Category Archives: Lamb

Which pie is which?

There are four recipes on the ‘NeedARecipe.com’ website which seem to confuse people, so let me try and explain.

Shepherd's PieShepherd’s Pie is what most people tend to call any variation, but the original Shepherd’s Pie was made just with onions, lean minced (ground) lamb, and topped with mashed potato. Shepherd’s Pie is an original English recipe that is inexpensive and ideal for a hungry family. Great with a glass of beer or cider.

Shepherd’s Pie is the sort of food that brings a smile to everyone’s face! That saucy, full-of-flavour filling, that creamy potato topping, and that awesome golden potato crust. This is a timeless classic – make this once and you’ll make it over and over again.

Cottage PieCottage Pie is similar BUT it’s made with beef and not lamb. The Brits have a national fascination with minced meat pies and, when they combined it with mashed potatoes, the Cottage Pie was born. In early cookery books, the dish was a means of using leftover roasted meat, and the pie dish was lined with mashed potato as well as having a mashed potato crust on top.

This classic favourite makes a comforting meal, especially on a cold day. Lean minced beef is a healthy filling that takes minutes to cook, and the topping is quickly browned under the grill. Serve with peas or seasonal greens. Delicious!

Parmentier de CanardDuck Pie (Parmentier de Canard) is similar again BUT it’s made with confit de canard – duck confit. This simple recipe will give you a different take on Shepherd’s Pie or Cottage Pie. It’s a duck version that will delight your family and your guests alike. The only drawback is that you may not find it easy to get hold of Confit de Canard. We’re lucky, living as we do for six months of the year in France. But you can order Confit de Canard online from Godard the best producers in France.

Vegetable Shepherd's PieVegetarian Shepherd’s Pie meets the needs of an increasingly vegetarian population. The meat is replaced by vegetables and a rich gravy is produced with a combination of wine and vegetable stock. And it’s this last one that had me scratching my head.

To be honest, I do love a my meat. And by meat, I mean beef, lamb, pork, chicken, duck, whatever. I’m a damned carnivore! But I also really like vegetables, when they are good quality and properly cooked

And the vegetables in Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie taste good … REALLY good. Served up in a red wine gravy and baked under a layer of creamy mashed potatoes – they are THAT good!

I suggest you add full fat Greek yogurt to your mashed potatoes to get that extra creamy-tangy taste. That red wine, garlic, olive oil, rosemary… it’s my version of aromatherapy.

If you’re using up leftover mashed potatoes, they usually need a little help since they can be a bit dry out of the fridge. Just cover with clingfilm and pop them in the microwave. As they heat up, they will become creamy again. Then spread that magic on top of your silky, veg-packed mushroomy gravy. Yummmmm!

When you pull this out of the oven and the sauce is bubbling up around the sides under the gently-golden potatoes, you’ll be delighted you gave this Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie recipe a try. This is total comfort food and you’re best to attack it when hungry as hell with a big appetite.

Top Five Recipes for 2017

This post actually isn’t going to be the top five things I’m grateful for. That would turn into a top 150 list and it would be annoyingly long. Instead, this post is the top five most viewed recipes on Need A Recipe in the last year!

Which, I guess, actually leads me to talk about something I’m thankful for. I’m really, really, thankful that you read this blog! Or even just scan through the pictures. Seriously, I wish I could serve you the recipe of your choice through the computer screen every time you visit the site and browse around.

Building the Need A Recipe list of good things to eat, and blogging like this is fun because of the interactions that I get with other people, and those other people are you! Thanks for keeping it fun for me and helping Need A Recipe grow in leaps and bounds in this last year.

Now, let’s eat! The Top Five Need A Recipe recipes for this year are:

Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime is dedicated to Terry and Julie, our neighbours on The Isle of Man, who served us the most stunning starter in the field of human culinary endeavours! I promise you – you eat this and no starter will ever seem the same again. M-D and I were transported to a place that few ever get to see… the pinnacle of goodness and taste and salivating cherubs floating on clouds of… er, yeah, okay, I got a bit carried away there. But so will you when you try Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime Julie's Salmon & Prawn with Lime

 

A Trio of Scallops is a simple and very effective starter course or, as you will see when you follow the recipe below, you can extend the choice to make it a “quad” of scallops. This lovely dish is perfect for serving when entertaining since it can mostly be prepared beforehand and then will take only four or five minutes to finish and serve.

