Lamb osso bucco with pumpkin

I have never seen or known that lamb had osso bucco too but then I saw it at the supermarket ladt week.

Ingredients
500 to 600g lamb osso bucco
2 to 3 cups of water
2 tbsp onion chopped onion
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp minced garlic
1 tbsp rosemary leaves
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried sage
1 tbsp soya sauce
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine
1 tbsp mustard
1 tbsp worchester sauce
½ pumpkin, cubed
2 medium potatoes, cubed

Methods

1) Brown the osso bucco on all sides. Add the onions, ginger and garlic and fry till fragrant.

2) Add all the herbs and sauces, and the water. Bring to a boil and skim off any scum. Turn down and simmer for 3 hours. The water should just cover the meat.

3) In the 4th hour, add the pumpkin and potatoed. Top up with water is required.

4) Serve with crust bread or over rice.

Lamb cassarole

In case you haven't noticed, I'm an oven junkie - I love doing things in the oven simply because its minimal fuss. Just prepare, don't even have to leave it to marinate, and just chuck in the oven. Set the timer and off she goes. After about an hour, turn off the oven and let it slow cook in the remaining heat until dinner time.

I saw some lamb on sale and thought that it would be a great way to celebrate my Easter, by treating myself to a bit of lamb. I decided to dunk it with loads to ginger so that it doesn't taste gamey. Unfortunately, it came off tasting like beef, which isn't too bad a result I guess.

Ingredients

400g lamb chunks

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp light soya sauce

1 tsp sugar

1 tbsp oyster sauce (I would usually use worchester but I don't have that)

1 cubed potato

1 cubed purple yam

Enough water to cover everything

Method

1) Put everything into the cassarole, except the yam. Preheat oven to 200 deg C. Bake at 200 deg C for 20 mins until it starts to boil. Add the yam. (with yam its really very hard to tell, mine 'melted' after the entire time but my spuds were still ok, so it depends on what kind of yam you use)

2) After the first 20 mins, turn down to 100 deg C for another 40 mins. Then turn off the oven and let it cook in the residual heat for another 2 to 3 hours.

Nigella Express: Rapid Ragu

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tablespoons Garlic Oil
• 125g Cubed Pancetta
• 500g Minced Lamb
• 75g Caramelised Onions (From A Jar)
• 80ml Marsala (Wine)
• 400g Can Chopped Tomatoes
• 75g Green Lentils
• 125ml Water
• 50g Grated Red Leicester Cheese (Or Cheddar, To Serve, Optional)

METHOD

• Heat the oil in a wide saucepan and fry the pancetta until beginning to turn crisp and golden-brown.
• Add the minced lamb, breaking it up with a fork, and stir until browned.
• Add the caramelised onions, marsala, tomatoes, lentils and water and bring to the boil.
• Reduce the heat and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
• To serve, divide the ragù between four serving bowls and sprinkle with grated cheese, if using.

Rosemary, mint and garlic Lamb Chops

Tis' the season for green and red. We don't usually eat lamb, because it's impossible to find fresh lamb in supermarkets here, otherwise it's expensive. Not to mention we've been reminded time and time again about how it's more unhealthy compared to other meats. But last week, I saw frozen shoulder chops and thought it's the season to treat ourselves. Just once in a while, why not eh? In fact, we were pleasantly surprised that despite being frozen, we enjoyed it so much, I reckon it was better than the dried up tiny bitsy one I had at Botak Jones recently!
Ingredients
two 250g lamb chops
1 tsp garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp dried rosemary
1 tsp dried parsley
2 tsp ground black pepper
3 tsp dried mint
1 tbsp cooking oil
3 tsp mustard


Method
1) Add the garlic, herbs, salt and pepper to the cooking oil and stir well. Rub well into the meat and leave to marinade for at least 1 hour.
2) Place in a foil covered baking tray. Grill on high heat for 20 - 25 minutes, turning over halfway.
3) Leave the cooked chop to rest for 10 minutes, wrapped up in the foil to keep warm. Use this time to make the sauce. To make the sauce, drain away some of the oil. Scrape all the stuff off the bottom of the pan and add the mustard. Whisk in well. Add more salt and pepper to taste if necessary. You can also drizzle in some olive oil if desired.
4) Serve on a bed of salad leaves and drizzle the sauce over the chop.

