Greek lamb tray bake

Given our impending house move I really should be running the freezer down so I don't have to beg my friends to borrow a freezer drawer on the big day ! My freezer really is a mine of, well randomness. It's got the usual frozen chips, pizza, fish fingers and frozen peas & sweetcorn plus other veg. It's got an emergency loaf of bread and several packets of Waitrose fresh frozen herbs. All pretty normal stuff I think. Then comes the randomness. Lurking in the depths are 3 egg whites, some tomato innards - left over from salsa making, some breadcrumbs, a parmesan rind and something that looks possibly like red wine ? There are a couple of unidentified bags of something waiting for a "freezer surprise" tea, my poor kids a few weeks ago ended up with boeuf bourguinon with pasta because I could have sworn it was spag bol !!

So, I'm now trying to use up the odds and ends which also include the results of my obsessive buying of reduced meat. I have 3 packs of chicken mini fillets which cost £1.25 each, a pack of veal mince which was the princely sum of 95p and a pack of organic lamb mince which was reduced to £1.50. It was the lamb mince that got used tonight in this really tasty effort from the Good Food website although I had to tweak the portion sizes a little so that the Husband and the kids didn't think I was trying to starve them.

GREEK LAMB TRAY BAKE
serves 4

450g lamb mince
50g fresh white breadcrumbs
1 small white onion grated
1 clove garlic crushed
egg yolk
small bunch mint chopped
4 courgettes cut into batons
2 red onions cut into wedges
2 large baking potatoes cut into thickish chips
small punnet cherry tomatoes
olive oil to drizzle
100g feta crumbled

Heat the oven to 200C
To make the meatballs mix the first 5 ingredients and half the mint in a large bowl with some salt and pepper. Shape into about 16 patties and set aside
In a large roasting tin put the courgettes, potatoes and onions, drizzle with olive oil plus s&p and mix well.
Nestle in the lamb meatballs and put in the oven for 20 mins on a high shelf
Remove from oven and turn everything over. Add the tomatoes and put back in the oven for another 20 mins.
When cooking time is up, sprinkle over the feta and remaining mint.

I served this with toasted pittas and a large pot of tzatziki, utterly gorgeous even if I do say so myself !!

Onion tart

In the never ending quest to expand my children's tastes and to challenge the Husband's "a meal needs meat" belief I'm always on the lookout for new veggie recipes. 

This was recommended to me from the BBC Good Food website via the Weight Watchers forum ages ago - when I was being good on the diet - but lets move swiftly on !! This is a kind of quiche but uses almost a scone type base which I was a bit skeptical about if I'm being honest, but it worked. The best bit was that the kids ate it all and there were leftovers for lunch the next day. I have in true style done a little bit of tweaking !

ONION TART

serves 6-8

For the filling

4 red onions

2 tbsp rapeseed oil

2 large eggs

200ml half fat creme fraiche

1 tsp thyme leaves

1-2 tsp grainy mustard

40g gruyere cheese

For the base

175g self-raising flour

25g cold butter cut into small pieces

100ml natural yoghurt

4 tbsp semi skimmed milk

Slice the onions into small wedges and heat the oil in a nonstick pan. Cook over a low heat for about 20 mins until caramelised

Preheat the oven to 190C or gas 5

Rub the butter into the flour and then mix the yoghurt and milk before adding to the flour and mix

Roll out on a floured surface and press into a 23cm loose bottomed fluted tart dish

Beat the eggs and add the other ingredients plus some seasoning, mix well

Put 1/2 the onions into the base of the tin and pour over 1/2 the egg mixture, repeat the layers again and top with cheese

Put on a pre-heated baking sheet and cook for 25-30 minutes, leave to stand for 10 mins before serving

Slow roast pork belly

As this is most un-August like day I've ever seen, thoughts are turning more to autumn and winter food now rather than the summer fare we have been having. Currently it's 10C, blowing a gale and for God's sake we even had HAIL earlier - I mean what on earth is all that about !

