All posts tagged: lamb

NZ Lamb Rump with Spring Onion Ginger Sauce

Published by

Spring onion and ginger is classic pairing in Cantonese cuisine. I grew up eating spring onion and ginger sauce which is made from scratch at home. This sauce also works beautifully with BBQ and roasted meats. Lamb rump is a good value cut that is sure to impress this festive season. You can choose to cook these on a BBQ. Just make sure you use a hood to keep a consistent temp and rest before slicing. Lamb Rump with Spring Onion Ginger Sauce 30 mins prep | 40 mins cookDifficulty: Easy | Serves 4 to 6 LAMB INGREDIENTS900 gram lamb rumpsSaltPepper1 Tbsp cooking oil LAMB PREPARATION SAUCE INGREDIENTS5 spring onions (2 cups thinly sliced)10cm fresh ginger (1/4 cup grated)1/2 tsp salt1/2 cup vegetable oil or peanut oil SAUCE PREPARATION This recipe was created for Beef + Lamb New Zealand.

Lamb Biryani with cashews and sultanas

Published by

I was talking to the lady at the spice shop. The moment I told her I was making biryani, her whole vibe changed. Lamb biryani? Her favourite! I could almost see love hearts in her eyes. I don’t know if this recipe would also be her favourite but this is my favourite lamb biryani. I’ve eaten biryani with cashews. I’ve eaten biryani with sultanas. I add both cashews and sultanas to my lamb biryani because it tastes amazing. The lovely thing about cooking is you get to tweak the ingredients list and you get to be a bit extra. Lamb Biryani with cashews and sultanas 45 mins prep | Marinate overnight | 1 hour 30 mins cookDifficulty: Medium | Serves 6 INGREDIENTS1kg bone in lamb shoulder (or 900g boneless)1 cup greek yoghurt4 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed4 cm piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated2 teaspoons salt2 tablespoons vegetable oil2 onions, thinly sliced8 cardamom pods, gently crushed2 bay leaves1 tablespoon garam masala1 tablespoon ground Kashmiri chilli powder1 and ½ teaspoon ground turmeric, divided1 cup chicken …

Easy Roasted Lamb Rump

Published by

Lamb rump is a great little cut that cooks quickly in easy to manage portions. Resting time is super important when it comes to rump so DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. This recipe can easily be adapted to cook one rump or six rumps depending on how many appetites you have to feed. I have left side dishes up to you but I think it’s lovely served with roasted vegetables, peas or mash. This recipe is perfect for entertaining. Step 1 to Step 6 can be completed before your guests arrive. Just slice and serve when you’re ready to eat. Easy Roasted Lamb Rump 15 mins prep | 40 mins cookDifficulty: Easy | Serves 4 INGREDIENTS3 x 300g lamb rumpSaltPepper1 Tbsp cooking oil PREPARATION1. Remove lamb from refrigerator. Remove packaging and pat dry. Using a sharp knife, score the fat cap by making shallow cuts across the surface of the fat. Season both sides generously with salt and pepper. Allow lamb to sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This is a great time to …

5 Spice Pulled Lamb (Peking Style)

Published by

In my family, many special occasions have been celebrated with Peking duck. This recipe for 5 spice pulled lamb using boneless lamb shoulder is inspired by Peking duck. My recipe for the thin pancakes is also below but if you can’t be bothered making pancakes, steamed bao bought from the frozen aisle at the supermarket would be an acceptable short cut. 5 Spice Pulled Lamb (Peking Style) 1 hour prep | Marinade overnight | 3.5 hours cookDifficulty: Medium | Serves 6 INGREDIENTS850 grams lamb shoulder (boneless)½ cup orange juice (or 1 orange)2 tablespoons hoisin sauce2 teaspoons salt2 teaspoons soft brown sugar1 tablespoon light soy sauce1 tablespoon Shaoxing wine1 teaspoon 5 spice powder1 red onion, sliced TO SERVE20 Peking pancakes (see recipe below)2 spring onions, cut into 7cm lengths and cut into slivers½ telegraph cucumber, cut 7cm matchsticksHoisin sauce PREPARATION 1. Place the seasoning ingredients into a bowl or container: orange juice, 2 tablespoons hoisin sauce, light soy sauce, salt, soft brown sugar, Shaoxing wine and 5 spice powder. Mix to combine. 2. Add the lamb …

Lamb and Kamo Kamo Curry

Published by

This six ingredient lamb and kamo kamo curry was created as part of a collection of six ingredient recipes. Kamo kamo is a New Zealand squash. If unavailable, use courgettes (zucchini) as a substitute. Serve with basmati rice or roti/naan. This recipe makes a generous portion and any extras taste fantastic the next day. Lamb and Kamo Kamo Curry 15 mins prep | 1 hour 15 mins cookDifficulty: Easy | Serves 6-8 INGREDIENTS2 onions, diced1.2kg lamb rump, cut into bite size pieces500g rogan josh sauce or korma sauce1kg kamo kamo or courgettes, cut into bite size chunks1 cup plain or Greek yoghurtSERVE WITH: Basmati rice, roti or naanOPTIONAL GARNISH: a handful of fresh coriander, sliced red onion FROM THE PANTRYSalt and pepper1 Tbsp cooking oil PREPARATION This recipe was created for Greenlea Butcher Shop.