The most effective way to serve a Trio of Scallops is in long individual dishes that are separated into three sections. If you cannot find these, you can use Chinese soup spoons (the ones that have a flat bottom so stand up on their own) with one scallop per spoon. And failing that, just use scallop shells (one scallop per shell). The finished scallops should be placed in the correct order on the plate and eaten from left to right. No – this is not food snobbery, it’s simply that the taste begins gently and builds to a crescendo.

Trio of Scallops

 

Beef Wellington – oh beloved food for an evening with friends (or your partner’s boss who you are supposed to impress!). Just occasionally, I get an inkling to make Beef Wellington – the tenderest of Angus beef smeared in mustard or horseradish, smothered with mushroom duxelles, wrapped in Parma ham and put to bed in a cover of golden puff pastry. Traditionally, Beef Wellington was coddled in a layer of pâté, but I prefer the mushrooms and Parma ham version. It’s actually a lot easier to make than it looks, and the result is fantastic. A great idea for all beef-lovers (and partner’s bosses who need to be impressed!).

Some people use thin pancakes to wrap around their beef. The idea is to stop the pastry getting wet. However, I’ve always found that overlapping prosciutto works just as well, and tastes 100 times better. Beef Wellington

 

Lamb Shanks in Deep Rich Gravy gained an easy fourth place. It’s a magical recipe, especially if you want to have your guests guessing at the secret ingedients. Even though the recipe uses anchovies (a very salty fish) you can’t taste it in the finished dish but it totally transforms the meat and gravy, bringing out the delicious flavours.

Incidentally, 3lb (1½kg) of shanks is usually about 2 or even 3 shanks. If your butcher offers you one large one, reject it – at that size, it’s probably old mutton! If you have any problems, simply use a leg of lamb instead. I often do that. Lamb Shanks in Deep Rich Gravy

 

Double-Take Apple Flan is so called because there are two ‘stages’ to the cooking and also because it tastes so good, there’s no way you won’t go back for another helping. “Double-Take” Apple Flan is a winner, no matter what the occasion, and the extra little trouble in preparation and cooking is well, well worth the effort. Your guests will love you for it. Double-Take Apple Fla

Goodbye 2014 – Hello 2015

Robin and RebeccaI have a niece called Rebecca who, a year or so ago, went to live in New Zealand with her new partner, Robin. Since then, we’ve all got to “know” Robin via Facebook, but none of us had actually met him. Rebecca decided to rectify this gap in our knowledge and she and Robin came to the Isle of Man to spend Christmas and New Year with her parents (my brother and his wife, Steve and Jeanette). And so, on Christmas day, we at last met Robin and discovered for ourselves what a really nice guy he is.

During the conversation, Robin observed that, while New Zealand is famous for its lamb, it was very expensive over there because much of it was exported. So, since Rebecca had recified the gap in our knowledge, we thought we would rectify Robin’s lamb shortage and invite them for New Year’s Eve. Therefore, on December 31st, Robin, Rebecca, Steve and Jeanette arrived at ours and we enjoyed an evening of good conversation, good food and good company.

For part of the aperitif, we produced a plate of green-lipped New Zealand mussels with a garlic vinaigrette (similar to the Left-Over Mussels recipe only with king-size mussels!). It was an instant hit with our visitors because, while they can obviously get the green-lipped mussels, they’d never thought of adding a garlic vinaigrette and eating them cold!

