You'll relish my tomato relish.

I normally have a sandwich or two on Monday's and I've been rotating the condiments around a bit but I've gotten bored with them lately and missed having tomato relish. I used to make it back in Australia and Mum said at one stage that she thought I should enter it in the Royal Easter Show for judging...I never did and actually regret it now. (BTW, for the non-Australians here is a link to the Easter Show: http://www.eastershow.com.au/info/index.aspx )

I've only made this once since moving to the US but usually have all the good intentions of making it...this time I actually extracted my digit (pulled my finger out) and made it.

It's really good on sandwiches as well as putting on sausages and steak.

I got the recipe from my trusty Margaret Fulton cook book. I usually make a double batch because it it time consuming and I usually go through it pretty quick.

Ingredients:

1.5kg (3lbs) very ripe tomatoes
500g (1lb) onions
2 cups sugar (you could go with 1 1/2 cups)
2 1/2 cups malt vinegar
1 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp mustard powder
1 tbsp salt
pinch of cayenne pepper

Method:

Cut a cross in the bottoms of the tomatoes and blanch them in a pot of boiling water for 30-60 seconds. Remove from the water and peel the tomato, but be careful as the tomato will be very hot...asbestos fingers come in handy!. (The hot water will make the skin practically slide off.)

Chop the tomatoes and put them into a colander sitting in a bowl. You want to collect and set aside 3/4 cup of the juice. (You may have to help the juice out by pushing down on them.) 

Chop the onions, how fine or coarse is up to you, but leave some of them a bit coarse for texture.

Put the tomatoes and onions in a saucepan with the malt vinegar and sugar and simmer, uncovered, until the mixture is thick. This will take a couple of hours at least.

When the mixture is thick, put the reserved tomato juice, flour, curry powder, mustard powder, salt and cayenne pepper in a small bowl and whisk to combine.

Pour the mixture into the tomatoes and onions, turn up the heat a little and stir until the mixture comes to a boil, then simmer it for 5 minutes.

Bottle the mixture in clean jars and seal them when they have cooled to room temperature. You DO NOT NEED to follow the American way of sealing the jars in a water bath or however they do it. This stuff will not go off due to the acid in the tomatoes and vinegar. As I mentioned, I've been making this for quite a few years and have yet to get sick or have any "go off" on me.

This is a bit time consuming but really is worth the effort.

Enjoy!

Matt

Lamb's what?? Offal is not awful!!

Lambs fry. WTH is lambs fry, you ask. Here is a wiki on it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamb%27s_fry, essentially it is lambs liver cooked with bacon and onions with a gravy made with the juices. You can actually make lambs fry with pork, beef or lambs liver. Mum used to make this every now and then using beef liver.

Chanin's cousin Chris gave us some pork and lambs liver a while ago and I decided to use the pork liver for this dish. This is actually a VERY good source of iron and vitamins and I am personally a big fan of this and pretty much any other offal dish, be it heart, tongue, kidneys etc.

It is also awesome the next day on toast with a bit of hot sauce for breakfast. Again, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but I like it and I'm sure there are some of you that like it too.

I got this recipe from Mum but if you are in the US, you can get the livers already cut up for you, so you don't have to go through that drama.

1 whole lambs fry which needs to be skinned (this is a fine white membrane - a bit tedious but important)

3-4 bacon rashers

1 small onion

plain flour for dredging the liver

Method:

Slice the fry very finely - approx. 3-4mm (the fry consists of two lobes so it is easy to cut it on a slope from the middle across the top of the lobe to the side - imagine putting your left hand on the chopping board and take the knife and slice from your knuckles down to your finger tips. Come back to half way up your hand and repeat. This then gives you a nice big think flat slice). Do not use the centre where the main blood vessels go through.

Remove the rind from the bacon and cook the bacon and the rind but don't crisp it. Remove from the pan.

If necessary, add some butter/margarine to the bacon fat in the pan.

Put some flour in a plastic bag and add the liver 3-4 slices at a time.

Shake off excess flour and place the liver in a single layer in the pan and gently fry until the first blood spots appear on top.

Turn the liver over and fry gently for another minute or two. Remove from the pan.

Repeat this process until all the liver has been fried off.

Add more fat to the pan if necessary and cook the onion.

Add flour to the onions and proceed to make a gravy, adding water, a bit at a time until you get the right amount and consistency.

(After I've added the first lot of cold water I then use the water from the potatoes to finish off the gravy. There is usually enough salt in the potato water and the bacon without adding any additional salt). However, I do add some black pepper.

Once the gravy is made add all of the liver, the bacon and the rind to the gravy and let it simmer for 4-5 minutes. It may be necessary to add more liquid to your gravy if it gets too thick.

The secret of cooking lambs fry/liver is not to overcook it because that's when it becomes tough and leathery.

I serve it with boiled peas and carrots and mashed potato. This is real comfort food from my childhood.

