Cooking with the Master Chef: Roast Leg of Lamb with Rosemary and Garlic

Hey everyone, and welcome to another post... I know I haven't done one for a while, but I assure you, it will be worth it. For the recipe today, tastes so succulent and luscious, that it makes your very mouth water at the sight of it. From BY FAR my favorite chef: MICHELLE ROUX JNR. and his new book: 'Cooking with the Master Chef' It's a really easy recipe and doesn't take long to prepare. So here we go:

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 24 small new peeled potatoes
• salt and peeper
• 1 leg of lamb about 1.8-2 kg
• 3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 heads of garlic
• 2 sprigs of rosemary
• butter
• 24 pearl peeled onions
• 200ml of dry white wine
• 200ml water

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C/Gas 6. Parboil the new potatoes in a pan of salted water for 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.
2. Rub the leg of lamb with a little olive oil, salt and pepper. Peel 3 garlic cloves and cut in half length ways. Make six incisions in the leg of lamb and insert a piece of garlic and a small piece of rosemary into each one. Break up the rest of the garlic without peeling.
3. Place the lamb in a hot roasting pan with the rest of the olive oil and sear over a medium heat until golden on all sides. Add 2 tablespoons butter and continue to heat until forming. Put the parboiled potatoes, pearl onions and the rest of the garlic and rosemary into the foaming butter around the lamb. Season and roast in the oven for 10 minutes. Turn the potatoes and onions occasionally and baste the lamb with the fat. Turn the oven down down to 190°C/Gas 5 and continue to roast for 45-60 minutes.
4. Take the meat and vegetables out of the pan and keep warm. Pour out most of the fat and add the wine, followed by the water. Bring to the boil and scrape the pan with a spatula to lift the roasting sugars.
5. Continue to boil and add any juices that have run from the leg of lamb. When reduced by half, whisk in a knob of butter, then pass the sauce through a fine sieve. Server with the lamb and vegetables.

AND ENJOY THE BEST LAMB YOU HAVE EVER TASTED!

The OFFICIAL taster this week was: MUM!

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Great British Bake Off - 8 Strand Plaited Loaf

Another year... Another GREAT British Bake Off... Another Book, which OF COURSE I invested in... And, another post... Today I bring you amazing viewers, a post, that will most likely frustrate and anger you in every single way  possible. For it is no easy task, to plait bread with 8 different pieces... It is not just hard, it is almost impossible. Even the Bakers in the Great British Bake Off found it hard: Great British Bake Off Bread Episode...

Makes 1 Loaf

Ingredients

• 500g of Strong White Flour
• 10g of Salt
• 2 x 7g  Sachets of Dry Yeast
• 20ml of Olive Oil
• 340ml Water
• 1 Beaten Egg, mixed with a pinch of salt, to glaze (supposedly)

Method

1. Put the flour in a fairly big bowl. Then, put the salt on one side and the yeast on the other; ensuring they don't touch or the salt will kill the yeast. Add the oil and mix evenly with your hands or spoon.
2. Add 3/4 of the water, and bring the mixture together with you hands. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes or so until stretchy and silky. Dough requirements: Slightly soft, not sticky and tough.
3. Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with clingfilm and leave to rise at room temperature for about an hour, or until double its size...
4. Punch the risen dough down to deflate, then put onto a floured worktop and shape it into a ball. Divide into 8 equal pieces, and with your hands, roll each piece into 40cm sausage shaped strands.
5. Lay the strands of dough out on the floured worktop like an octopus and stick the gathered ends together with your thumb.

THE PLAITING

As they are laid out in front of you, number them 1-8 and proceed to plait following the sequence below. Note: Every time you  move a strand, the order of the numbers will revert to the original 1-8 sequence.

1. Place Strand 8 under strand 7 then over strand 1
2. Strand 8 over strand 5
3. Strand 2 under strand 3, then over strand 8
4. Strand 1 over strand 4
5. Strand 7 under strand 6 then over strand 1

Repeat from step 2 until all the strands are plaited, then tuck the ends under the loaf to neaten.

Method Continued

6. Put the plaited loaf on the floured baking sheet and leave to rise at room temperature for about 1 hour until almost doubled in size. Towards the end of the rising time preheat the oven to 200°C/gas 6.

7. Brush the risen loaf with beaten egg, then bake for 20-25 minutes until golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the underside. Cool on a wire rack.

AND ENJOY!! ;)
I hope that your plaiting is more successful than mine, and that it rises well!

