Tips please.

johnnysmurfman

Ok, here's the story, I met this great girl and she's coming over for dinner on Saturday afternoon after a few dates we've been on, we'll probably go out someplace in the evening afterwards. I have given her the impression that I can cook (going for the whole "I'm sensitive and cosmopolitan" style approach) but to be honest I can only describe my cooking as "level one". I think she's expecting it to be a bit of a gourmet afternoon but to be honest I have never gone much farther than pasta with Ragu sauce and mince! I know she likes chicken so I just need to cook a chicken dish that is pretty much idiot proof but at the same time looks really nice and like I know what I'm doing. She doesn't like Indian food either and I get the impression that she'd know if I just poured Chicken Tonight sauce over chicken cooked on the George Foreman. Can anyone help? I don't mind how much it costs for the food and I don't need to worry about dessert or a starter or anything like that, just the main course.

Thanks.

rockbeer

Here's a tip: be honest.

TequilaMockingBird

Shopping List

Two Chicken Breasts
Pack of readymade Stuffing from chiller cabinet
Pack of Rashers
Baby Potatos
Baby Carrots (fresh)
Some readymade veg from chiller cabinet like Cauliflower Cheese
Gravy Mix
Wine (Little bottle if you won't drink the rest(or send rest to me))

How to Make (Also known as a Recipe!)

Make a slit along the side of the chicken breast. FIll with stuffing. Wrap this up with the rashers. Roast for about 30/4 mins at 180.

Cook readymade veg as per instructions.

Just boil the spuds and carrots.

Make gravey and add a dash of wine.

Slice the chicken at an angle in about four slices.

Burn all packaging!

johnnysmurfman

Cool. I was looking up a recipe on the internet and there's one I think I can do except for one bit, it says "1/2 lemon, zest only". Which part is the zest and how do you get to it? It also asks for baby spinach leaves, would those be available in the supermarket?

mcauley

sueme wrote:

Shopping List ......

Please make that and send it to me. I will cover all your costs and overheads etc.

hot fuss

johnnysmurfman wrote:

Cool. I was looking up a recipe on the internet and there's one I think I can do except for one bit, it says "1/2 lemon, zest only". Which part is the zest and how do you get to it? It also asks for baby spinach leaves, would those be available in the supermarket?

You can get bags of spinach leaves in the veg section in any supermarket usually - or else in the freezer section. The zest is the peel that you grate off with the very fine part of the grater..

A very simple but yummy chicken recipe is to get two chicken fillets, put them in a dish covered with lemon juice, crushed garlic and fresh rosemary and leave it in the fridge over night to marinade.

The next day you roast them in the oven in a roasting tray for about 30 minutes. You can also par boil some peeled potatoes, toss them in melted butter and put them in with the chicken, which will give you nice, lemony roast potatoes.

You can serve this with a selection of roasted veg - carrots, parsnip, red onion, peppers for a colourful mix - or else just mashed carrots and parsnip..

It's a very, very tasty and easy main course.

A super simple and impressive desert idea too is to get a packet of frozen berries, or a load of mixed fresh berries. Melt some white chocolate and mix it with a small glass of fresh orange juice and a little cream to make a chocolate sauce. Pour this over the berries and serve - simply, but tasty!

The Sweeper

Baby spinach is usually readily available in the bagged salad section of the supermarket, pre-washed and everything. You'll find it in a bag between rocket and watercress I expect.

The lemon zest is the skin. Try and get as much yellow, but as little of the white pith underneath, as you can. If you have a cheese grater, you can use the really rough side (you know, the side you've always thought 'what the hell is this for, it's sod all use for cheese) and grate the lemon's skin off with the grater. Buy an unwaxed lemon if you can - it'll be marked up as such in the supermarket.

TequilaMockingBird

mcauley wrote:

Please make that and send it to me. I will cover all your costs and overheads etc.

