Minted Lamb Stew

After over a year of rejecting meat, we recently discovered that lamb is acceptable providing it is smothered in mint sauce. We have also discovered that chicken is acceptable if smothered in cranberry sauce...tiny steps forward: steps astride the question of "by condiment-ing, are we in fact stealth feeding him meat which goes against our BLW principles".

With that question burning in the back of our minds, we decided to try making a minty lamb stew for Lentil.

Minted Lamb & Pea Stew

• 350g lean lamb leg, cubed
• 1 tbsp plain flour , seasoned
• 1 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 leeks, sliced
• 4 carrots , thickly sliced
• 400g potatoes , cut into large chunks
• 700ml lamb or chicken stock
• 300g frozen peas
• Mint sauce to taste (1 tsp or more)
  
• handful mint leaves, to serve

1. Toss the lamb in the flour. Heat half the oil in a large pan, then brown the lamb over a high heat for 2 mins. Transfer to a plate, then add the rest of the oil, shallots, leeks, carrot and potatoes to the pan. Fry for a few mins until starting to soften.
2. Pour over the stock, scraping up any meaty bits, then simmer for 10 mins until the veg are almost cooked. Tip the lamb into the pan with the peas and stir in the mint sauce, then simmer for 4 mins or until the lamb is just cooked and the veg are tender.
3. Scatter with mint to serve.

It was lovely, very warming on a cold & wet night and so easy to cook. The minty stew was a complete winner and Lentil cleaned up his plate, meat included.

Source: Good Food Magazine

Apple and Cranberry Gravy

A neighbour left me a batch of apples on my doorstep the other day. I was just cooking up some sausages for tea, so quickly googled and found a recipe to go with the sausages.

Apple & Cranberry Gravy

• 6 extra lean (5% fat) sausages
• 1 large red onion, sliced
• 1 large sprig rosemary, leaves only
• 3 Pink Lady apples, cut into wedges
• 2 tbsp cranberry sauce
• 2 tbsp wholegrain mustard
• 1/2 pt vegetable stock
• 2tsps cooking oil

1. Grill the sausages.
2. Meanwhile fry the onions in the oil until soft and golden.
3. Add the rosemary and apples, and cook for 3-4mins till the apple starts to soften.
4. Add the cranberry sauce, mustard and stock to the pan too, and stir.
5. Bring to the boil and simmer uncovered for 10mins. Add a little flour, if needed, to thicken.

It went down a storm with my 2 year old, who polished everything off on his plate.

Chicken and leek pie

I found this recipe on 'Feeding boys and a firefighter', here. For once, I've pretty much followed what it says... although I put in a bit less mustard because Small Person has rejected mustardy things in the past. Anyway, here's my attempt:

Also, not having two small ovenproof dishes, I've done it in one medium sized oven proof dish... Served with roasted baby new potatoes (cut the big ones into chunks the size of the small ones, put on a baking tray with some oil), broad beans and peas (from the freezer) and courgettes (from my Dad's allotment).

Beetroot and Choc Brownies

250g Good Qual Choc
250g Cooked and Grated Beetroot
250g Caster Sugar
250g Butter
150g Self Raising Flour
3 Eggs

Pre-heat oven to 180'c. Grease a 20 x 30 x 3cm (ish) tin and add parchment to the bottom of the tin. Whisk together the sugar and eggs. Melt choc and butter and blend in with the egg mixture.
Gently fold the flour and then the beetroot to the mix (add chopped nuts or chunks of white choc if you wish). Poor into tin. Stick in the oven for 20 mins ish. Dont over cook or it'll be tough. Its ok to have a slightly sticky skewer when poked in the brownie, nice and stodgy :-).

