Lamb

 And today, we went to Italy

 I always love it when my family gets invited to house warmings, and they serve roast lamb. The caterers would be outside the house, watching the lamb under the burning charcoal fire..and the smell..ohhh man it's the best smell ever..

This was a whole leg of lamb. I was at the market and the very friendly greek butcher there happily de-boned it for me.

 And yess! it turned out very well =) pink and juicy, served with a white wine and mushroom risotto.

My recipe:

2 kilo leg of lamb, de-boned

1 whole garlic

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tablespoon salt (a lot)

5 sprigs rosemary

1 large onion

Preheat your oven (fan-forced) to 175C

Pound the garlic and salt to almost a paste. Add in the oil and mix it to combine.

Rub the paste all over the INSIDE of the lamb. Sprinkle the rosemary leaves all over. Roll it up to its original shape and secure it with wooden skewers. Rub the outer part with some oil and salt.

Slice the onion into rings. Place them on a baking tray lined with 2 layers of foil (trust me, 2 layers)

Drizzle with a little olive oil. Sit the lamb on top of the onions.

Roast in the oven for 1 hour. 

Remove from the oven and let it rest for about 15 mins, and its ready to be carved!

Risotto:

1 small onion, diced

1 cup arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

2 cups chicken stock (just buy it)

8 button mushrooms, sliced

a handful of shredded cheese 

Heat some oil in a pan. Fry the mushroom slices until golden brown, season with salt.

Heat some oil in a med size pot. Sweat the diced onion. Add in rice and mix well.

Season with salt.

Pour in the wine and stir continuously under med heat until the liquid has almost dried up. 

Add in the stock 1/4 cup at a time, covering the pot and mixing continuously under low heat until all the stock is used up and absorbed into the rice and the rice is tender (you Might need more stock). 

This would take about 20 minutes.

Lastly, add in the cooked mushrooms and the cheese. Stir until the cheese is just melted. 

Turn off the heat and serve!

 

Lasagne

Ohh the yummy layers of lasagne..

and a refreshing spinach and green apple salad

sarah: Kor, dinner..

tom: oo not bad..looks disgustingly delicious..

...and it certainly was=)

The tomato sauce is really simple and quick. Sweat an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic in a pot. Add in about 500g of minced meat (i used pork). And dont bother using extra lean or anything too healthy. Just get the standard..its for best results=) 

After the meat is just cooked, add in a tablespoon of dried herbs such as basil or oregano. Then, add in a can of whole tomatoes. Using a spatula, break up the tomatoes a little. Let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes and set it aside.

For the cream sauce, melt some butter in a pot. Mix in a heap tablespoon of flour. Next, pour in some milk and mix gently to combine. You should get a smooth creamy mixture that just falls off your spoon. If its too thick to spread, add in more milk. Lastly, mix in a handful of shredded tasty cheese and salt to taste.(i didnt add any salt because the cheese was quite salty)

In a rectangular dish, spoon just a little of the meat sauce on.(just to lightly coat the bottom of the dish)

Place one layer of instant lasagne sheets on top, followed by more meat sauce, and a layer of the cream sauce. I then layered some fresh basil and shredded cheese on top. Continue the layering process until you have 3 layers of lasagne sheets. The last layer should be the meat sauce. End with a generous sprinkle of cheese..Bake it in a 180C oven for about 30 minutes.