Tuna-Stuffed EggAs a starter, we tried a little recipe of tuna-stuffed eggs which, I have to say, was rather uninspiring and it’s one we won’t be repeating.So, rushing past the bad news and onto the main course, we’d done one of our favourites, Lamb in Deep Rich Gravy which is so very simple and looks after itself in the oven. We’ve noticed that, despite buying the largest legs of lamb we can get without buying mutton, there is never anything left and, sure enough, New Year’s Eve was no exception! In addition to feeding the poor Kiwi Couple with lamb, it gave is a chance to show off the quality of our locally produced Manx Lamb which is an excellent product.

wine bottlesFor Christmas, Marie-Danielle had bought me a case of Chateauneuf-du-Pape (both red and white) so, never being one to waste a good Christmas present, we enjoyed both the red and the white with this meal and it truly was a great Christmas gift (I even have a few bottles left!). Robin is a programmer and runs his own company, Aotea, in New Zealand. Partway through the meal he tried out a new App that he was working on which, when complete, will pick up the image of a wine label and return all the data on that wine. So we pulled a few bottles out and gave it a test run! It didn’t recognise the 1985 Chateau Balestard La Tonnelle (St Emilion) or the 1986 Chateau L’Eglise-Clinet (Pomerol) but I’m sure Robin will get it to function in due course.

Orange CarpaccioAfter a “Trou Normand” (calvados, served over sorbet) we moved on to the cheeseboard before actually celebrating the changing of the years and watching the London firworks on TV. After the last firwork had died out, we sat down to Orange Carpaccio with Gâteau Creusois which proved to be an excellent way to end a family New Year meal and welcome in another year of culinary delights!

New Year's Day SwimThe postscript to this pleasant evening was that, the following day, Robin and Rebecca braved the harsh Manx winter and took part in the New Year’s Day swim on Peel beach. Dressed as viking invaders, they did New Zealand proud! A couple of days later, they left the island and (going via England and Paris) they eventually found their way back to New Zealand with temperatures of 31ºC (91ºF)!

Another Christmas gone… can’t wait for the next.

Well, you know what it’s like… you plan for it, you shop for it, you tear your hair out for it and, at the end of the day, you find it’s December 27th and once again, Christmas is just a memory. But as long as it’s a good memory, who’s worried!

In France the “big dinner” is the evening of December 24th and M-D and I had planned a quiet dinner together since we were heading down to Orleans the following day to have a ‘second Christmas’ with M-D’s daughter and grandaughters. However, the best laid plans etc…. and a few days before, we discovered that a friend would be on his own for Christmas so we invited him over for Christmas Eve dinner with us.

Rich Gravy LambIt had to be simple and straightforward, so we opted for foie gras as a starter, Rich Gravy Lamb as the main course, cheese and salad and then we finished on M-D’s (in)famous Citrus Parfait which we always have ready in the freezer.

The Rich Gravy Lamb is an absolute stunner because it is stupidly simple to prepare – lamb (leg or shank), a couple of onions, a bit of stock and red wine, a few simple herbs and a fillet or two of anchovies (yep, you read that right … anchovies. Though you can’t taste them in the finished dish, they totally transform the meat and gravy, bringing out all the delicious flavours). The joy of it is that you shove it in a slow oven and leave it alone until you’re ready to eat it. It also washes down quite well with a 1986 Roc du Breuil, Cotes de Bourg!

The following day, we drove down to Orleans (it’s about 100 miles) and met up with Muriel and the girls (Clélence and Eléonore). They had spent Christmas with Muriel’s half-sister over on the Atlantic coast so they had driven for about 3-4 hours to get home. Nonetheless, along with Muriel’s Grandmother, Rolande (96 going on 25), we made up a happy gang of six.

We started with Julie’s Salmon & Prawn with Lime which has, in just the few months since our neighbour in Peel introduced us to it, become one of our firm favourites. We already had them drooling and we hadn’t even arrived at the pièce de résistance…
Beef WellingtonThe day before, I had prepared a Beef Wellington to the stage that the fillet of beef was wrapped in its coat of mushroom duxelles and Parma ham. So all I had to do at Muriel’s was to add it’s pastry overcoat (two packets of ready-rolled puff pastry), coat with egg yolk, and pop in the oven for about 40 minutes (it was a 2¾lb – 1.25kg fillet). It came out perfectly cooked to suit us all. The ends were medium-well, the centre was rare and in between a beautiful medium rare, so everybody got what they wanted. (In fact we all got we wanted two days later, too …. left-overs. Cold. With Salad. And a few miniature tomatoes. Bliss!). Helped down with a rather splendid 1986 Chateau Moulin a Vent, Lalande de Pomerol, I can highly recommend Beef Wellington, hot or cold!!

