Lamb Lagota with Lamb Shanks

I thought i'd try my old favourite Jamie Oliver's lamb lagoto recipe with lamb shanks. The slight adaptation was a huge success. You might remember this recipe is from issue 2 of Jamie magazine.

The flavour was different because the meat was cooked on the bone; i added more fresh tomatoes stated on the recipe, i also added chicken stock instead of water and close to the end of cooking i added chunky carrot slices.

I served the lamb in a large bowl; it was literally falling off the bone from the long slow cooking time. The lamb and carrots sat on a bed of creamy mashed potato and I poured the thickened sauce all over; it was delicious!

For dessert we had the strawberry ice cream I made last night and churned earlier today.

The worst thing about this ice cream is that i had to share it with the 3 other members of my family...it was so good!

Strawberry Ice Cream is Yummy even in Winter!

Here in Australia, it's winter but even during winter I like ice cream. I just rug up when eating it! I made some chocolate ice cream the other day but I wasn't happy with it. It set really hard and was icy when served. I'm careful to store my ice cream in air-tight containers. In fact i only store ice cream in glass loaf shaped containers so that there is no smell or taste residue from other food items.
During Easter my daughters spend a few days in Melbourne with their Langford Grandparents and their Aunty Hazel. Hazel is a great cook, without exception. Hazel sent the girls back on the plane with a container of chocolate ice cream that she had made. It was Awesome!!! So light and moussy and chocolately. So now i'm on a quest to try and reproduce the ice cream that Hazel made and sent home with the girls. Hazel has the KitchenAid ice cream attachment and I have the Sunbeam Gelateria and my ice cream has always been hard. After doing little online research I found that generally the KitchenAid ice cream attachment gets great reviews about the softness of the ice cream even after freezing. So, I ordered one; Yes, I realise I should be going to a 12 step program for kitchen gadget/equipment addiction. Blame Hazel, she was the one who got me started many many years ago by buying many of my best gadgets. The best was an auger juicer that does everything including push out pasta! But that's another blog story LOL. I'll let you know how the KitchenAid ice cream attachment goes next week when it arrives. In the meantime i'm still on a quest to find great recipes. Tonight's ice cream flavour is strawberry.

This is the basic custard minus vanilla and the pureed and strained ripe strawberries that were then reduced on a high heat with castor sugar. They're both going in the fridge overnight to be cool enough to churn tomorrow. I'll take some pictures when it's churning and again when I serve it tomorrow night for dessert.

Here's the recipe which can be found in the Sunbeam Gelateria Automatic Ice-Cream Maker Instruction Booklet. I have adjusted the instructions from part 6 which gave instructions on how to use the Gelateria specifically to a generalised instruction.

Strawberry Ice Cream

Makes approx 1 litre

1 quantity of basic vanilla ice cream #2 (recipe to come)

500g strawberries, hulled

1/2 cup (55.) caster sugar

1. Follow steps 1-7 for basic vanilla ice-cream #2.

Add strawberry mixture in step 6.

Omit vanilla bean in basic vanilla ice cream #2 recipe.

2. To make strawberry mixture process strawberries in a food processor until smooth. Press mixture through a fine sieve; discard seeds.

3. Place stawberry puree and extra sugar in a saucepan and stir over a low heat until the sugar has dissolved. Increase heat and boil, stirring occasionally for about 8 minutes or until the mixture has reduced to 1 cup. Transfer to a heatproof bowl or jug; chill for several hours.

Once custard is cold; stir through strawberry mixture and chill until ready to churn.

Basic Vanilla Ice-Cream #2

(Makes pprox 800ml)

1 cup (250ml) milk

1 cup (250ml) thickened cream

1 vanilla bean (omit if making strawberry) (Vanila bean can be substituted with 2 tsp of vanilla essence)

4 egg yolks

1/2 cup (110g) caster sugar

1. Combine milk and cream in a saucepan. Split vanilla bean in half lengthways. Scrape out the seeds and add the pod and the seeds to the saucepan. Bring the mixture to simmering point over low heat being very careful to not allow the mixture to boil, then curdle.

2. Whisk egg yolks and sugar together for 3-4 minutes, until light and creamy.

3. Gradually whisk in hot milk mixture into yolk mixture until well combined.

4. Return the mixture into a clean saucepan and cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, over low heat until mixture thickens and coats the back of the spoon. Do not allow mixture to boil or it will curdle.

5. Transfer mixture to a bowl and remove vanilla pod. Allow to cool before placing in the fridge to chill for several hours

6. Add strawberry mixture to custard mixture and mix through evenly. Add the mixture to your machine and follow manufacturers instructions.

If you try the recipe please come back and let me know how it went and what ice cream machine/method you used to churn.

Happy ice cream eating!

Sausage Mania Continued

Out of the batch of 2kg of pork there have been many meals from the sausages that were made. After tonight's curry there are only about 6 left; enough to make 12 sausage rolls. We've really enjoyed the sausages so i might need to make some more this weekend.

Bay Sausage Rollers, Roller Sausaging, Sausage Rolling!

So, here are some of the many sausages that were made last night! Tonight we cut them in half and peeled the casing off.

We used ready made puff pastry; mainly because of it's ease.

The egg wash helps glue the pastry edges together and also give colour to the cooking sausage rolls.
Each pastry sheet was cut into 6 pieces.

The pastry rectangle was wrapped around each sausage half and then egg washed on the exposed end to glue it together. Any excess pastry was trimmed off.

Each sausage roll was scored on the top side.

Baking paper was used to line the two trays and they were cooked in a 220 degree centigrade oven. I don't have a fan-forced oven so I raised the temp from 200 degrees to 220 degrees.

I had mine with Maggie Beer's Cabernet sauce; which is delicious!

