lamp chops with rosemary and mint sauce

6 lambchops
2 tablespoons oil
2-3 tablespoons chopped rosemary
3 tablespoons mint jelly
clove garlic
tablespoon flour
1 1/2 cups lamb broth (from a cube or stock)

Grind garlic and rosemary in a pestle with the oil. Spread it on the top of the chops and cook them in a little olive oil for about 7 minutes a side. Remove from pan and pour off all but 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the flour and cook a couple of minutes. Add the broth and the mint jelly and cook over low heat until slightly thickened. Pour over chops.

after

Nearly forgot. Here’s the DIY project almost finished. Those pesky detail trimmings and mouldings will be another year or two, no doubt!

wines o’ the week

I love French wines, I do. Some current favourites. Two reasonable, one mid-priced (St Emilion). Lovely.

pomegranate and balsamic glazed chicken

Adapted from a recipe at pomwonderful.com.

3/4 cup pomegranate and cranberry juice. I used half of each because I didn’t have a full cup of pomegranate juice
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
5 small carrots cut into bitesized chunks
1 chopped shallot (I cater for those who are not fond of onions)
olive oil
1 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (less if the balsamic is very rich)
2 teaspoons cornstarch
2 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
fresh pomegranate seeds as garnish

Brown the chicken with the carrots and shallot in oil until the carrots are tender. Stir frequently. Add the chicken broth to the pan and cover and simmer for 10 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked. Transfer chicken and carrots to another dish and cover and keep warm.
Pour out all but 1/3 cup of chicken cooking liquid in the skillet. Stir in pomegranate juice, balsamic, cornstarch, brown sugar and oregano. Bring to a boil; reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes. Serve the sauce over chicken and carrots and garnish with reserved pomegranate seeds.

Note: to extract pomegranate seeds, score the fruit and place in a bowl of water. Break open the pomegranate underwater to free the seeds. The seeds will sink to the bottom of the bowl.

plum salsa

Lovely on seared tuna and salmon. Also good on a green salad or mixed with cold rice or served with anything else you’d serve a mango salsa with (I had no mangos, you see).

Enough for 4 servings. Adjust quantities and proportions as you fancy. Chop all the bits into cubes.

5 fresh plums
half an apple (half because we gave the other half to the rabbits)
1/4 cucumber
1/2 orange pepper
clove of garlic
1 shallot
juice of one lime
fresh coriander
scant 1/4 cup olive oil
salt, pepper and Shichimi Togarashi (seven spice seasoning) or tabasco as you like

Mix it up.

brilliant cough remedy

You know those nasty coughs you get at the end of a cold? The ones that are worse at night or when laying down and won’t let you sleep? I hate those.

Here’s a brilliant remedy that works in seconds and lasts all night (well, nearly).

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (or a couple of drops of tabasco - I was out of cayenne)
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp honey (I use the manuka honey as it’s supposed to have extra antibacterial properties - worth a shot, hey?)
1 tbsp cider vinegar
2 tbsp boiling water

Mix well and take 3 teaspoons to calm the cough. Keep the rest by the bed just in case. Amazing.

lovely, lovely steak sauce

Particularly nice on filet steak with a potato rosti. These are measurements in the ‘guesstimate’ stylee.

1 cup beef stock
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup canned chopped tomatoes or tomato puree
1/2 glass red wine
2 cloves garlic - chopped or pressed
generous shake of chili flakes, salt and fresh ground pepper

Cook the steaks a couple minutes on each side for rare/medium rare and remove them to a medium oven to keep warm.

Add the beef stock, wine, vinegar and tomatoes to the pan and cook 2 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pan. Add the garlic and boil hard until the sauce becomes syrupy. If you used the chopped tomatoes (or there are big chunks of garlic), you may wish to strain the sauce before pouring over the steaks.

Page 1 of 1 pages