Shank you very much!

Slow cooked lamb shanks and rice

Some thoughts on Greek cooking

Lamb and olive oil are the first things that come to mind for many people when thinking of Greek food. While Greece might not have the best olive oil in the world (close, but no banana), the olives themselves are something else. I remember driving through Kalamata - and there they were! I love Portuguese olives best of all (though getting your hands on the really good ones isn’t easy in Sydney).

What is often forgotten is that Greek home cooking is very veggie friendly. Fundamentally a peasant cuisine, meat was a rarity. Stuffed vegetables, spinach and feta, olive oil and bread. Lemon juice to add zing. And legumes. Those guys sure know how to cook a bean!

Well, I can’t claim any fancy leguminous techniques here: my chickpeas come out of a can. But the overall effect is a hearty farewell to winter.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• 1 cup lamb stock
• 4 lamb shanks (see lamb two ways)
• 1 can chickpeas (including brine)
• 2 cups long grained rice
• 2 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 2 onions, coarsely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• pepper to season
• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• About .25 cup each olives and feta cheese

Method

The whole thing takes about seven hours, but very little effort.

I use a slow cooker for this. Otherwise, use an oven-proof dish with a good sealing lid, and put in the oven at 110º.

Steam two cups of rice.

Heat the olive oil in a fry pan, and brown the lamb shanks for about 2 minutes. Place them in the slow cooker when done. Drop the heat and sauté onion and garlic. Once the onion is translucent, add the stock and salsa and stir to deglaze the pan. Add bay leaves, rosemary, pepper. Pour contents of pan over lamb shanks.

Set slow cooker to low and cover. Leave slowly cooking for four hours.

By this time, the lamb will be well cooked - but not quite with the marrow-strong flavour we are looking for.

Add the chickpeas, folding into the rest of the contents. Replace lid.

After another two hours, add the rice, feta and olives, and fold through again.

One hour later - ready to serve.

Two sauces to go!

One of my go-to books is The complete book of sauces by Sallie Y Williams. Dip in. Dish out. Spend half an hour making two sauces each week: dinners, lunches, and pasta or noodles for a quick stir-in snack. Thank you Sallie!

Pepper and mushroom

This is good with steak, and I also used it this week with fettuccine, tossed with continental sausage pieces and steamed vegetables: some sliced artichokes and queso blanco on the side. I also used it as a savoury spread on toast for breakfast. That’s what sauces are for!

Ingredients

• .25 cup olive oil
• 1 portobello mushroom, chopped
• 1 20ml can pepper corns (including brine)
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 cup lamb stock
• .5 cup chopped shallots

Method

Sauté garlic until it is translucent, not brown. Add mushrooms and continue over medium heat until the mushrooms soften. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 minutes.

Yields: 1 cup

Sticky marinade

This is perfect for roast or barbecued pork ribs. Also very good for roast carrots. For a vegetarian main, substitute vegetable stock or a dry white wine for the chicken stock.

The trick for the carrots is to par-boil them first, and then put them in the marinade, which lets them absorb the flavour.

Before serving, toss the carrots in chopped parsley and lightly toasted slivers of almond. Cracked pepper. Yum!

Now, back to the sauce…

Ingredients

• .25 cup olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• .25 cup brown sugar
• .25 cup cider vinegar
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 2 tablespoons light soy sauce
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon smokey paprika

Yields: 2 cups

I have ribs and carrots separately marinating for a Father’s Day lunch tomorrow.

In praise of a hardworking freezer

Freezer jolly good fellow

In my bachelor world, my freezer is generally well stocked, literally. Stocks of various kinds, my beautiful all-purpose tomato salsa, a meal or two ready to go. And bags of frozen vegetables.

Yes! I admit it.

This is a bachelor food blog after all - not a stuck-up fine dining blog (although I do think my dining is fine…)

I do not plate: I dish out! I do not partake: I chow down!

Having freezy things handy, enabled me to whip up a very well received veg casserole for my boys last night between school finishing and evening trumpet lessons. And it kind of went like this…

Potato-layered vegetable casserole

(I dedicate this to my niece, Lauren, who has been a vegetarian for years and for whom, as a very thoughtful fishing expedition snack, I produced several pieces of lovingly purchased roast chicken)

Ingredients

• 3 medium Desiree potatoes
• 500g frozen winter vegetables
• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• .25 cup vegetable stock
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce (aka the Empire in a bottle!)
• .25 cup grated parmesan or other sharp cheese
• Pinch smokey paprika
• Olive oil, salt and pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 160º

Wash and thinly slice potatoes, leaving the peel on. Place these in salted, boiling water for about 5 minutes. You want them to soften, but retain their shape. The time will depend on how thinly they are sliced. I use my hand V-slicer, which I love! Drain the potatoes when done - don’t cover, it’s important to let them steam off.

Toss the frozen veggies (don’t let them thaw) together with the salsa, sauce and stock.

Oil a deep baking dish.

Starting with a layer of potato, a drizzle of olive oil, a little pepper. Then the veggie mix. And so on.

Top it off with a couple of layers of potato. Sprinkle with cheese and finish with paprika.

Place in oven for 30 mins. Raise heat to 200º and cook for another 10 minutes, or until the potato topping gets brown and crispy.