Certainly Mcauly. On its way. Costs are of course incredibly high. Have you heard chicken breast prices have rocketed? e700 per pound. Anyhoo I'll pm my Paypal account....

TequilaMockingBird

Another SOOO easy one.
Although not incredibly healthy...

Shopping List

Bag of Tagliatelle (Pasta)
Carton of cream
Grated Cheddar Cheese
Good quality ham slices
Little Bottle of Wine (I see a pattern here...)
Baguettes or crusty rolls
Bowl of Readymade Salad

Boil pasta.
Drain.
Add the cream
Add the cheese, stir till melted
Add chopped up ham
Add good dash of wine
Serve with salad and bread

Takes about 10 mins to make and soooo tasty.
Good luck with whatever you make!

johnnysmurfman

hot fuss wrote:

The next day you roast them in the oven in a roasting tray for about 30 minutes. You can also par boil some peeled potatoes

What does par boil mean? What temperature do you put it in the oven at?

johnnysmurfman

Saw this on the internet, looks pretty idiot proof to me, might be the way to go!

Ingredients
500g/1lb2oz new potatoes, unpeeled
350g/12oz skinned, cooked chicken (about 3 breasts), cut into chunks
100g/3½oz baby spinach leaves
2 tbsp pesto
1 small lemon, juice only
3 tbsp olive oil

Method
1. Drop the potatoes into a pan of boiling salted water and boil for 15 minutes. Drain, then return them to the pan and roughly crush with a fork.
2. Tip the chunks of chicken into the pan and scatter in the spinach leaves. Mix gently, using a large spoon or your hands.
3. Tip the pesto, lemon juice and olive oil into the pan, season to taste and toss to coat everything in the dressing.

noby

Par boil is to half cook them, then they finish cooking in the oven. At about 180 I would guess.

TequilaMockingBird

That looks lovely, but personally I wouldn't crush the potatos as it could look a bit messy. Buy the really small baby potatos and I think it would look better IMO.

Jeez, we know your smitten, but I'm sure she could manage to crush her own spuds...!!!

noby

Two chicken fillets, into a bowl of flour (seasoned with salt and pepper) and into a pan with a lot of butter, like about 2oz. Fry over a medium heat for about twenty minutes or so (or until done) turning half way. Add more butter half way if you like.
Eat with whatever you fancy (spuds or rice with veg).
Get cholesterol checked.

hot fuss

johnnysmurfman wrote:

What does par boil mean? What temperature do you put it in the oven at?

Roast them at about 180. As for par boiling - drop them into boiling water on the hob and leave them there for five minutes..

Best of luck with it - I'm sure it'll be fine and if all else fails, calls Suppers Ready and throw out the containers before she arrives

TequilaMockingBird

Just a thought.

How about doing chicken nuggets and chips? Then she'll want to mind you for the rest of your life as your so incompetant. (Worked for my ex, till I copped on about 6 years later....!!)

The Sweeper

Wow, Sueme, BITCHEEEEEEEE. You annoyed because the OP didn't go head over heels for your Paxo-Bisto special?

Johnnysmurfman, regarding the recipe you quoted, looks good. Baby new potatoes, crushed, are the business if they're buttered and salted with some parsely (however messy they may look according to Paxo-Bisto gal).

Just remember, if you're going to boil unpeeled new potatoes whole, don't go for enormous spuds because you'll be there all night. Try and get a bunch of them in similar sizes, I'd go for something about the size of a medium hen's egg. I reckon they'll take about 15 minutes on the boil. Check them with a skewer - you should be able to run the skewer to the centre of the spud with not much resistance, but they shouldn't split in two mushy pieces when you do that.

Beruthiel

When cooking potatoes, I think it's worth investing in a steamer and just steam them, it will be the end of watery potatoes forever.

rockbeer

You should be aware, if you really don't know what you're doing, that it can be a dangerous thing to cook chicken unless you can be sure it's cooked.