And now we’re back home in Acheres planning the next onslaught!!! Today is Friday (for about another hour) and tomorrow we dive to the shops and get what we need for the next few days because M-D’s sister, Christine, is arriving for a week or so. On Sunday we are having a “late Christmas” dinner with Christine and “Tatty Suzanne” (Christine and M-D’s aunt who lives a few miles away on the outskirts of Versailles.). The plan is for Monk Fish in Orange which is a bit of a mixture of two other recipes but, if it works, should be pretty damn good!

I’ll let you know (or not!)

Mad Sunday!

No, Mad Sunday has got nothing to do with my mood, or my state of mental health – it’s all about motorbikes and where we spend about six months of each year … The Isle of Man.

Isle of Man TTThe Isle of Man is only about 36 miles x 12 miles at its longest and widest points. Today, about 85,000 of us perch on this rock in the middle of the Irish Sea, and every summer we are subjected to hundreds of motorbikes racing through the streets of our towns and villages and around the island on the 37.7-mile Snaefell Mountain Course. Their average speed is over 130 mph and in places they exceed 200mph!

Tens of thousands of fans flock to the island every year to watch this spectacle. Sometimes these visitors crash into one another, sometimes they fly off cliffs, sometimes they collide with parked cars or light poles, sometimes they forget we drive on the left and sometimes they don’t just kill themselves but also the locals going about their lawful business. This has been going on since 1907. On the Isle of Man every May/June, death is business as usual.

Landing after leaping Ballaugh BridgeNever mind the visitors, the TT races themselves are extremely dangerous (over 250 rider deaths to date on this circuit). Imagine riding at over 200 mph on tiny, narrow, twisting streets, roads and lanes flanked by stone walls and buildings, dodging manhole covers and stray dogs! Some, including a few former competitors, have called for the race to be banned, but for the most part the riders love the TT. They know it’s dangerous, but they also know it’s the absolute pinnacle of motorcycle racing. It’s the ultimate, and if you’re good enough – and you’re brave enough – then you go for it, regardless of the risks. Personal responsibility and the love of speed triumph the desire for safety here.

As current record-holder John McGuinness said, “People seeking to ban the TT are a load of do-gooders … We all know and accept the risks. Maybe we’re a bunch of hard-nosed bastards.”

As for us Manx islanders, we’re generally supportive. While some understandably complain about road closures, litter, irritating spectators and the death toll, others realize the race is a part of our tradition (and essential to the local economy). Plus, though we may not always admit it, we enjoy the spectacle too. They’ve been doing it this long. Why stop now?

We now live in a world where people file lawsuits over spilled coffee and put helmets and knee pads on their kids during playtime. If you ask me, it wouldn’t hurt if we had more places like the Isle of Man where insanity is a cherished tradition.

200mph past the housesOh yeah – I almost forgot about “Mad Sunday.” One day every year at the TT, they open up the 37 mile course to the public. That means anyone on a motor bike can try his or her luck trying to match the professionals for speed (and insanity!). Imagine, if you can, a Formula 1 or NASCAR event where they let 50,000+ fans onto the track, charging around in whatever vehicle they came in. In recent years, to try and reduce the carnage (and maybe also to give the visitors even more thrills!) the roads have been made one-way for about 8 miles over the mountain section of the course. Big, powerful road bikes hitting their top speeds of 170mph-180mph is not unusual on this section.

