An Entrée in Colour: April 2010

Friday, April 30, 2010

Cook's Club Challenge #57 - my turn ;-)

it is my turn for Cook's Club and I must confess, this time it has been difficult to pick my three dishes.

Whilst going through my favourite things to cook, I realised that most of the dishes I cook now are actually from Cook’s Club Challenges!

I always used to have problems with my timing when doing a roast, but this one flows beautifully.

Roast Rack of Lamb & Potatoes (serves 2)
Ingredients
1 french cut Rack of Lamb (8 ribs - approx 300-400g)
Herbs – Rosemary & Thyme – approx 1 tsp each (adjust to suit personal taste)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil – 2 tbsp
Potatoes - 2-3 medium sized
Serve with your choice of vegetables and gravy.

Divide rack of lamb into two sections and marinate in Oil & herbs (I use a zip lock bag) for 30 mins.
Pre-heat oven (I set my oven to approx 190C)
Peel potatoes and cut into quarters and rinse.
Line Roasting dish with baking paper – give a quick spray of olive oil. Place cut potatoes curved side down and give a quick spray with olive oil.

Bake potatoes in oven for 20 minutes.
Turn potatoes to a flat side and bake for a further 20 minutes.

At the 10 minute mark of the second 20 minutes pre-heat frypan and place marinated lamb racks skin side down (I usually have the Heart Smart cuts of lamb, so the skin is almost not there) and cook for 2 minutes, turn lamb and cook each surface for 2 minutes. Remove from frypan. (I use this frypan with the residual oil & herbs to cook up some mushrooms).

Around now, the timer for the potatoes will be going off.

Take roasting pan out of oven and turn potatoes over to the other flat side and place the rack of lamb in roasting tin and return to oven for another 20 minutes (may take a bit longer depending on your oven and the size of your rack of lamb).

Please forgive the out of focus photo – I think the heat from the oven fogged up the lens ;-)

Remove lamb from oven and rest for a short time (cover with aluminium foil) while you plate up your potatoes and whatever other vegetables you have prepared. Enjoy!

Next is a salad that I got from my SIL – we have it whenever we have a BBQ

Pasta Salad

Ingredients

Pasta - approx 150g
Kabanas – 1 stick
Gherkin – approx 1 tbsp chopped (or more if you like gherkin)
Cubed Cheese – approx ½ cup
Boiled Egg x 1
Mayonnaise
Mustard Sauce

Mix up mayonnaise & mustard sauce – I do about ¼ cup mustard sauce, ¾ cup mayonnaise – you can alter ratios to suit your preferences
Slice up Kabanas, gherkins and chop up eggs & cheese
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl

Next is a dish that has been in my ‘to try’ list for quite some time – so I will be trying it along with you ;-)

Chocolate Cheesecake Brownie Slice
http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/15334/chocolate+cheesecake+brownie+slice

Sunday, April 18, 2010

I made bread!

We often visit SIL and have bread made using her breadmaker. DH always raves over it and says we should get a breadmaker too! I am reluctant to spend $200 on something I don't think we would use that much.

I figured we did not NEED a breadmaker. My Sunbeam Kitchen Centre (a 21st birthday present from my parents in 1981) had dough hooks and could mix everything nicely.

My SIL uses the Laucke Crusty White breadmix, so the next time I went shopping I got some.

On Saturday afternoon, I got out my trusty Sunbeam Kitchen Centre and my experiment began!

Here is my first bread - waiting to rise

Here it is risen! it actually rose!

I divided the mix into four rolls - next time I think I will do 6 - cooked for about 20 mins in the oven and placed in basket wrapped in tea towel while I cooked Fillet Mignon & Chips

Here they are sliced and buttered - the crust is sooo crusty.

We will be having the other two rolls tonight toasted with scrambled eggs! usual Sunday night fare!