If it isn't cooked properly it could make her very sick, which won't impress her at all.

All the above recipes, while they might appear idiot-proof at first glance, are fraught with difficulties for a true non-cook.

For example:

"Boil spuds and carrots" - how long for? How much water? Together or seperately? These questions, which are routine for a regular cook, are a mystery to the total beginner. It would be so easy to turn them to a revolting mush, after all.

You can't fake cookery skills. Rule 1 of cookery is: unless you have loads of experience, you should never make a recipe for the first time when cooking to impress.

Really, be honest with her, and then take her out or get a take away. You'll probably end up having a laugh over it, and it'll work out better for you in the long run, honestly.

Beruthiel

He could do a practice run over the next couple of days.

rockbeer

Beruthiel wrote:

He could do a practice run over the next couple of days.

True... but he's going to be practicing forever if he wants to stay ahead of the game.

One recipe will only get you so far.

Jesus Wept

johnnysmurfman wrote:

Ok, here's the story, I met this great girl and she's coming over for dinner on Saturday afternoon after a few dates we've been on, we'll probably go out someplace in the evening afterwards. I have given her the impression that I can cook (going for the whole "I'm sensitive and cosmopolitan" style approach)

Yea, don't do that, honesty ftw.

Smack her on the arse and telling you were joking, then order food in or go out to eat.

Beruthiel

rockbeer wrote:

One recipe will only get you so far.

True, he had better get himself a book and start doing proper meals daily

btw johnnysmurfman, I know you said you had the starter sorted, but if you want to impress her, get some small scallops, salt and pepper them and fry lightly until brown (only takes a couple of mins) knock in a good dash of cognac at the last min and reduce. Serve with crunchy bagette.
Seriously tasty and will make you look like a professional!

seamus

rockbeer wrote:

Really, be honest with her, and then take her out or get a take away. You'll probably end up having a laugh over it, and it'll work out better for you in the long run, honestly.

Nah, I always vote for the sitcom option. Come up with some needlessly complicated scheme whereby you get a friend to come over to your house and cook the dinner for you. He stays in the kitchen while you do the serving. When your female friend asks you how you did it, come up with some hilariously abstract lines and complete bull****, topped off with some odd hmming noises.
When she comes into the kitchen to see how you're getting on, come up with as many inappropriate places as you can find to hide your friend from sight (the fridge, under the table in front of your crotch, use your imagination).

TequilaMockingBird

Absolutly didn't mean to come across as bitchy! Sorry! Rather than poking fun at OP I was poking fun at myself in my younger years, minding men who I thought would would think I was fantastic if I fed them well! I learned eventually!

As for my "Paxo/Bisto mess", judging by the OPs request I thought he probably didn't want to go to the trouble/hassle of making real gravy/stuffing and would want a simpler option.

As for boiling carrots and spuds. Erm..I didn't think I would have to explain but I would be delighted to if anyone needs advice!

I agree totally about the chicken. I see from my original post that I said 30/5 minutes. That was a typo (a dangerous one granted) I meant 30/45 minutes which should be plenty for a chicken breast of course. I also suggested slicing the chicken, so the OP would see if its in anyway pink, which I would imagine it won't be after being cooked for that long.

Jesus Wept

seamus wrote:

Nah, I always vote for the sitcom option. Come up with some needlessly complicated scheme whereby you get a friend to come over to your house and cook the dinner for you. He stays in the kitchen while you do the serving. When your female friend asks you how you did it, come up with some hilariously abstract lines and complete bull****, topped off with some odd hmming noises.
When she comes into the kitchen to see how you're getting on, come up with as many inappropriate places as you can find to hide your friend from sight (the fridge, under the table in front of your crotch, use your imagination).

+1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9NhKMA2DD8

The Sweeper

sueme wrote:

Absolutly didn't mean to come across as bitchy! Sorry! Rather than poking fun at OP I was poking fun at myself in my younger years, minding men who I thought would would think I was fantastic if I fed them well! I learned eventually!