They were delicious!

Next, I will be making sausage curry with some of the rest of the sausages that were made.

See you then!

Sausage Mania - Indian Spicy Sausages

These are hog casings preserved in salt and stored in the fridge. Yes, they are a bit tangly but somehow we manage to get them untangled each time we need to use them.

Soak the casings you want to use in hot water for about 10 minutes. Then run a 'bubble' of water through each casing to clean them. Then run a 'bubble' of olive oil through each casing. The oil makes handling the casings much easier.

Cut your meat into chunky pieces so they easily fit through the mincer chute. I use pork in these sausages. Make sure you have enough fat to make the sausages moist. Dry sausages are awful.

I use a ratio of 3 parts meat to 1 part fat. Feed the meat through the mincer using the large holed plate to begin with.

Pass the meat/fat mixture through the mincer again, this time with the smaller plate attached to give a finer mince.

Mix through any fillings and seasonings that you want in your sausage. Somehow I missed taking a picture of my mixture. I finely chop chillies, onions and bunches of coriander including the roots. I season with salt and pepper, cayenne pepper and garamasala. This mixture then gets put through the mincer again with the large holed plate. Doing this helps to ensure that the mixture doesn't get caught in the stuffing tube. I use a small stuffing tube because it helps to keep the casings from getting too full; which makes it prone to splitting. To prepare the mincer to stuff the casings you need to take off the plate and the cutting blade and put on the stuffing nozzle. Slide one casing on to the nozzle making sure it isn't twisted. Leave at least two inches of the casing free at the beginning. When you turn the stuffer on keep hold of the casing and guide the meat through. Make sure there are no air bubbles in your sausages. Air bubbles are the enemy of sausages. The casings will push off the nozzle very easily without being controlled and the meat will be in lumps rather than one long stream so it is essential that you control the casings at the end of the nozzle.

Make sure you leave 2 inches of casing free at the end of the sausage. There needs to be room for the meat to move in the casings when you tie them off. If there isn't enough room they casings will split when you tie them.

I can't explain how to twist in writing. I'll try and get a picture tutorial next time i make them. They are twisted 3 to a row.

I poach my sausages as soon as they are twisted. Make sure to prick each sausage about 4 to 6 times so they don't split from the pressure of cooking. Then they are used in a variety of ways. Some are put into Sausage Curry (not curried sausage). Some are cut in half lengthways, wrapped in puff pastry and made into sausage rolls. Some are eaten as is. Some are pan fried. I poach them in a couple of inches of water until cooked through.

I cut my sausages up individually so that my family can get to them easily.

Here's the Langford Family Sausage Recipe:

1 kg of pork with a good handful of pork fat

1 tsp salt

2 tsp garamasala

1 tsp cayenne pepper

6 small chillies, deseeded and chopped finely

2 medium onions, peeled and chopped finely

Finely chop 1/2 to 1 bunch of coriander, with roots & stems. (I use a whole generous bunch)

1 tsp ground black pepper

Mix all ingredients together and feed into hog casings. Hog casings are getting harder and harder to get from the local butcher..for that matter so is getting pork fat. I got to an Italian butcher (San Merino in Central Markets, Adelaide). Any continental butcher should be able to accommodate your request for pork fat. Here in Adelaide I haven't found one butcher to supply hog casings. I get them from a butcher supply company in 2 kg lots which I preserve in salt & refrigerate. Alternatively you can get collagen casings from places such as Bake 'n Brew. I have collagen casings but haven't used them as yet.

HaNdMaDe RaViOli

1 egg per 100 grams of 00 flour. Mix and knead for 10 minutes. Then let the dough rest, covered for 30 to 60 minutes.

While your dough is resting get your gear together. I hand-made my ravioli with these cutters.

I rolled my dough using the pasta attachment on my KitchenAide mixer.

Fillings for ravioli can be as diverse as you like; so be creative and experiment! I used pecorino cheese, fresh basil and an imported Italian proscuitto that my Italian grocer at Norwood highly recommended. Next time i think i will mix all my ingredients together in a processor to make a paste filling.

Make sure you flour your pasta very well so they don't stick together while you continue to make the rest.

Make sure there's plenty of water to boil your ravioli in. Don't put oil in the water, it's unecessary, but do salt the water.



We served our ravioli in a runny meat sauce because i took it out of the freezer yesterday to have spagetti for dinner. We didn't end up having spaghetti so i needed to use the sauce with the ravioli so it wouldn't be wasted. Ordinarily i would saute garlic in a pan, add tomatoes and cook on a high heat for a few minutes and then toss the ravioli in it.

It was a delicious meal and fresh home made ravioli is has no subsitute. Try it; you won't be disappointed! If you have any left over dough after using all your ingredients, roll and cut into spaghetti, linguini, paparadelli etc and then freeze in a freezer bag. That way when you want a quick meal and have some sauce on hand, all you have to do is quickly boil some water. Fresh pasta cooks a lot quicker than dried pasta! Bonus! LOL

Poussin, Chicken or good old Chook?

Poussin and baby vegetables

I had browned baby carrots, potatoes & onions in olive oil.

Then I added a quartered lemon and some sprigs of rosemary. The butterflied poussin were then spread on top of the veg.

Melted butter and honey were used to glaze the poussin and 2 cups of chicken stock were poured into the pot.

Then I put a cartouche over the poussin and then put the pot lid on.

I put them in the oven at 200 degrees centigrade for about 50 minutes. I removed the cartouched and lid and then browned it for a further 10 minutes.

Here's the finished product ready to serve. It was yum. I strained the leftover liquid and then thickened it with arrowroot powder. I don't like thickening with flour or cornflour. The gravy turned out flavoursome beyond belief!