Today is Mad Sunday and it looks like we’ve scraped by without a mortality! As I have been typing this post, over 1,000 bikes have roared past my window, on their way home having enjoyed ‘a day at the races’. So it’s Mad Sunday over with for another year… lots of happy campers and still some empty beds in Accident and Emergency – doesn’t get much better than that!

Food?

Oh yes, food!

Trio of ScallopsLast Saturday evening, we invited our neighbours, Terry and Julie plus Dominic and Kate from over the road for a meal. We decided to mix the best of the Isle of Man with the best of France (as you do!) so (after polishing off a couple of bottles of Champagne with the aperitif) we started the meal with one of our favourites – beautiful fresh Manx scallops, and prepared the excellent Trio of Scallops washed down with an amazing 2007 Château de la. Gardine – a white Chateauneuf du Pape.

We followed this up with a whole Leg of Lamb in Rich Gravy which I have mentioned before on this blog (March 2013). I was less satisfied with the sauce this time, still not being totally used to the oven here in Peel. Nevertheless, it seemed to work ok and fortunately we had a couple of bottles of the matching 2007 Château de la. Gardine – only this time the more typical red Chateauneuf du Pape. Unfortunately, we only had two bottles so, as we descended on the cheese, I opened the reserve bottle – a 2005 Boisrenard – also a good Chateauneuf du Pape.

Raspberry and Caramel CrunchAs we always do, we served the meal French style (dessert last) and I dug around in M-D’s wine cooler and came up with a really nice bottle of 2008 Côtes de Bergerac. The Côtes de Bergerac is a deeply smooth sweet white wine that complimented our Raspberry and Caramel Crunch (better known in France as Gratin Framboises au Speculoos) superbly.

So with six satisfied diners, I found myself asking, was it the food or was it the wine? Two bottles of Champagne with the apperitif, a bottle of white Chateauneuf du Pape with the starter course, three bottles of red Chateauneuf du Pape with the main course and the cheese. A bottle of Côtes de Bergerac with the desert, and then several glasses of Sheridan Coffee Layered Liqueur. Oh dear, did we overdo it again?

Maybe we should have christened it “Mad Saturday”! After all, as John McGuinness said, “… We all know and accept the risks…”.

 

Dual Birthday Celebration (with secret anchovies)

Last night, M-D’s daughter (Muriel), son-in-law (Vincent) and their children (Clémence and Eléonore) came over so we could have a joint birthday celebration for M-D and Clémence (M-D’s was a few days ago and, while Clémence’s was in February. We weren’t here in France to celebrate it, so decided to have an evening together to mark the two birthdays!)

vrankenNaturally (as you do) we kicked off with a couple of bottles of fine Vranken Champagne Demoiselle Brut Premium Cuvée (it helps wash down the apperitif biscuits and olives!!)

Unfortunately we had had a bad shock during the afternoon. Down in the cellar are several bottles of 1989 Chateau de Cayrou – one of the very finest Bordeaux wines you will ever taste. We brought some bottles up and opened them to let them breathe and discovered to our horror that they had maderized (the wine acquires a rather bitter sherry-like character). In the end, we opened some 2002 Chateau Martet (one of the Grands Vins of Bordeaux) but I confess there was some residual disappointment about the Chateau de Cayrou. We have a few bottles of 1990 vintage… I guess we should open one of those and find out what’s happening with it.

monk_fish_in_bacon_with_parsley_creamAnyway – on with the meal! We started with a lovely simple recipe, Monk Fish in Bacon with Parsley Cream. Not only did this work like a dream but Vincent (son-in-law) who really enjoys and savours his food and wine, declared that it was “one hundred percent”, and christened me “The New Gordon Ramsey”! Well, I don’t know about that, maybe it was the Champagne and the Chateau Martet speaking, but for sure the fish was cooked to perfection (moist and tender) and the marriage between the succulent fish and the crisp, salty bacon was divine.

rich_gravy_lamb_shanksSo, The New Gordon Ramsey went back in the kitchen and emerged moments later with the main course – Rich Gravy Leg of Lamb. In terms of the recipe, this is identical to my Rich Gravy Lamb Shanks recipe, except that I replaced the lamb shanks with a 2kg leg of lamb and increased the other ingredients by about 50%. I served it with a few simple vegetables and then, as we ate, we played the guessing game … what’s the secret ingredient in the sauce? It took a lot of clues from us and lots of guesses by our guests before Clémence suggested anchovies (the correct answer)!