Nigella's Lamb and macaroni stew

Here's another one of Nigella's recipes, taken from the episode "Weekend". What I simply love about her receipes are that it's so simple and fool-proof, anyone can do it! Now if only I could work up the effort it takes to do so! (transposed to the best of my memory) Nigella added that with any stew, it's just something thrown together rather rustically, so no need to over-fret over the proportions and amounts, just something reasonable would do!

Ingredients (feeds 6 to 8)
Lamb shoulder, cubed (enough to feed 6 to 8, heck if I know how much!)
2 to 3 stalks celery, chopped
1 carrot, roughly chopped
3 tins canned tomatoes
Oregano
A few bay leaves
Roughly 1 cup water
1 large onion, peeled
2 to 3 cloves fat garlic, crushed and paper removed
Salt and pepper for seasoning according to taste
Oil for browning

Method
1) Brown the cubes of lamb. Remove onto another dish.
2) In a processor, blitz together the celery, garlic and onions. Pour into the pan with the left over oil from browning the lamb. Let soften for about a min (but don't brown).
3) Remove half of the mixture. Flatten out the remaining mixture into the plan.
4) Pour back the lamb. Pour back the onions on top and cover the lamp. (Nigella does because she says that she finds that the mixture helps to seal in the moisture of the lamb)
5) Pour in the 2 cans of tomatoes, and 1 cup of water.
6) Sprinkle over the oregano and bay leaves.
7) Cover and simmer on low heat for 2 hours. Alternatively, transfer to a low oven for 2 hours.
8) It will be a bit watery, but this is used to cook the macaroni. When the stew is ready, pour in the macaroni to cook. Season with salt and pepper.
9) Serve when macaroni is cooked.
10) Nigella also uses feta, roughly mixed by hand together with chopped fresh oregano and serves this on top of the stew.

Nigella's Lamb Shank Stew

I love Nigella! She makes cooking look so posh and sexy. Here's an inspirational recipe from Nigella Bites, she makes cooking for a dinner party seem so easy! I know this is one of those recipes I will never try because 1) I don't know where to get lamb shanks here! and 2) I have no patience waiting for the stew too cook!
Nigella: "Don't let the word stew put you off. Yes, I know it's crippled with connotations of school-dinner gristle and gluey-gravied mess, but the lamb shanks here are anything but that. Of course, you could use shoulder, cut into greed-satisfying chunks, and it still wouldn't be compromise, but the bone in the shank gives such rounded richness of flavour and there's something so unpretentiously satisfying about the great meaty hunkiness of it on the plate. Since supermarkets now routinely stock (or will order in) lamb shanks, and since they're both meaty and cheap, it makes sense to seek them out for this.
As with all stews, this is even better made in advance and reheated; for me, this only makes things easier. The couscous, however, needs to be made last minute."
Ingredients:
6 tbspns ground nut or vegetable oil
8 Lamb shanks
2 onions
4 cloves of garlic
sprinkling of salt
1 tbspn tumeric
1 tsp ground ginger
1 dried red chilli pepper, crumbled, or quarter teasp dried chilli flakes * 2 tsps cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
black pepper
3 tbspns honey
1 tbspn soy sauce
3 tbspns Marsala
6 tbspns red lentils

to serve:
3 tbspns chopped pistachios, chopped blanched almonds or a mixture of both

Instructions:
1) Put 3 tablespoons of the oil into a very large, wide, heavy-bottomed pan and warm over medium heat. Brown the lamb shanks, in batches, in the pan and then remove to a roasting tin or whatever else you've got to hand to sit them in.
2) Peel the onions and garlic and process in a food processor or chop them finely by hand.
3) Add the remaining oil to the pan, and fry the onion-garlic mush until soft, sprinkling salt over to stop it catching.
4) Stir in the turmeric, ground ginger, chilli, cinnamon and nutmeg, and season with some freshly ground pepper.
5) Stir again, adding the honey, soy sauce and Marsala. Put the shanks back in the pan, add cold water almost to cover, bring to the boil then put a lid on the pan, lower the heat and simmer gently for 1 to 1 and a half hours or until the meat is tender.
6) Add the red lentils and cook for about 20 minutes longer without a lid, until the lentils have softened into the sauce, and the juices have reduced and thickened slightly.
7) Check for seasoning.
8) Toast the nuts by heating them for a few minutes in a dry frying pan, and sprinkle onto the lamb as you serve it.

Serves 6