Courtesy of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall

Brownie-and-Tiffin Tipper Truck Birthday Cake

The cake:

The Brownies: 

This recipe is from Jamie Oliver's "Little Book of Big Treats"

250g unsalted butter

200g dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids, Green & Blacks type stuff)

80g cocoa powder

65g plain flour 

1 teaspoon baking powder

360g caster sugar

4 eggs

Optional: Jamie suggests 75g dried sour cherries and 50g chopped nuts. I used 50g of white chocolate (chopped into chunks) and 50g of walnut pieces, but I think it could have taken twice that amount of additions!

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degC. Line a baking tin with greaseproof paper. Jamie suggests a 25cm square tin. I didn't have one of those, and neither did Tesco, so I used what Tesco called a 31cm tin. It's rectangular and about the size of an A4 sheet of paper, and did the job perfectly.

In a large bowl over simmering water, melt the butter and the chocolate and mix until smooth. In a separate bowl, sift together the cocoa powder, flour and baking powder, then stir in the sugar. Add this to the chocolate/butter mixture. Stir together well. Beat the eggs and mix in until you have a silky consistency. I added the optional chocolate chunks and walnuts at this point (although Jamie says to add them to the melted chocolate), because I wanted half-and-half. I split the mixture in two and added chocolate chunks to one half and walnuts to the other, then...

Pour the brownie mix into the baking tray (half at one end and half at the other - they'll meet in the middle and some folk will get both), and place in the oven for around 25 minutes (I cooked mine for 30). Unlike cakes, a skewer shouldn't come out clean, because they need to be gooey in the middle. Once cooked, allow them to cool in the tray then transfer to a chopping board and cut into squares.

I baked these on Friday afternoon, cut them up and assembled the cake on Saturday, and they were still gooey and delicious on Monday evening, when we finished them up.

The Tiffin (Sookies):
Made following this recipe for sookies (last recipe in the post). I made double quantities with a few extra biscuits thrown in and this filled an A4 size baking tray. I then melted a bar and a half of dairy milk (large bar, and only because the posh chocolate went grainy rather than melting) and spread it over the top. The texture is more biscuity and crunchy than tiffin. These also lasted until Monday evening.

Dhal (easy lentil-based curry)

Large handful of red lentils
Chicken/veg (baby) stock cube
Onion
Curry powder (I use a Trinidadian one)
Chickpeas (from a tin)

Optional: other veg
Optional: meat

Basic quick method:
Cook the lentils in the stock until soft
In a separate pan, fry the onion*.
Add the curry powder to water to make a paste, then fry with the onions until you get a delicious curry smell**.
Add chickpeas, cooked lentils and some water and heat through
Eat, with rice or naan or roti. Garnish with fresh coriander if you're feeling posh.

*if you want to add chicken or other meat, add it here, and brown it off before adding the curry paste.
**if you adding veg which is raw (potatoes, courgette, whatever) add it here, then add some water and simmer until the veg is tender, before adding the chickpeas/lentils etc. Spinach should be stirred through at the end.

You can also do this in a slow cooker: add the onion and spice mix to the meat, veg and raw lentils in the slow cooker and leave it until it's done.

Gingerbread men (Bimmerman)

Adapted from the Good Housekeeping Cookery Book. These gingerbread men are nice and gingery and still a little bit soft. They are good dunked in Daddy's coffee... Makes 12ish.

350g plain flour
1 tsp bicab of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
100g butter
175g light soft brown sugar (or whatever, I think I used a mixture of caster and demerera last time)
4 tablespoons golden syrup
1 egg, beaten

1. Grease some baking trays (2 or 3)
2. Sift/put the flour, bicarb and ginger into the bowl. Stir in the sugar
3. Melt the butter, then add to the mixture (the original recipe says to rub the butter into the flour, then add the sugar, but this works just as well)
4. Beat the egg and golden syrup together and stir in.
5. Mix to form a dough and knead until smooth
6. Divide in two, then roll out on a floured surface to about 5mm thick. Cut out shapes using a cutter (we did dinosaurs)
7. Decorate with currants for eyes etc if you want to
8. Oven (190 degC) for 12-15 mins until golden. Cool slightly then place on a wire rack.