I know some of you will turn your nose up at this and that's fair enough, but I am a very adventurous eater and will try pretty much anything...hell, I eat chickens feet at yum cha/dim sum and actually have a recipe for that too! :-)

Enjoy!

Matt

I like breast...lamb's breast.

And you thought I was being dirty!

Lamb's breast (also called lamb ribs/riblettes in the US) are a very under used cut of lamb. It's cheap, but very fatty, so can be a bugger to cook.

There's all sorts of recipes for braised or boned breast, but not too many for bone-in, roasted. I found this on the web when I was looking for recipes and, being oven roasted, I was all over it.
 

Ingredients:

3 lbs breast of lamb

1 tsp whole cloves

¼ cup honey

¼ cup lemon juice

1 tsp salt 

Method:

Preheat oven to 325°.

Place lamb breasts on rack in shallow roasting pan. Bake 1 hour and 45 minutes. Drain off excess fat. 

 

Combine cloves, honey, lemon juice and salt; then pour over lamb. Bake about 20 minutes more.

I served the lamb with braised cabbage and slow roasted vegetables.

Slice the cabbage as thick or thin as you like. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a medium sized saucepan over medium heat, add the cabbage, cover and turn heat to a lower setting. Stir the cabbage after a few minutes to ensure it gets coated in the butter. Keep stirring the cabbage every few minutes until it it soft, then take the lid off the saucepan and allow it to "dry" on a low heat, stirring every now and then, until there is some colour on the cabbage.

 

Slow roasted vegetables

Ingredients:

1 tsp sage

1 tsp thyme

1 tsp rosemary

2 cups cubed sweet potato

2 cups chopped carrots

2 cups cauliflower

2 cups cubed parsnips

2 cups cubed potato

2 cups cubed butternut

Method:

Preheat the oven to 325F (160C).

Peel the sweet potato, butternut, potato, carrots and parsnips and cut into cubes.

Cut similarly sized pieces of cauliflower.

Place all the veggies in a large roasting pan. Season with salt and pepper. Add herbs.

Roast at 325F covered in aluminum foil for 30 minutes. Stir vegetables.

Cook another 30 minutes. Stir vegetables again.  

Place back in the over, uncovered this time - checking every 10 minutes until done (should be fork tender).

So there you go. It takes a while to cook, but is very much worth the effort.

A word of caution, the lamb breast is VERY fatty as it consists of layers of meat and fat. You will have to remove the layers one at a time if you don't want to eat the fat.

This dish is not for the health conscience, unless you only have it about once every 6 months or so.

Enjoy!

Matt 

Super sweet tooth only...Banoffee Pie

I've been wanting to make this for a while, but for some reason or another, I haven't until now.

This recipe is for a Banoffee pie. It is a super, super sweet dessert that's main ingredient is condensed milk. I remember back in Australia, we used to get condensed milk in a tube and just eat it that way. I also remember my Grandpa and Nanna using condensed milk in their cuppa tea. Anyway here is a wiki http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banoffee_pie if you're interested in it's history.

There's actually two ways to make the "toffee" part. One is to put the can of condensed milk in a saucepan of water and boil it for about 3 hours, making sure the can is covered with water at all times.

The way I made it is actually much easier and takes quite a lot less time.

Ingredients:

395g can sweetened condensed milk
75g butter, chopped
½ cup (110g) firmly packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons golden syrup
2 large bananas (460g), sliced thinly
300ml thickened cream, whipped

pastry
1½ cups (225g) plain flour
1 tablespoon icing sugar
140g cold butter, chopped
1 egg yolk

2 tablespoons cold water

Method:

Make pastry.

Pastry
Process flour, sugar and butter until crumbly; add egg yolk and water, process until ingredients come together. Knead dough on floured surface until smooth. Wrap in plastic; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Grease 24cm-round loose-based fluted flan tin. Roll dough between sheets of baking paper until large enough to line tin. Ease dough into tin; press into base and side. Trim edge; prick base all over with fork. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 200°C/180°C fan-forced.

Place tin on oven tray; cover dough with baking paper, fill with dried beans or rice. Bake 10 minutes; remove paper and beans carefully from pie shell. Bake a further 10 minutes; cool.

I cheated and use a store bought pie base, as I can get them for $1.50 each and I really don't think I can make it that cheap.

Lay out your ingredients so you're ready to go.

Meanwhile, combine condensed milk, butter, sugar and syrup in medium saucepan; cook over medium heat, stirring, about 10 minutes or until mixture is caramel-coloured. 

Stand 5 minutes; pour into pie shell, cool.

Top caramel with banana; top with whipped cream.

I have to admit using whipped cream from a can because I didn't have any thickened cream in the fridge. Just get a 600ml (pint) carton of thickened cream and beat with an electric mixer until it's stiff, adding a bit of sugar to taste.

This is NOT a dessert for those watching their weight (like me) but a little bit won't kill ya!

Enjoy

Matt