Serves 4 as an accompaniment, 3 as a main.

Sweet and hot!

At the beginning of poverty week, it’s time to make with the condiments and stock to tart up a string of cheap eats.

Pay day, is followed by rent, is followed by child support - and that just about does it for the week. I don't begrudge it - it’s just what I have to work with.

So, rather like some bachelors I know, it’s time for something sweet and hot!

Today I am making chicken stock for yummy rice and soups. Yesterday I made chilli sauces for dips and stir fries.

I generally do this in two lots, as I can use one half of the red capsicum for each different sauce. Roast red capsicum brings a rich flavour - earthy and sweet - to each of these very handy sauces.

Sweet and sticky

This is your garden variety sweet chilli sauce

Ingredients

• .5 red capsicum
• 1 birds eye chilli
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup sugar
• .5 cup rice vinegar
• 1.5 tablespoons cornflour

Method

Preheat oven to 200º C. Roast capsicum until I starts to blacken and blister. Remove from oven, and put it in a sealed plastic bag to let is sweat. Once it has cooled enough to touch, peel off the skin and chop. Retain as much of the juice as you can.

Place half the chopped capsicum and juices into a sauce pan. Chop the chilli and garlic, and add along with all the other ingredients, except the corn flour.

Bring to boil, stirring to dissolve the sugar. Simmer for about 10 minutes.

Let it cool until it won’t burn you, then whizz up with a food processor or bamix (choose only substitutes!) - this bit really is optional - sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t.

Return to saucepan and bring back to a boil, then a simmer.

Mix the cornflour with about 1 tablespoon of water - just enough to make a fairly runny paste.

At this to the saucepan and stir. Simmer until it starts to thicken.

Pour into sterilised jars, seal, and put straight in the fridge.

Yields: 2 cups (.5 litre) sweet chilli sauce

Hot and salty

This one is almost a chilli jam: hot, sour, salty, sweet. Very versatile as a condiment, a stir-fry base, or even a glaze for a roast chicken. I use palm sugar rather than regular sugar for this because of the rich colour and flavour and, when combined with Thai fish sauce, it rounds out so well for a stir fry.

Ingredients

• .5 red capsicum
• .25 cups (4 table spoons) palm sugar
• 5 birds eye chilli
• 3 cloves garlic
• .5 cup water
• .5 cup rice vinegar
• .25 cup fish sauce
• 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon corn flour

Method

As above!

Yields: 1.5 cups (about a third of a litre)

Seafood double

Well, it’s been a long time between blog entries!

Over the summer, smashing England 5–0, and trying to learn and teach my kids to fish and boat, took my full bachelor attention!

This photo shows why I deserve your forgiveness!

Now I have two fab recipes - one for a successful catch, and one for when you haven’t been successful, but still feel like seafood - but are too ashamed just to buy that fish you failed to catch.

So: Baked bream, and steamed mussels.

Baked bream, lemon and potato

I once saw Jamie Oliver on TV recommend barbecuing a whole fish, with its cavity absolutely stuffed with basil and other fragrant herbs. Nooo!

Most fish, especially white-fleshed fish, have delicate flavours that you absolutely do not want to overpower. This recipe balances the light and wholesome flavour of fresh-caught bream, with lemon, tomato and herbs (including basil), with thinly sliced potatoes to soak up the juices and get all crispy on the outside too!

This is a simple recipe that requires just one pan. Enjoy!

Ingredients

• Two whole bream fresh from Cowan Creek, caught by your children!
• Two potatoes thinly sliced
• Two tomatoes thinly sliced
• Two lemons thinly sliced
• Juice of another lemon
• Two tablespoons chopped herb (basil and parsley in this case)
• Half cup dry white wine
• Olive oil
• Pepper

Method

Preheat oven to 200º

Scale and clean fish, and make two diagonal slits on each side (see photo) Rub the chopped herbs into the slits you’ve made in the fish, along with some of the lemon juice.

Place everything in an oven-proof dish, with the fish last. Cover with a lid or foil, and place in the oven for 20 minutes.

Uncover and return to oven for another 20 minutes for the liquid to intensify and potatoes to crisp up at the edges.

Serve on a bed of rice.

Steamed mussels

This one I made last Friday for my boys for dinner, and provided a very tasty soup lunch the following day. Best eaten with crusty slices of baguette. I prefer local black mussels to the green ones imported from NZ - but that is your call.

Ingredients

• 1.5 kilo black mussels
• 1 cup all purpose tomato salsa
• .5 cup dry white wine
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 red onion finely chopped
• 1 tomato roughy chopped
• 1 tablespoon chopped parsely
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed

Method

Some dishes can handle/demand more garlic than others, which is why I put no garlic in my all purpose tomato salsa. And in any case, garlic is so much punchier fresh.

Rinse in cold water, and de-beard the the mussels.

Place all other ingredients (except the chopped onion and parsley) in a deep sauce pan.

Bring to boil, stirring occasionally.

Add mussels, onion and parsley.

Bring to boil again drop the heart, cover, and simmer for 5–10 minutes.

Done!

Serve in deep bowls with bread on the side.

For this recipe, I sometimes toss in sliced beans and julienne carrots, or steam up some rice to fill it out. Tossing in even 4 whole prawns also gives the flavour an extra dimension.