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Chewton Glen and Pebble Beach Restaurant

I recently visited Chewton Glen for my Grandmas 50th Anniversary. A hotel that is renowned for its culinary delights!

On the first evening of our stay we went to a restaurant in the near village called Pebble Beach... With heavenly fish and succulent meat, it was one to look forward to. AND, didn't disappoint! Here are some pictures...

Bar

Awesome Fish Tank

Anniversary Cake

 As you can see, the standard of food is excellent and very well presented... BUT, that was not the highlight of our weekend. For the next evening we went to Chewton Glens own restaurant. Brace yourself viewers, what you are about to witness is going to blow your mind, literally.

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The Loseley Park Food Festival

It was a Sunday afternoon, walking through tents of sizzling sausages, oozing olive oil and sweet sauces... Scents of curry, Chinese and British. Making a mind-boggling nation of flavours and scents. It was: Loseley Park Food Festival!

One thing that really did capture my attention was a beautiful olive oil and balsamic vinegar stand. It had amazing basil, lemon and garlic olive oils which were magnificent... It also had some balsamic vinegar which we later bought because it was so good! To find out more go to: Gourmet Oils.

Another stand that caught my attention was this 'Old Fashioned Sarsaparilla' stand. 

As I sit here writing this, I have on my right hand side, a mug of this delicacy. The taste is almost in-describable... literally. I highly recommend buying this at your next farmers market or food festival and you won't be disappointed!

The last notable stand that we purchased something from was undoubtedly the most British food in the entire festival. BANGERS! Specifically 'Giggly Pig' bangers. With a huge selection ranging from 'Spiced Garlic' to 'Chesnut' to 'Lemon and Fennel' flavours. You really need to check this sausage company out! To find out more go to: Giggly Pig

Here are some more photos of my day...

Cornish Pasties

Seasonings

COFFEE!

Sauces and Jams

Soaps

Curry Sauces

Jams

Cheeses

Wines

Old mini-sized steam-engine train

Band

Sausage Cart

CHINESE! Notice how their sign has spelt 'Noodles' wrong!

To find out more about the Festival go to: Losely Park Food Festival

THANKS FOR READING :)

Asian-Style Salmon with Noodle Broth

For many weeks on end, Jamie Oliver has been off the menu... But, that... stops... NOW! I flicked through the pages of 'Jamie's 30 Minute Meals' and came upon page 186. I was: Asian-Style Salmon with Noodle Broth. And that, my viewers, is how the recipe that you are seeing before your eyes came to be...

Serves 4

Ingredients

For the Salmon

a 1cm piece of fresh ginger

1 clove of garlic

1 small red onion

1/2 a fresh red chilli

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

1 lime

4 x 180g salmon fillets, skin on, scaled and pin boned

Chinese five-spice

For the Broth

4 spring onions

1/2 red chilli

2 cloves of garlic

a 1cm piece of ginger

1 teaspoon of Chinese five-spice

3 teaspoons of cornflour

1 chicken stock cube

200g of sugar snap peas

soy sauce, to taste

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 250°C or gas 9

Peel a 1cm piece of ginger, 1 clove of garlic and a small red onion. Roughly chop and put into a liquidizer with 1/2 a red chilli and 1 tablespoon of soy sauce. Squeeze the juice of a lime and blitz to a slurry.

Before

After

Taste to check the balance of sweet and salty, then put into an earthenware dish or tin that will snugly fit the salmon. Add a couple of lugs of olive oil...

...and put the salmon, skin side up, in the dish. Sprinkle a little five-spice and black pepper over the skin and whack into the oven on the top shelf for about 18 minutes, or until crispy and beautifully cooked through.

Put a large saucepan on a medium heat. Trim and finely slice 4 spring onions, and put into the pan with a good lug of olive oil. Finely slice a red chilli and add to the pan, then stir and crush in 2 unpeeled cloves of garlic. Peel and finely grate the 1cm piece of ginger and mix well

Stir 1 teaspoon of five-spice and 3 teaspoons of cornflour into the pan of spring onions. Pour in 900ml of chicken stock...

...and add 200g of sugar snaps. 

Turn the heat up to high, bring to the boil, then taste and correct the seasoning with soy sauce... 

...Add the noodles and stir well.

Before

After

When serving up, spoon the broth into the bowls first, then place the salmon on top and smear a little of the sauce on the salmon. FINISHED!

THANKS FOR READING! :)