Scotch Broth with Pulled Lamb on Grilled Toasts

Who doesn't like a One Pot Wonder?  Chop and dump in the pot are my favorite kinds of meals and that's literally all this is.  I had never heard of Scotch broth let alone ever tried lamb so I was a bit hesitant but it turned out fab!

As with any good Jamie recipe, you start out with a couple rashers of bacon, a knob of butter and some herbs.  In this case it's fresh rosemary.  I'm usually not one for eating just a piece of bacon, a.k.a. fat on a stick, but the smell coming from that pot was heavenly.

Here's a look at all the veg that goes into this soup: swede (rutabaga), leeks, celery, turnips, carrot and onion.  While your bacon is getting some color, it's literally chop and dump as you go.  It really doesn't get any easier than that!

TIP: I figured out a fool proof way of getting clean leeks every time.  Just chop as desired and dump in a large bowl.  Add fresh water to the bowl until the leeks are floating with some clearance in the bottom of the bowl.  Swirl the leeks around a bit and let them sit until you need them.  All the dirt and sand will settle to the bottom of the bowl.  I use a spaghetti spoon to transfer the leeks to the pot.  100% of the time, it works every time! Please tell me you've seen Anchor Man or that joke will be a lost cause :P

Once all the veg is in the pot, create a little nest and add the lamb shanks.  I was only able to get my hands on a 700 gram (1.5 lb) semi-boneless leg, which my butcher husband tells me is an ok substitute for shanks.

Cover it all with chicken stock and bring up to a bubble.  Put the top on the pot and let that gently blip away.  At the 3 hour mark, add the barley.  Put the top back on the pot and let that go for another 30 minutes.


Take the lamb out and transfer it to a bowl where you take 2 forks and shred baby shred.  It should basically fall apart without any effort.  Stir in the mustard, honey, mint sauce (not mint jelly) and rough chopped parsley to the meat and season if needed.

Put a couple pieces of crusty bread, we used sourdough, under the broiler to toast.  Top them with the meat mixture and put back under the broiler until it's all gone crispy.  Oh my yes.  These were phenomenal.

My hubby just kept saying "mmhmm, mmhmm, yep, gooood", and that's when you know it's a keeper!!

Back by popular demand...

For a while there I fell off the map with this blog and the cookbook.  Adopting twins happened, moving happened, being vegan for a while happened, life just happened.  I recently have had a couple people ask me about this blog and I logged on randomly today to see if by chance people were still in fact even hitting up my little corner of the web.  200+ views last month!  For a blog that hasn't had a post in 2 years I would say that's not too shabby.  I've been inspired to do what I am passionate about and cooking is on the top of that list!  My cousin and her husband, who is from the UK, came over not that long ago and we were looking through the cookbook.  Ross kept saying "Ohhh I miss that" or "My mum used to make that all the time!"  It would be really fun to have them over as guinea pigs sometimes and get Ross' true English opinion on my recipe attempts.  So to make a short story long 2016 will start another chapter in the Cooking Jamie's Great Britain blog!!  Stay tuned...

Sour Cranberry Bakewell

Merry Christmas!  I hope everyone is having a great holiday season and is finding time in all the madness to relax a bit and enjoy time with family.

Getting back into the swing of making Jamie recipes from the book I decided to start with a dessert and bring it to a family Christmas party.  Sour Cranberry Bakewell.... is your mouth watering yet?  This dessert was the perfect balance of not too sweet, not too sour and not too rich.  It was delish!

Cut cold unsalted butter into flour and icing sugar until it resembles breadcrumbs.  Then add the zest of an orange, one beaten egg and a splash of milk.

Mix this together until you have a ball of dough.  Just make sure you don't work it too much or you're going to have a time rolling that baby out!  Lightly flour and cover it with plastic wrap.  Let that chill out in the fridge for 30 minutes.

While you're waiting to roll tide roll with that dough go ahead and start on the cranberry jam.  Yep you heard me right, homemade sour cranberry jam.  To. Die. For.

Throw 500g or like a bag and a half of fresh cranberries, sugar and the zest and juice of 1 1/2 oranges into a large sauce pan.  Bring this to a boil and then reduce to a simmer over low heat and kind of break up the softened cranberries with your spoon.  Let that bubble away until it's thick and jammy. Remove from the heat to cool.

After the 30 minutes of fridge time roll the pastry out and lay it into a tart pan.  Fork the pastry shell, cover with plastic wrap and pop that back in the fridge for another 30 minutes.

While you're waiting for round #2 of the big chill you can start making the frangipane.  What the crap is that you ask?  Well... trusty Wiki says, "Frangipane is a filling made from or flavored with almonds."  This recipe swaps out the traditional almonds and opts for hazelnuts and walnuts for a richer more praline flavor.

First order of business is blanching the hazelnuts.  So I was filling a sauce pot with water to blanch the nuts and Matt comes in and says, "Don't you think you ought to google what is means to blanch nuts? Pretty sure you don't do it in water like you would veggies."  So glad he walked in!  Blanching nuts is another term for toasting.  So blanch the hazelnuts in a warm oven until you can smell them.  This will release their oils and make them even more flavorful.

Blitz the hazelnuts and walnuts until it's really fine.  Tip that into a clean bowl the put butter and sugar into the food processor and whiz that up until creamed.

