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.

Roasted pepper and tomato salad with a garlic and redcurrant dressing

Again, this is a Spanish themed salad - they seem to have the best salads from my point of view!  It's easy to make and tastes brilliant.  Go really easy on the garlic though, raw garlic is so strong it takes only a small amount to flavour the dressing.  If you add a handful of redcurrants, they are also really good crushed into the dressing to get the juice.

Ingredients
2 red peppers
8 cherry tomatoes - vine ripened if possible, even better if home grown!
1½ tablespoons olive oil
1 dessertspoon red wine vinegar
½ a small garlic clove, crushed (about 2mm cubed is more than enough)
A small handful of redcurrants (optional)
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
Heat the oven to 220°C, core and de-seed the peppers and cut into 1cm strip.  Place them on a baking tray and drizzle with the olive oil.  Put the tray into the oven and bake for 20-30 minutes until soft but not burnt.

 Meanwhile, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and put into a suitable sized serving dish.  You can also start making the dressing.  Add the wine vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper to a small bowl, next crush the redcurrants to get the juice.  If you don't mind getting stained hands to can crush them in your fist, but you can also use a fine sieve and the back of a dessertspoon or even a garlic crusher!

Once the peppers are cooked, drain them keeping the oil and add the peppers to the tomatoes.  Add some of the drained oil to the dressing, whisk the dressing with a balloon whisk, adjust to taste with oil, salt & pepper.  Pour the dressing over the peppers and tomatoes and serve.  You can have this as a warm or cold dish, whichever you prefer.

Chicken gujons with an orange and mint sauce

This started out as a Spanish recipe where the chicken is first browned and then further cooked with the orange and mint, but to my mind it didn't work out too well, so I've modified it to suit my taste.  I've added a coating of salt, pepper, crushed garlic and then rolled the chicken pieces in wholemeal flour before frying them, and made the orange sauce separately.   Judging by the family yesterday, they really like it too!

Ingredients
2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
3 garlic cloves
Salt & pepper
1 tablespoon wholemeal flour
Olive oil for frying
3 whole oranges

1 good handful of mint
25g cold butter

Method
Juice two of the oranges - you should get about 150 ml of orange juice.  Slice the other range into 8 and remove the central pith and slice off the skin to leave 8 orange wedges.  Finely chop the mint and set everything aside for later.

First cut the chicken breasts into bite size gujons.  Crush the garlic onto the chicken pieces and add the salt and pepper to taste.  Mix the chicken with the garlic, salt and pepper to evenly coat the chicken, then dust with the wholemeal flour.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a non stick pan and fry the chicken pieces until lightly browned.  Take the chicken off the heat, wrap it in foil and keep warm ready for serving,

Now make the sauce.  Using the same pan the chicken was fried in, add the orange juice and bring to the boil, then reduce it just a little for no longer than 1-2 minutes - it should still be liquid and not starting to thicken.  Now add the chopped mint and the butter and stir vigorously until the butter has melted but not clarified.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, put the chicken gujons on a plate, spoon the sauce over and garnish with the orange wedges.  This goes well with a red pepper salad, or any leaves and either potato salad (my favourite) or rice (Suzanne's favourite)

Bulgar wheat and roasted vegetable salad

I made this up to go with the middle eastern lamb shanks recipe as I wanted something nice and summery to go with it. You could use pretty much anything you want in any measure, including carb, so feel free to substitute rice or couscous but I like the wholegrain taste of the bulgar wheat.  The only thing you really need to do is to include a mix of roasted veg and traditional salad veg.  It was an instant hit and a number of folks have asked if I'm putting up the recipe, so here it is... enjoy :-) This will easily serve 8 but keeps in the 'fridge for 2-3 days and goes with any grilled meat or fish. If you want to just have it on it's own you can add some cubes of feta cheese to bump up the protein.

Ingredients
150-200g bulgar wheat
1 handful broad beans
1 handful peas
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
1 red pepper1 yellow pepper
1 aubergine
3 good size tomatoes
2 courgettes
1 corn on the cob
6 radishes
1 bunch spring onions
75g feta cheese (optional)
The juice of ½ a lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

Method
First prepare the bulgar wheat. Measure the wheat into a cup or measuring jug, add it to a saucepan and then add 5½ times the volume of boiling water and a good pinch of salt. Bring to the boil and keep on a rolling boil for 15 minutes. When the wheat is cooked, drain in a sieve and leave to cool.

Prepare the beans and peas by shelling them (you can use frozen if you like) and then add them to boiling water, bring to the boil and cook for no more than 2 minutes. Drain them and rinse with cold water to stop the cooking process.

While the bulgar wheat is cooking and cooling, prepare the roasted veg. I tend to fry them rather than cook in the oven as I have a griddle pan, but you can do either. De seed the peppers and cut into bite size pieces. Slice the aubergine and tomatoes 1½cm thick. Now heat a small amount of olive oil in the griddle pan until smoking and add the sliced pepper, aubergine and tomato (or spread on a non-stick baking sheet if using the oven and heat the oven to 200°ree;C), add a little salt and brown on each side, adding a little extra oil if needed.  The aubergine should be done last as it will absorb all the oil. Don't be tempted to use too much oil as this will make the whole dish greasy, try and use as little as possible - we're aiming for "fresh"!

To prepare the courgette, top and tail them and then using a potato peeler or mandolin slice them really finely then add a little salt and pepper to them. Cook them by adding them to the pan used for the other vegetables and be careful as they will cook quickly and go from raw to burnt so don't be tempted to take your eyes off them.

To cook the corn on the cob, again use the same pan and brown the cob on all sides b(this will take some time). Once it's cooked, leave to cool so you can handle it then top and tail the cob and slice off the corn from the core.

Prepare the radishes, spring onion and feta by slicing or cutting them to your preference (I'd suggest disks for the radish and spring onion and ½cm chunks for the feta).

Finally, mix everything together, add the juice of half a lemon and salt and pepper to taste and serve warm or cold.

Middle eastern spiced lamb shanks

This has a middle eastern flavour but is not genuine middle east, however, the ingredients are from Iran, Morocco and a little bit of Spanish thrown in for good measure!  It's a beautiful dish and makes a beautifully rich sauce that is just divine :)  As it's so rich, be careful what you serve it with.  I made a bulgar wheat salad with a mix of roasted and raw vegetables and this worked really well, all the family came back for more.

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
2 lamb shanks
1 large knob of butter
2 large onions, roughly chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 unwaxed lemon, zest and juice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cumin
A good pinch of saffron strands (optional)
1½ heaped tbsp tomato purée
1 dessert spoon clear honey
400ml lamb stock
2 teaspoons quince jelly

Method
Heat oven to 160C. Heat the oil and butter in a large casserole. Season the shanks, then brown in the oil for 10 mins until golden all over. While the shanks are browning add the onions and garlic to the casserole and cook with the lamb - once the lamb's done, they'll be turning golden too.

Add the lemon zest and all the spices to the casserole and cook for 1 min, then add the tomato purée, honey, stock, the lemon juice and quince jelly and stir to combine.  Bring the casserole to a simmer, then cover with a tight fitting lid and braise in the oven for 2½-3 hrs.

Once the meat's done, spoon away any excess fat, then check the consistency and if it looks a little thin, remove the lid and reduce the whole lot until it's a good, thick, rich gravy.  Season to taste and serve with rice, salad or my bulgar wheat salad recipe.