Attempt #70: Beetroot, carrot & orange salad

Minus the Beetroot (as the kids never liked them and it is an acquired taste even for adults!), the combination of carrots, oranges and sesame seeds was gorgeous! I took a close up shot on my phone but it was not captured and I did not realized this until we finished the entire platter of the salad.

To quote Jamie...
“If you’re looking for a salad you can make all the time, this is the one. It’s great with everything from leftover beef or slow-cooked lamb, to oily fish or crumbly cheeses, such as feta. ”

I have to attached a pic from Jamie's website. For the recipe, click on this link 

http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetable-recipes/beetroot-carrot-orange-salad/ 

Attempt #49: Roast Lamb

My first attempt at man handling and cooking a leg of lamb! Although the recipe and method is pretty similar to the earlier roast chicken, the tricky part is in not over or under-cook the lamb.

The result:

The lamb was initially under-cooked when I first took it out from the oven. Hence, I pop the lamb back into the oven but the lamb became a tad over-cooked. It was not as tender as I hoped for.

 Ingredients

• 4.5 pounds leg of lamb
• 2 medium onions
• 2 carrots
• 2 sticks celery
• 1 bulb garlic
• olive oil
• sea salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• 1 lemon
• 1 small bunch fresh thyme, rosemary, bay or sage, or a mixture

Attempt #20: Roast Pork (‘Siew Yuk’)

‘Siew Yuk’! With a couple of friends over for dinner, I decided to attempt ‘Siew Yuk’.

Firstly, I have never had a whole chunk of 3 pound pork loin in my house before this which means that I have never handled a whole piece of meat of such mass before this either!

 

The Buying Experience:  

When I asked the butcher for 3 pounds of pork loin and as she was trying to slice the measured pork for me, I was getting an anxiety attack and started to tell her not such a big piece. She gave me a 'please-make-up-your-mind' look and confirmed that I wanted 3 pounds. So, I just simply nodded since the recipe did ask for 3 pounds and I wanted to ensure that I follow the recipe accurately for this one. A good Siew Yuk is not an easy task hence I didn’t want to risk it by getting a smaller piece of meat.

The Preparation/Cooking Experience:

Recipe asked for a box cutter or a very sharp knife to score the skin. The recipe reminded that we  need to make sure that we are to slice just the skin and fat and not the meat underneath. Do this all the way along at ¼ inch intervals. 

Now for this task…the knife must be really, really sharp. I thought my knife was sharp enough… I mean, it works smoothly with watermelons and melons are huge. But the ‘ah ha’ moment is when you realized that in the culinary world, size doesn’t matter but density. Lesson learnt: Ask the butcher to do this for you.

Once the pork loin is scored, the drizzling of the virgin olive oil and massaging salt and freshly ground black pepper onto the meat was quite manageable. But I now know what my masseuse has to go through - she has to massage more than 100 pounds of flesh daily. And I am here trying to massage this 3 pound meat on my chopping board which was already a handful!

The Result:

All diners gave a whopping ‘Not Bad!” feedback! The skin on top was really crispy but a little too tough to the teeth. Leaving it in the oven for 1 hour 20 minutes was 10 minutes too long.  But overall, it was juicy and fragrant.

The roasted pork was served with the horseradish sauce (see Attempt #19) and the roast pork gravy (see attempt #21 for the recipe for the gravy).  

 

 

 

Attempt #17: One Hot Pot Basic Stew

Anything that says stew or one hot pot, I couldn’t resist trying this recipe out.

For the sheer fact that stews means that all ingredients goes into 1 pot and as they are usually slow cooked, all the nutrients are conserved. In short, nutritious and fewer number of cooking utensils required to be washed! J

To make this even easier, Jamie recommended an add-on ingredient i.e. POTATOES.

Once the stew is cooked, just fill a large baking dish with the fully cooked stew and lay your boiled and sliced (1/4 inch thick) potatoes over the top of your stew. Drizzle with a little olive oil (or melted butter) and brush this over across the potatoes. Sprinkle some picked thyme leaves over the potatoes and add a pinch of salt and pepper. Cook in the oven for 40 minutes on a 190 degrees temperature.

The result:

 

As I replaced white wine with Apple Juice, the stew came out rather sweet. I had couple of friends over for dinner and general feedback was quite OK. Nothing spectacular about the stew but easy on the taste bud.

However, biggest lesson learnt, when cooking stew, do not use an induction cooker as when we had to slow cook the stew, an induction cookers works in a way where the heat is spread out across the entire ceramic surface that holds the pot. And unlike a gas stove, you are unable to reduce the heat towards the center of the pot which helps when you are slow cooking stews. So, I realized this too late. Some of the vegetables were burnt which could have affected the quality of the stew.

My burnt pot:

 

 

 

 

 

Recipe:

• 3 sprigs of fresh thyme
• 1 pound diced, boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 cups of white wine
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 medium onions
• 2 carrots
• olive oil
• 1 heaped tablespoon plain flour
• 1 x 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Method:

If using the oven to cook your stew, preheat it to 180ºC/350ºF/gas 4 • Trim the ends off your celery and roughly chop the sticks • Peel and roughly chop the onions • Peel the carrots, slice lengthways and roughly chop • Put a casserole pan on a medium heat • Put all the vegetables and the bay leaves into the pan with 2 lugs of olive oil and fry for 10 minutes • Add your meat and flour • Pour in the booze and tinned tomatoes • Give it a good stir, then season with a teaspoon of sea salt (less if using table salt) and a few grinds of pepper • Bring to the boil, put the lid on and either simmer slowly on your hob or cook in an oven for 3 hours • Remove the lid for the final half hour of simmering or cooking • When done, your meat should be tender and delicious • Remember to remove the bay leaves before serving, and taste it to see if it needs a bit more salt and pepper • You can eat your stew as it is, or you can add some lovely dumplings to it.