of the roast.
– Drizzle olive oil over the top, season it generously with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper and rub it, with your hands, all over the lamb.
– Peel and dice 2 large garlic cloves and stuff the garlic into the holes that you have made. Best to use your fingers to do this.
– Put a sprig of fresh rosemary in each hole too. It looks really pretty sticking out of the holes :).
– Peel two large onions and cut them into large pieces and lay then on the bottom of a roasting tray.
– Cut three lemons into wedges and lay them in the bottom of the tray also. This makes a nice bed for the lamb to rest on and ensures the bottom doesn’t burn (don’t serve the onion and lemon, they are just there for flavour, so you discard them after the lamb is cooked)
– Place the lamb on top of the onion and lemons. Drizzle the juice of half a lemon on top of the roast.
– Cook for 30-35 minutes per 500gm of meat. So for a 3 kilo leg, it will take about 3 hours. To check if it’s done, poke it with a skewer and if the juices run out clear (with no blood) it’s cooked through. If you want it medium (so a bit pink), reduce the cooking time to about 2.5 hours.

Helpful tip: If you think the lamb is getting a bit too brown as the cooking time goes along, just cover it with some tin foil to stop it from burning.

Make sure you rest the lamb after it’s cooked, as mentioned above. So take it out of the oven, leave it in the tray and cover it with foil (which keeps it warm) for about 10 to 15 minutes before you calve it.

I really, really love this recipe and usually service it with roast potatoes, carrots and pumpkin. I hope you enjoy it as much as my family does 🙂