Well, the Rich Gravy Leg of Lamb was an absolute hit with everyone (2kg of lamb disappeared in minutes) and Vincent was, again, effusive in his praise! I know we already have a new Pope, but being elevated from The New Gordon Ramsey to The New Pope was fine by me! And the two secrets that made an evening of entertaining seem effortless were nothing more than:

  • Simple recipes that either don’t have many ingredients or can be prepared well in advance
  • Recipes that work alongside each other in the kitchen (I never changed the oven temperature from the monkfish starter right through to the desert)

Our guests were ecstatic (we lumbered our way through cheese and a warm apricot and almond desert before Vincent dozed off on the settee with a contented smile on his face!). So entertaining (and being elevated to Pope) doesn’t have to be complicated. I used two very straightforward recipes that kept kitchen time to a minimum yet produced outstanding results. And, before you ask, there were a total of five empty wine/champagne bottles this morning, which is, perhaps, a little excessive for four adults, but then it’s not every day one becomes Pope!

Back on ‘The Rock’ but not before a special feast of lamb

So here we are again, on The Isle of Man. We regularly move between France and “The Rock” and now it’s “The Rock’s” turn to enjoy our company! However, just before leaving France we went down to Orleans where Muriel (M-D’s daughter) and her family live. Last Saturday was Clémence’s 14th birthday (she’s Muriel’s and Vincent’s elder daughter) and Muriel was entertaining 11 people – their own family of four, the two sets of grandparents and some friends with their 14-year-old daughter.

Five Hour Confit of LambNow when you are cooking for eleven, it’s essential to reduce the level of complexity to a minimum and Muriel had done exactly that. Her starter course was foie gras which is, of course, pre-packed and just needs slicing. Her dessert was a chocolate brownie cake that Clémence had made, and her main course, and pièce de résistance, was Five Hour Confit of Lamb. This delightful creation left her free to totally chill out and hands-free to do whatever it is women do for hours on end in a bathroom before their guests arrive.

I love recipes that look after themselves. There’s nothing worse when you are hosting a dinner party and you have to keep going to the kichen preparing and checking on stuff. So when Muriel told me she had prepared the main course mid-afternoon and it was slowly cooking without any input from her, I raised my hat to her – particularly when I tasted the result!

Five Hour Confit of Lamb does, genuinely, take five hours to cook, but at a very low heat, and slow cooking is an excellent way to render all the fat out of the meat. The result was a lamb that was so tender, it was like cutting butter. And because all of us round the table are garlic affectionados, Muriel had split 4 full heads (bulbs) of garlic horizontally (still with the skins on), added them to the pot, and simply served these with the meat. Naturally, the lamb was fairly heavily infused with garlic – which suited us all and left us fighting over the garlic that was soft and juicy!

I guess the fact that we helped it all down with a couple of bottles of 1976 Chateau de Cayrou didn’t do any harm, but I genuinely believe that the recipe will “stand on its own two feet” even if you wash it down with Coke or antiseptic mouthwash!

The other benefit of Five Hour Confit of Lamb is that the potatoes are cooked along with the meat. Simply drop everything into a Dutch Oven (a cast iron cooking pot) along with a mixture of common herbs and spices and, five hours later, you have a meal fit for a Prince. Meanwhile, you can catch up on your beauty sleep!

So, after a bit of arm-twisting, Muriel agreed to add the recipe to the site so we can all share. You don’t have to go beserk with the garlic like she did, because six or seven cloves will be enough to infuse a gentle garlic taste that most people will appreciate.

Anyway, now we are back on “The Rock” I may just practise Five Hour Confit of Lamb on some of our buddies! Then I can catch up on my beauty sleep too… after all, I need it more than my daughter-in-law!