Dan Dan Noodles and a $100 Prezzy Card giveaway

Published by

This post was made possible thanks to MAGGI 2minute Wholegrain Noodles – Made with the goodness of wholegrain and are 99% fat free. They are available at all supermarkets. Dan Dan. Fun to say. Fun to eat. Dan Dan Noodles are a common street food from China’s Sichuan Province which  is also responsible for Kung Pao Chicken and Mapo Tofu. If you know these dishes, you’ll know the fiery, punchy flavour profile of the region. Dan Dan Noodles are egg or wheat noodles served with a meat topping, preserved or pickled vegetables, peanuts or sesame seeds, a sweet sesame soy sauce or soup and of course, Sichuan pepper.  Served from street food peddlers, these noodles are an inexpensive, filling meal with lots of flavour. Spice level varies, but this is more about the satisfying tingle of Sichuan Pepper than the burn of chilli. There are many variations on this dish but those are the key elements. For the sake of research, I’ve eaten a few bowls of Dan Dan Noodles to get a feel for …

Festive Lamb Salad

Published by

Hope everyone had a delicious Christmas! We’ve just spent four nights at a bach (kiwi for holiday home) for some family time. We were just a short downhill walk to the centre of Akaroa, a sleepy French harbourside settlement surrounded by dramatic hills. There were barbecues, lots of salads, a glazed ham, whitebait fritters, chocolates, cookies, desserts and just enough chilled beer and wine to wash it all down. I adore glazed ham (call me the queen of ham) and we finished the last of the ham leftovers the night before departure. I am not all hammed out at all. In fact, I’ve been contemplating buying a post-Christmas ham for the two of us to snack on. Maybe after that I shall be satiated. In any case, this festive salad I made earlier this month with lamb steaks could be switched for leftover ham if you happen to have any still left. Just top with sliced ham instead of sliced lamb. Festive lamb salad (or leftover ham salad if you happen to have leftover ham) Serves 2 Ingredients …

The Crab Shack

Published by

The Koala and I had a gluttonous jolly good time eating our way around Wellington city last week. One thing that struck me with Wellington is that they are super conscious of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free diners. The Koala and I don’t fall into either of these categories, but I normally get the feeling that anything meat-gluten-whatever-free is a pale version of the original. Not so in Wellington. Some of the vegetarian dishes looked so good that I ordered them instead of my regular omni choices. That’s not usually a thing. Many of the menus we saw had plenty of selection for even the most discerning eater. Over the weekend, I will be posting my reviews of the places we ate and loved, from the perspective of an out of towner. The Crab Shack First up, the place I had my eye on – due to a severe lack of crab eating in this country – was the newly opened restaurant on the waterfront: The Crab Shack. New Zealanders don’t eat crabs. It’s just not …

Lamb Sausages and Grapes

Published by

Lamb is getting cheaper and cheaper here in NZ and I suspect it’s to do with our strong kiwi dollar. A lot of the lamb raised here gets shipped off to overseas markets so it’s a treat to be able to afford it. Still, if you don’t want the commitment of a whole lamb leg, lamb sausages are a cheap and tasty way to eat lamb. Nosh Food Market usually put a different sausage on special each week and last week was their really good lamb sausages for $11 kg. Nosh’s Black Rock Butchery are surprisingly good and their specials are very good and it’s no small feat that Nosh recently won the NZ Ham of the Year prize at the annual 100% Bacon and Ham competition. At Nosh, you can ask the butcher real foodie questions, like portion sizes and their cooking reccomendations. A stark contrast to the supermarket where I once asked the lady behind the seafood counter if they had any flounder left (on special that week). She did not know what …

Make Biryani

Published by

Lamb biryani is my regular order when we get Indian food delivered. I was introduced to it a few years ago when an Indian co-worker brought in a huge pot of biryani for his birthday lunch. Even after almost crying due to a whole green chili I mistook for capsicum, I fell in love with the dish. The one bowl wonder is comforting, the mild blend of spices, the slow cooked, super tender meat very appealing. Sadly, not many restaurants offer this dish. I guess it’s because it’s considered peasant food, not restaurant food. It’s time consuming to make and probably not all that popular here in New Zealand. It’s the last week of winter so I’m trying to cross off my winter to do list and last week’s CSA box included both carrots and cauliflower. I decided to attempt a lamb biryani. I roughly followed the recipe from Cuisine Magazine which can be found online here. While the recipe generously suggests this will serve 4, I think it’s more like serves 6 to 8. Even with …

Farmhouse Pasties

Published by

I’m glad I gave the traditional Cornish Pasty recipe a whirl already this autumn. Now I’m inspired to do some weird, non-authentic pasties. This next recipe uses some of the original ingredients like beef, lamb, onion and potatoes, but also puff pastry, bacon, carrots and cheese. You can put the cheese inside the pastie if you prefer, but I’ve sprinkled cheese on the outside. I thought it would look prettier, but it only looks ok.  I’m loving smoked cheddar at the moment. It has a distinctive smokey flavour that is divine with streaky bacon. I’m buying ethical meat when it’s convenient, even though free range vs organic vs free farmed can be confusing to the average home cook. It’s nice to remember that at least here in New Zealand, lamb and beef are free farmed at minimum. At best, they’re free range. I don’t think there are any wild cows or wild sheep out there. Although that might be interesting! Lamb and beef I consider my “happy meats”. It’s only chicken and pork you have …

