One Pot Lamb Chops – Take II

This is another attempt at doing lamb chops and vegetables all in one casserole dish at the same time.  Click here to see my first effort.

Ingredients:

Lamb shoulder chops

Oil

Potato slices, carrot rounds, pumpkin slices

Chicken stock

Anchovies

Sliced yams

Seasonings – salt & pepper

Pomegranate seeds for garnish

Method:

Oil your pot/dish and season it with salt and pepper.

Put in a layer of potato slices and season.  Next a layer of carrots, season and finally your pumpkin.

Pour chicken stock in so that it just covers the vegetables.

Do a layer of the chops and sason with generously with pepper and lay the anchovies on top of them.  Don't worry it won't taste fishy at all – just gives the lamb a deeper flavour.

Cook in a low oven for about 2 hours.  Add a layer of sliced yams on top (they go mushy if they are overcooked)

When the yams are tender your dish is done.  I sprinkled some pomegranate seeds on for a pop of colour.

This was a nice dish but I think my first effort was better.

Food on Friday: Anchovies and Sardines

ON

The subject of this Food on Friday may not suit everyone.  I, for one, do not like anchovies on pizza – but they add a lovely flavour when cooked with lamb.  And I don't eat sardines often although my better half will scoff them straight from the tin any chance he gets.  So I am looking forward to seeing all the ways you use them in your cooking.

Anchovies and sardines go well with (according to Stephanie Alexander):

Artichokes	Butter	Capers
Chillies	Coriander seeds (cilantro)	Currants
Eggplants	Eggs	Fennel
Garlic	Grilled fish	Lemons
Mild onions	Olive oil	Olives
Parsley	Pasta	Pine nuts
Potatoes	Salad leaves	Spinach
Sweet peppers (capsicum)	Toast	Tomatoes
Vine leaves

To link in, just pop your name and the name of the dish into the first box and paste the url for your post into the second one – using Mr Linky below.

I'm not into setting rules for the link up, but part of the point is for you to check out each other's dishes.  To make it easy for you to choose which to visit, I will be pinning the links to this Pinboard.  I have noticed that quite a few people now choose to follow each new Pinboard so that they are kept up to date.  But it will work just as well if you just click through to check out the state of play.

Have a great "fishy" time!

Café de Paris butter – it has the next Food on Friday ingredient in it – can you work out what it is?

I made this Café de Paris butter as an instant tasty sauce for steak.  It isn't a French recipe despite its name.  It goes back to the 1940's where a restaurant called Café de Paris in Switzerland invented it.  This recipe makes quite a lot of this flavoured butter but it does freeze well and then you can just slice some off whenever you need it.

There are a lot of ingredients:

60g shallots, diced

1 clove garlic, crushed

Pinch of dried marjoram, dill, thyme, rosemary, paprika, curry powder and cayenne pepper.

1 tsp of ground pepper

15g capers

25g fresh parsley

25g fresh chives

4 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped

1 tbsp brandy

1 tbsp port

15g Dijon mustard

3 tbsp tomato sauce (ketchup)

1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp lemon juice

Zest of one small lemon and orange

500g of butter

I suggest you put the anchovies in even if you think you don't like them – the end result doesn't taste fishy and it does add a depth of flavour.

You put all of this (except the butter) together in a bowl, cover it and leave it to marinate overnight on the kitchen bench.

Then the following day, cut your butter up into cubes.  Blend your herb mix and then add the butter gradually so you get an even mix.

Once it has been combined roll it in plastic wrap into a cylinder and twist the ends like a Christmas cracker.  Refrigerate/freeze until needed.

When you have cooked your steak just pop some slices of this butter on top.  The heat of the cooked steak will melt the butter and it will look and taste great.