Add the zest of an orange and lemon and 3 eggs to the food processor and keep it running until everything is combined.  Tip the nuts back in along with some flour and flip the processor back on to mix.  Viola!  Frangipane!!

By this time your pastry base should be ready to bang in the oven for a 12 minute blind bake with either baking beads or dried rice to weigh it down.  Remove beads/rice and bake for another 5 minutes.

Spread a third of the cooled cranberry jam into the tart pan and pour the frangipane mixture on top of that.

Plop spoonfuls of the jam over the frangipane and drag a knife through it to make it look pretty.  Finally it's ready to whack in the oven!

45 minutes later, you have this beauty!  Golden crust on the top and gooey on the inside.  Perfecto!

While this is cooling throw together a quick drizzle for the top.  Just some icing sugar and juice from the zested orange and lemon.

This bakewell is a bit labor intensive but if you have the time it's well worth it!  It even freezes well if you have some left over and want to save it for later!

Back at it!!

After many nudges from the hubby and family to get this blog going again I decided to go with it!  I'm actually very excited to get back into the Jamie swing of things and whack something new in the oven!  Stay tuned...

Er's Diamond Julibee Chicken

Ever have a meal that just makes you smile because it's so good?  No words, just smile?  This would be that meal...

The recipe called for 8 chicken thighs but I just went to the butcher and got 4 chicken quarters (thigh and leg) instead.  Toss these in a big bowl with some garam masala (new fav spice... I put this on everything now!), tumeric, chili powder and some salt and pepper.  Grate fresh ginger and garlic in the bowl and give it a shot of olive oil and the juice of a lemon.  I put some gloves on so I could really get in there without my hands being stained highlighter yellow for a day!

Arrange the chicken in a baking dish so it's snug and skin side up.  Bake for about 50 minutes or until the chicken pulls away from the bone easily.

Remove the skin from the chicken and place it upside down in a clean baking dish with a handful of cashews, cumin seeds and sesame seeds.  Put this back in the oven until the skin is really crispy and the nuts/seeds are toasted.

While that's ticking away in the oven, dice half a seeded cucumber and half a pineapple and add this to the bottom of a pretty serving tray.  Finely slice a spring onion (green onion) and scatter this on the platter as well.

Note:  For those of you who don't already know...
Picking a good pineapple 101 --> the center leaves should pluck out without much effort at all and if it's heavy that means it's juicy.  If it's really yellow on the bottom put it upside down on your counter for a good while.  This will redistribute some of the juice that has settled at the bottom.  I credit this wisdom to my sister who is awesome at picking pineapples and gave me "picking a good pineapple 101" years ago!

Pull the chicken off the bones making sure to leave them in somewhat chunks instead of shredding the heck out of it.  Come to think of it we used the finely shredded left over chicken for an awesome hot chicken sandwich the next day!  Put the chicken over the pineapple and cucumber on the platter.

Spoon away any fat from the roasting dish leaving the juice behind.  Add the juice of 2 limes, some chopped coriander (what the Brits call cilantro I guess) and some yogurt or sour cream which is what I used.  Mix this up nicely and taste to season with salt and pepper if needed.  This is some righteous sauce let me tell you!

Pour the sauce over everything on the platter and give it a toss.  Sprinkle the crispy skin, toasted nuts and seeds and some more coriander. This recipe called for chopped red chili as well which I omitted because I still have yet to find a red chili at the super market!

This looked like a party on the platter and the flavors explode in your mouth.  Matt and I loved this one so much that we managed to eat a little over half of the entire thing between the two of us!  Seriously delicious all the way around!!

Not throwing in the towel on this!

I know I've said this before but I'm not throwing in the towel on this challenge just yet!  I am notorious for starting out strong on things and then trailing off.  I'm sure everyone can relate to this in some way.  My husband, Matt, is encouraging me to pick one day a week for the "Jamie Challenge" day.  I picked Tuesday since nothing in my world ever happens on a Tuesday!  People keep asking me what's next on the menu so... this Saturday (the Tuesday thing starts next week, hehe) I will be making and posting Sour Cranberry Bakewells. 

What is a bakewell you ask?  Bakewell is a small market town in Derbyshire Dales, but a bakewell tart according to Wikipedia is this:  The tart consists of a shortcrust pastry shell, spread with jam and covered with a sponge-like filling enriched with ground almonds (known as frangipane).

So... Cranberry bakewells here we come!  Oh yeah and I have a chicken dish to post tonight.  Diamond Chicken Jubilee... oh boy was this crazy good!

Pale Ale Fondue

The flavor on this was so good but I've come to the conclusion that I can't melt cheese to save my life...

Use a box grater to shred half a white onion and sauté that with in a little olive oil and some chopped thyme.

Add some ale to the sauce pan and bring to a simmer.  I used Sierra Nevada pale ale.  If you've never had this and you like beer, this is a must try!

Put a bowl on top of another sauce pan with simmering water in the bottom.  Pour the onion/beer mixture into the bowl and slowly add shredded cheese.  I used Havarti and  sharp cheddar.  I'm not sure if the cheddar I used wasn't good quality or what but the cheese separated on me and it was just gloppy.  The Havarti melted great but that cheddar... I think it ruined it for me.  The flavor was great but I just couldn't get over the texture.  I have tried to melt cheese before into something smooth and it just hasn't worked for me.  Ever.  I think I'm just cheese challenged!