Butternut Squash and Spiced Lamb Stew

A tagine by any other name, except this doesn't have the dried fruit.  Nonetheless, it's still a great dish, good and warming for those autumn evenings and a nice reminder of the heat of summer!

Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
500g cubed lamb
2 onions, roughly chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2.5cm piece fresh root ginger, grated
1 tbsp tomato purée
1 tbsp harissa paste (or to taste!)
25g plain flour
1.2 litres lamb or vegetable stock
1 butternut squash
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped (alternatively, use a tin of tomatoes and reduce the stock liquid)
400g can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
225g baby spinach
2 tbsp lemon juice
Couscous and crusty bread to serve

Method
Heat the oil in a large casserole, add the lamb and brown all over, stirring occasionally. Lower the heat to medium then add the onion, garlic and ginger and cook for another 3 or 4 minutes until softened. Sprinkle in the flour and stir, then add the tomato purée and Harissa and cook for a further 1 or 2 minutes. Add the stock, bring to the boil, cover tightly and simmer for 1-2 hours - the longer the better.

Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Peel and cut the flesh into bite-size chunks.

Add the tomatoes, squash and chickpeas to the casserole and cook for 30 or so minute until the squash is tender but not too soft giving an occasional stir.  Stir in the spinach and lemon juice and cook for a further 1–2 minutes.  Adjust the seasoning to taste with salt and pepper.

Serve with rice or couscous and lots of crusty bread to mop up the juices!

Roasted Spatchcock Poussin with Bulgar Wheat salad

This is a lovely transitional autumn dish for those days that are bright and warm before winter really sets in. It has a Mediterranean feel to it with the middle eastern style salad and the Italian style Poussin. It would be delicious over summer too cooked in the oven then finished off on the barbecue as spatchcocking the Poussin means it can be cooked pretty quickly. If you haven't spatchcocked a bird before, there's a great BBC video on how to do it - it isn't hard as long as you have a large, sharp knife :)  I used two small Poussins, one per person, but you should adjust the number of birds to suit the number of people you're feeding. You could also use Guinea fowl too which would work equally well.

Ingredients
For the roast Poussin
2 small Poussins
A small bunch of fresh thyme
3 lemons
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
12 garlic cloves
Salt and Pepper
250ml white wine
250ml chicken stock

For the Bulgar wheat salad
50g Bulgar wheat per person
250ml chicken or vegetable stock
1 tablespoon olive oil
½ a red pepper
1 small Courgette
2 sticks Celery
2 small tomatoes or one medium
3 spring onions
1 preserved lemon or half a roasted lemon from the roasting tin.
A small bunch of fresh coriander

Method
First preheat the oven to 220°C. Next, spatchcock the Poussin using the technique from the video link above. This will take about 10 minutes.

Once you've completed that, prepare the marinade. Peel and crush the garlic cloves with the flat of a knife and add them to a casserole dish. Next halve and squeeze the lemons and add them to the dish (if you're using roasted lemon instead of preserved, put one half lemon in the dish to the side without squeezing it). Place the Thyme in the dish with the garlic and lemon halves and place the Poussin on top. Finally, drizzle the olive oil over the birds, drizzle the lemon juice over and season with salt and black pepper. Cover with cling film and leave to marinade for at least an hour at room temperature.

While the birds are marinading, make the salad. Measure out the Bulgar wheat in a cup and add to a saucepan, then add 5½ times the volume of cold stock to the pan, bring to the boil, cover and simmer for 15 minutes.

While the Bulgar wheat is simmering, slice the peppers and cut each slice into 2 or 3, peel and chop the celery into ½cm cubes, slice the Courgettes using a potato peeler and cut the slices into three even pieces and roughly chop the tomatoes. Add the olive oil to a pan and heat it until it's smoking, then add all the veg to it and stir fry until they are softened and slightly coloured. Drain in a sieve. Prepare the rest of the ingredients by peeling and slicing the spring onions, chopping the coriander leaves roughly and by thoroughly rinsing the preserved lemon (to get rid of as much salt as possible), slicing into thin slices and halving the slices. Keep half the lemon for the Poussin. Once the Bulgar wheat is cooked, drain it and leave to cool for 5 minutes, add it to a bowl then mix in the roasted veg, onions, coriander and preserved lemon. Cover with cling film and set aside. This salad can be served warm or cold depending on taste. I prefer serving it slightly warm so I leave it next to the cooker to keep it warm.

Now pop the Poussin in the oven and bake for 40-45 minutes until it's cooked all through and the skin is nicely browned. Once it's finished cooking, place the Poussin on a hot serving plate, cover with tin foil and let it rest. While the Poussins are resting, make the sauce by adding the white wine to the casserole dish and deglazing the pan. Add the stock and boil rapidly to reduce and get rid of the alcohol. When you have reduced the sauce by ½, strain though a fine mesh sieve, adjust for seasoning and add a small amount of sugar or honey to take off the bitterness of the lemon - careful, you'll only need about a teaspoon of sugar!

To serve, put the Poussin on a warmed plate and add some sliced preserved lemon pieces and a little sauce.  Add a tablespoon or two of sauce to the salad and serve with the Poussin.  Add some good company, a couple of glasses of chilled bone-dry white wine and enjoy!

Carrots with butter and thyme

This is especially for Rowena as it's her favourite way of cooking carrots - she asked me for the recipe, how can I resist?  :-)

Ingredients

1 carrot per person (more if you wish)
1 large and 1 small knob unsalted butter (about 25g)
½ a teaspoon of sugar
2 good size sprigs of fresh thyme
A squeeze of lemon juice - fresh of bottled, it doesn't matter
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

Remove the thyme leaves from the stalks, then chop them roughly and rinse in cold water. Peel and cut the carrots into thin slices (Julienne), rinse in cold water, boil a pan and cook them for 2-3 mins until just cooked. 

Heat the butter in a pan until it's melted, add the carrots and sugar, then sauté until they are slightly browned.  Drain and leave in the colander to steam while you prepare the thyme butter.  Melt the remaining butter in a pan until liquid but not coloured, add the chopped thyme and a splash of lemon juice, mix together well, then add the carrots back into the pan, heat through and serve.