Make Cornish Pasties

Published by

After trying both venison and beef versions of Sarah’s Cornish Pasties at Splore a few weeks ago, I was hell bent on making some of my own. For those that aren’t familiar with Cornish Pasties, they’re a submarine-shaped pie and traditional ingredients include beef or lamb, potatoes, swedes and onion. These  parcels of goodness were originally baked for tin miners who worked underground and didn’t come up  to air at lunch. They ate these pies and with their dirty, arsenic laden paws. They clutched the crust, ate the pastie and discarded the soiled crust at the end to avoid poisoning. Cornish pasties are baked from raw ingredients and it surprised me that both the meat and the vegetables cooked perfectly in these parcels. Short crust pastry is traditional but after eating these, I may retry with puff pastry because I adore puff pastry. I find short crust to be a bit heavy. I used both lamb and beef (why pick one when you can have both), potato, swede and onion. This recipe adapted from the NZ …

When it rains, it pours.

Published by

I had never made lasagna before but in the last few days I got 2 lasagna pins on my foodie sash. I don’t think The Koala minds the new lasagna obsession one bit. My first was a classic attempt. The meat sauce made in the morning so the flavours had all day to develop. This time being a weeknight, I wanted something much, much faster. I had 2 lasagna sheets left over from the other night and only 200 grams of lamb mince so I bulked up the meat with bacon. Lamb and bacon are two of the tastiest meats around. Using white sauce and a vintage cheddar made for a strong tasting sauce rather than the mild ricotta based sauce I made the other night. Bacon and Lamb Lasagna for two Ingredients 2 sheets fresh lasagna Meat sauce 250 grams (half a pound) lamb mince 4 strips streaky bacon, chopped into postage stamps 1 onion, diced 4 garlic bulbs, chopped 1/2 a cup tomato paste 1/2 cup red wine Salt (about a teaspoon)  Cheese …

Lamb and Pinot Noir Meatballs

Published by

I still had a little pinot noir leftover from the other day when we all needed a BFGOW after work. So I got half a kilo of lamb mince in a bowl, added a good glug glug of the wine, some chopped garlic, chopped basil, salt, pepper, some breadcrumbs, no, more breadcrumbs, no, still more breadcrumbs and rolled up 60 little meatballs and baked them for about 15 minutes in a hot 200°C oven. Then I made this light sauce to go with it. If it wasn’t a school night, I might have cooked this sauce for longer, but I’d already laboured over the meatballs and hey, a light sauce is good too. Chop up 2 red capsicums, 2 sticks of celery, 1 onion and brown in a hot pan with a little oil. Add 2 cups of water and boil for 20 minutes. Drain most of the water out. Work some voodoo magic with a stick blender and then put it back on the heat and add salt or bouillon as you wish. Serve with …

I love Nosh and Lamb Shanks

Published by

Nosh Food Market opened up this year within walking distance of our house. The time it takes to walk from my house to Nosh and back home, including shopping is exactly 1 hour. I adore Nosh, it’s like my happy place. The staff are knowledgeable and seem genuinely happy to be there. Anything on special at Nosh is better quality and cheaper than the supermarket giants. I’m glad I have a restriction on how much I can buy at Nosh or I’d be spending all my wages there. Anything that I can’t carry in my shopping bag doesn’t get to come home with me. Nosh always seem to have lamb shanks on special and they also have great recipes for their products on their website. This dish is an adaptation of the Lamb Shanks with Parsnip recipe from their website . Lamb Shanks with Chorizo and Beetroot Ingredients 2 lamb shanks Flour Oil 2 beetroot (peeled and cut into wedges) 1 red onion (chopped) 1 mexican chorizo (cut into bite sized pieces) 3 garlic cloves (chopped) …

Cottage Pie Dreams & Shepherd’s Pie Potatoes

Published by

I had a dream last night about cottage pie where the top was thinly sliced potato instead of the usual mash. So I had to make it for dinner. I guess some people have dreams and go on and become prophets. I have dreams and go on to eat dinner. I figured 3 layers of potato and 3 layers of cheese would be enough to do my dream justice. Layer of meat and vegies. Layer of potato, layer of mild cheese, layer of potato, layer of havarti, layer potato, layer of mature cheddar. Baked to golden. Nom. Sunday night dinner: Shepherd’s Pie Baked Potatoes Do you know the difference between a Shepherd’s Pie and Cottage Pie? Shepherd’s has lamb, Cottage has beef. These baked potatoes are great portable food. Maybe for a party or a picnic and I can testify that these are good eaten cold too. I used sausages, but you could use mince also. Ingredients 4 medium potatoes 2 lamb sausages or about 150grams mince 2 mushrooms, sliced 2 tablespoons diced onion 2 …