Walnut Wednesday

Well today was the first day back at work, after a 5 week break. So what did I decide to cook for dinner – a roast of course!!! Luckily I was home early and it was a cool day, so all was good. Instead of a traditional roast lamb and veges, I took a different tack and made a spiced roast leg of lamb with caramelised onion cous cous (based on Quick Smart Cook p158).

The flavouring on the lamb was delicious (cumin, coriander, paprika and garlic) and very aromatic. The lamb itself (from the amazing Cooroy Butchery – love buying locally) was tender and juicy, and cooked to a lovely pink medium. The caramelised onions and walnuts in the cous cous created a whole different flavour than you usually get with cous cous. Since lamb and lemon are old friends in my house, I added lemon wedges to serve. This helped to balance the sweetness of the caramelised onions in the cous cous. We had gravy from all the pan juices, but really it wasn’t necessary. Lucky those who are having leftovers tomorrow, including some friends’ lucky dog, Dozer, who gets the bone! Tonight’s lamb gets 4.5/5 wooden spoons (and yes I’m sticking with wooden spoons).

Spiced roast leg of lamb
3 tablespoons each of ground cumin, ground coriander and paprika, mixed with 3 crushed garlic cloves and 2 – 3 tablespoons olive oil. Rub this over whatever cut of lamb you have. Cook your lamb to medium, however you like to cook a roast – bbq, stove top, oven.

Caramelised onion cous cous
Slice 2 onions and 2 tbsp rosemary (or thyme). Cook in a frypan over a med-low heat, with a little bit of oil, for about 4 – 5 minutes till the onions start to soften (try not to get too much colour on them). Add 1 – 2 tbsp caster sugar and 100mL balsamic vinegar to the onions, and cook over low, stirring ocasionally until almost all the liquid has been absorbed and it looks almost jammy. Make the cous cous as you would normally (200g cous cous to 400mL boiling water). Once the cous cous is ready fluff it up with a fork and add 2 tbsp chopped parsley, the onions (and any juice), 20 g butter and 100g toasted chopped walnuts. You may need to add a little olive oil to the cous cous to loosen it up a little. Slice the lamb and serve with cous cous and lemon wedges.

Keeping with the walnut theme was tonight’s dessert – Carrot and Walnut Puddings (from Delicious Sweet p79). I describe these as basically a little warm carrot cake, and who doesn’t love carrot cake.

After baking in the oven, these were served with a dollop of cream and a drizzle of

golden syrup on top and sprinkled with chopped walnuts. They were very tasty. But the size of “mould” suggested in the recipe was far too big and we only managed to eat half a pudding, despite the sensational flavour. Next time I’d do them half the size and make twice as many. These will definitely freeze and reheat well too! Also I think I’d also add some spice next time – nutmeg or cinnamon, or even a ground up cardamom pod or two perhaps, just for a little bit more something! If you’d like the recipe, let me know. 4/5 wooden spoons.

PS Yes, I know we cook lamb a lot - but we love it!

Something old and something new

This is my first jaunt in our Wednesday night meals for 2012, and I thought that I would start with an old favourite for mains and something new for dessert.

To kick off I made red wine lamb racks with mint pesto gnocchi and slow roasted tomatoes. A fairly simple dish, but a dish that has great memories associated with it. (It is all about the story we are told on Masterchef). The lamb and mint pesto gnocchi was a dish that I ate at Rose's 30th birthday dinner. As I was eating the meal I was thinking of the flavours of the meal and thought it should be easy to replicate. Also this dish had foundations even before the delish dish from "The Dish". Way back in my Townsville years living as a bachelor a dear friend took me under her wing and thought I needed some lessons in cooking. MB's first dish she "taught" me was a lamb rack with asparagus and eggplant. Many thanks MB. Don't forget it is all about the stories.

In case you are wondering about the Mint Pesto - Lots of Mint, a handful of toasted pine nuts, 2 cloves of garlic, a good whollup of olive oil, and some parmessan cheese.

The something new of our meal was dessert. Heston Blumenthal's Vanilla and Cinnamon Ice cream from his Heston Blumenthal At Home. Heston says," The starting point for this recipe was a scientific paper on a phenomenon called 'odour adaptation', which is when the brain stops us smelling something even though the odour is still there. This process helps us detect whether an aroma is getting stronger or not and saves us from sensory overload."

"take 2 squeezy bottles that are big enough to produce a good whooomph of air when you squeeze them, and place 2 vanilla pods in one and bash two cinnamon sticks and place them in the other. Eat a spoonful of the ice-cream, then take a sniff of the vanilla bottle. Now eat another spoonful of ice-cream - you'll find it only has a cinnamon flavour. And if you eat the ice-cream after sniffing the cinnamon bottle , it will seem to be pure vanilla." This experiment works with 85% of people.

6 vanilla pods, 360g whole milk, 200g raw caster sugar, 35g skim milk powder, 840g whipping cream, 2 whole esspresso beans, 1 large cinnamon stick bashed. Extra vanilla pods and cinnamon sticks for the squeezy bottles.