Anyway enough about the weather. I have an ongoing subscription to BBC Good Food magazine and on the whole I find it a mine of useful recipes and tips. Sometimes it gets a bit repetitive but I have been subscribing now for nearly 5 years so what can I expect !! So October's edition fell onto the mat earlier this week and once I'd got over my shock at getting a magazine for October I found some real gems in there I want to try out on the family.

A couple of weeks ago I'd got a bargainous piece of rolled free-range belly pork from the meat counter at Waitrose and bunged it in the freezer. The cover recipe from this latest edition suited that to a T. It's a recipe by Matt Tebbutt and the main course of a suggested 3 course menu. I will most likely be trying the other courses too !

It went really well. I had a slightly smaller piece of pork than suggested at 0.95 kgs so only used 1/2 the herb rub and cooked it for about 2.5 hours. What I got was a lovely piece of juicy pork perfumed with garlic, lemon, thyme and fennel (not my fave thing in the world but ok here). The crackling crackled in all the right places - I claimed the last piece as cooks privilege ! I did a traditional roast with tatties, parsnips and veg plus the obligatory apple sauce - yum.

THREE HOUR PORK BELLY (by Matt Tebbutt via Good Food mag)
serves 6

2 tbsp fennel seeds
1 tsp black peppercorns
1 small bunch thyme, leaves picked
3 garlic cloves
3 tbsp olive oil
1.5-2kg piece belly pork boneless and skin scored
2 lemons juiced

Toast the fennel seeds and peppercorns in a dry frying pan for a few minutes
Pound to a paste with the thyme and garlic and a pinch of flaked sea salt
Mix with 2 tbsp olive oil and rub all over the flesh of the pork - leave for at least a couple of hours or overnight
I then rolled up my piece of pork and tied it with string but it's not compulsory !
Rub the skin with olive oil and plenty of salt to make sure the crackling is good (as an aside here I've found my secret to good crackling is to make sure the skin is as dry as possible before cooking)
Put into a 200C oven for 30 mins before turning down to 160C and roasting for 2 hours. Turn back up to 220C to give the crackling a final blast for up to 30 mins at the end.
Allow to rest for 20 mins before slicing and serving.

Two more pics of the finished thing. Even my two boys wolfed it down !

The lush crackling

End on (please excuse the pink board !)

Quick prawn curry

Phew ! A busy week this week. My last week off before it's back to work, so we've been having lovely days out with the kids and generally enjoying time as a family. So far we've caught up with friends, been to the zoo, soft play (personally my idea of hell but the kids love it) and now getting ready for son no2 turning 3 next week !

It has meant though that the cooking has gone by the board a little with meals out, picnics and quite a few snacky  dinners thrown in for good measure.

I found this from my saviour website BBC Good Food. Actually having just checked that link works properly, there seems to be a nice recipe for chicken, potato and green bean curry on the front page today, will book mark that one ! It's such a great website, I often just type in my main ingredient and take pot luck with what the search shows up. This is exactly what I did when I found this curry recipe. Normally I'm a bit boring with prawns and just do them in a spicy stir fry, or in a paella.

This was nice and spicy, even though I did discover my curry paste was out of date after I'd put it in - oops ! But best of all it was very quick and tasty (please excuse the shocking photo - I am working on my photography skills !).

QUICK PRAWN CURRY
serves 2

a glug of groundnut oil
1 onion sliced
4 ripe tomatoes skinned and cut into wedges
knob of root ginger grated
3 garlic cloves crushed
1-2 tbsp curry paste
200g shelled raw king prawns
Couple of large handfuls frozen peas
Coriander to serve

Heat the oil and slowly fry the onions until coloured
Reserve 4 of the tomato wedges and whizz the rest in a processor with the ginger and garlic
Add the curry paste to the pan, turn the heat up and cook for a minute or so
Add the tomato mix and reserved wedges to the pan and bubble to reduce
Then add the prawns and peas and cook until the prawns are pink and the peas tender
Scatter with coriander and serve with rice