Blackened barbecued pork fillets
After a long period of miserable weather the sun finally came out today and gave me the chance to use the BBQ. I thought I’d try this Jamie Oliver recipe which I stumbled across the other day.
Slow-roast shoulder of lamb
In celebration of the bank-holiday last week I slow roasted a whole lamb shoulder for my family. It’s actually one of the easiest things you can possibly cook and results in really tasty, tender and succulent meat.
Lunchtime Lamb
The other day I was having a slightly dull morning at work and thinking about a load of lamb shoulder I had left over in the fridge. It was all the slightly fattier bits that didn’t look too appetising. I suddenly felt inspired to cycle home, run it all through my mincer and create some lamb burgers. That’s normal isn’t it?
Ravioli of bacon, mozzarella, sun-dried tomatoes, chilli and basil
I spent about 2 hours last night following a pasta recipe that to be honest with you was nothing that special. Tonight I rustled this up in about 15 minutes with some leftover pasta dough and some things I found in the fridge and it was way better. In fact it was delicious!
Chocolate brownies
Another find in the Jamie Oliver book were these chocolate brownies. I never usually deviate from my tried and tested recipe - which I’ve actually yet to post on here - but they were delicious and incredibly easy to make.
Haddock in smoked bacon with asparagus and hollandaise sauce
Someone cooked a delicious Jamie Oliver curry for me last week. I’d gone off him a bit - mostly due to the ridiculously long lists of ingredients required for most of his recipes - but I had a flick through one of his books that’s been sitting on my shelf untouched for years and found this really simple light dinner. I swapped the mayonnaise for hollandaise which went really well.
Apple Walnut Cake
It was my mate’s 30th the other day so I made him a cake. It came from a book I got from a great little bakery in New York called Amy’s bread. It’s possibly the most anal cookbook I’ve ever used but everything I’ve made from it has always been delicious. I should really put the amazing carrot cake recipe up here but I thought I’d mix things up and try the apple walnut cake with maple syrup icing.
Barbecued spicy lamb & fennel meatballs
Today we had the first BBQ of the year in a sunny interval minutes before it started chucking it down with rain. It wasn’t exactly a traditional BBQ, but I’d been inspired by a great meatball dish I’d had at a restaurant in Soho called Polpo and decided to try and have a go at making something similar.
Briani rice with lamb curry
People often remark that Indian food is a great way to enjoy vegetarian cooking and that most of the curries made in India are with vegetables and not meat. It’s a fair point but there’s nothing like a lamb curry. This is actually based on a Mauritian curry - made on this years Masterchef final by the winner Shelina Permalloo.
Mango, Pineapple & Mint
After the spicy curry above I served this really simple refreshing dessert. It’s based on a Jamie Oliver recipe I made ages ago but uses mango as well in tribute to the woman who’s recipe I used for the curry - Shelina - who is absolutely obsessed with the things.