1. Milk, vanilla pods scraped, inot saucepan, add sugar and milk powder over medium heat stirring until milk powder has dissolved.

2. Add cream and esspresso beans and cinnamon stick, bring to boil. Remove from heat and remove to container. Allow to cool in fridge for 2 hours it infuse.

3. Strain mixture through fine sieve.

4. Put mixture into ice-cream machine as per instructions of machine.

5. Decant ice-cream into sealable container and place in freezer till needed.

6. Enjoy.

Apparently Rose and I are in the 15% that this experiment does not work with, or there was not enough flavour in the cinnamon stick that I used. Maybe I should have put an extra cinnamon stick. Even though it didnt work with us, the ice-cream was unbelievablely smooth and creamy and it was delicious.

My ratings for the meal:

Lamb and Gnocchi - 5/5 wooden spoons

Cinnamon and Vanilla Ice-cream - 4/5 Wooden Spoons (cause the experiment didn't work with us)

We love lamb!

It's become an Aussie tradition - lamb on Australia Day. And well lamb any other day as well. Have a look at Australia's Lambassador Sam Kekovich's new song.

Quick Lemon Chick

Quick Lemon Chick

After a hot summer's day in south-east Queensland (apparently our hottest in a couple of years) I was looking for something refreshing and easy for dinner.  I had a chicken breast and lots of lemons - so lemon chicken was the obvious choice.

This however turned itself into a delicious stir fry once I spied Coles Coleslaw Supreme mix (red and white cabbage, carrot, corn kernels, celery, spring onion) for the crunchy vege component.  Look, they'd gone to the trouble of shredding it up for me, and who was I to argue!  The addition of the cherry tomatoes really helps to balance the lemony flavour beautifully.


Quick Lemon Chicken Stir Fry
Serves 2 (or if you have more hungry mouths to feed serve with pasta or steamed rice)

1 chicken breast, sliced in small pieces or strips (whatever takes your fancy)
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 lemon, zested and juiced
1 - 2 cups shredded veges (Coles Coleslaw Supreme mix works well - red and white cabbage, carrot, corn kernels, celery, spring onion)
150 mL chicken stock
1 tsp corn flour (depending on how juicy the lemon was you may want to add a bit more)
8 - 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
Lemon thyme (to serve)

Jimbour Station Verdehlo

1. Put a dash of olive in a big pan and stir fry chicken and onion, for 5 - 6 minutes, until chicken is browned.
2. Add veges to pan and cook for a few minutes.  The time depends on how crispy or wilted you like your veg.
3. Whilst that is happening, mix together the chicken stock, lemon juice and zest with the cornflour.
4. When you are happy with the chicken and vege, pour over the stock etc and stir to coat the chicken and veg.  Cook for a few minutes or until sauce is slightly thicker.
5. Toss in the tomatoes for the last little bit.
6. Serve it up with a sprinkling of lemon thyme over the top, and a nice cold glass of Jimbour Station (Qld!) Verdehlo.

Happy New Year

To start off 2012, I cooked using two of my favourite ingredients - duck and chocolate. Tonight's menu was Roast Duck Breast with pickled red cabbage and figs (Matt Moran, Dinner at Matt's, p98), followed by a flourless chocolate cake with raspberries (Delicious Sweet, p56)

I chose the duck dish as I actually had all the ingredients (except Veal jus) in the cupboard or fridge. I know what you're thinking - who has duck breast and random duck bits hanging around??? What can I say, I love duck.

I have learnt from experience that the cheapest way to cook with duck is to buy a whole one and break it down, which will cost you in the range of $20. To buy just two duck breasts costs the same. So why not make an effort and then you have the wings, neck and ribs in the freezer for a rainy day when you just so happen to feel like making spiced duck jus! It's not as hard as it sounds!

The entire dish was quite simple to create. The pickled red cabbage is better if done the day before, and allowed to soak in the fridge overnight. Once you've made the spiced duck jus and reduced it, cook the duck breasts and allow them to rest for 10 or so minutes. Then slice, plate and serve.

The chocolate cake was straight forward as well. I love flourless chocolate cakes with their gooey centres and this one didn't disappoint. I served it simply with fresh raspberries and a dollop of cream. Very tasty.

My rating for tonight's dinner: 4/5 wooden spoons

Rose

Welcome

Welcome to our new blog "Order in the Chaos".  We decided to call it that because it describes both of our kitchens.  Those who know us well will know which one of us is order and which is chaos!  The subtitle L.E.A.R.N. (Let's eat Andy and Rose's nosh) ties in with our real jobs and is kind of the main reason we love to cook, because we love to learn and try out new things.

This blog was suggested to us to document our Wednesday night dinners and other cooking adventures that we undertake and attempt.  We promise to give you the honest truth on all dishes - success, failure and those we're just quite sure about!  We are still deciding on a definitive rating measure (one of us suggested tongs, the other wooden spoons).  What do you think?

Please leave your comments on our attempts, as we always welcome the feedback (not just the ooohs and aahhs either).  If you'd like to join in the weekly dinner merry-go-round, we would be more than happy to include you - just let us know!

We hope you enjoy our cooking adventures as much as we do!
Andy and Rose