Fair enough. I think Paxo is the creation of the devil. Himself hides a packet of it in the supermarket trolley for a laugh every time we go shopping. Or at least he did in the UK - now he's hiding a packet of Gravox instant stuffing instead. The bollix.

I'd say if you're going to use instant stuff to make life easier, go the whole hog - the OP could get something from the M&S Bistro range (or whatever they call the "we cooked it for you" posh end of their ready made foods), cook it as per the very straightfoward instructions on the packet, and serve it up with a nice glass of wine.

That would be VERY difficult to screw up, and he could break the news to her gently over M&S's food that he's not actually that good a cook. Perhaps even suggest you cook together next time and she teach you something? (Assuming she can cook - is there a possibility she can't even boil an egg herself?)

hot fuss

You know what, just cook something easy. If it goes wrong, it goes wrong - you can laugh about it and order a take out.

An ex of mine put lots of effort into cooking for me one Valentine's Day. It was pretty horrific, but I ate it, and was really impressed by the effort considering he obviously couldn't cook!

I doubt she's expecting Michelin stars..

rockbeer

sueme wrote:

As for boiling carrots and spuds. Erm..I didn't think I would have to explain but I would be delighted to if anyone needs advice!

Sorry sueme, didn't mean to single you out, I could've made similar points about any of the suggested recipes. The point being that if you don't know what you're doing even the simplest instructions can be confusing. Believe me, I live with a total non-cook and it's no use just telling her to boil something. She'd just keep boiling it 'til there was nopthing left unless I told her to stop

I just think it's pointless pretending to be able to cook. I mean, realistically, how long will it be until you get found out? The deception could be all over by breakfast time. Of course that might suit the OP's purposes just fine, but if he's looking for something longer-term I'd advise him to consider the bigger picture.

TequilaMockingBird

rockbeer wrote:

Sorry sueme, didn't mean to single you out, I could've made similar points about any of the suggested recipes. The point being that if you don't know what you're doing even the simplest instructions can be confusing. Believe me, I live with a total non-cook and it's no use just telling her to boil something. She'd just keep boiling it 'til there was nopthing left unless I told her to stop .

I would have replied sooner but..em..I spent half an hour swearing at my laptop... till I realised the plug was out!!!:o We all have our areas of "expertise" - computers ain't mine!

Minesajackdaniels, I understand what your saying. I'm in Sligo and we don't have any lovely M&S goodies up here unfortunatly, but Tesco Finest range isn't too bad for the readymades when needed. I agree about the Paxo. Down with that sort of thing. My mother always used it untill I prised it out of her hand and made proper stuffing.:)

johnnysmurfman

The Smurfman always manages to come up with the goods under pressure, I'm going to Tesco now to buy the required ingredients, I'm pretty sure I'll be fine. As for those insisting that I go down the honesty route and cook chicken nuggets and chips then I have to say that I'm sorry, that would just be quitting.

TequilaMockingBird

You go boy! Best of luck!

johnnysmurfman

God I'm good.

Fried 2 chicken fillets in the pan with some unsalted butter, then added 2 choped garlic cloves, 2 Portobello chopped mushrooms, a chicken stock cube, half a glass of white wine and some double cream, allowed to simmer for a few minutes and then served sprinkled with fresh chives accompanied by new potatoes, carrott and parsnip. It was delicious and I only had to go to pretend to go to the toilet to look at the recipe once! She's coming over for dinner again next Saturday, God, now I'm just trapped in a big web of my own dirty little cookery lies....................bbc cookery website here I come.

rockbeer

johnnysmurfman wrote:

God, now I'm just trapped in a big web of my own dirty little cookery lies....................

Don't say I didn't warn you

noby

rockbeer wrote:

Don't say I didn't warn you

When you're in a hole -just keep digging!

TequilaMockingBird

Lol!

Well done! Get that man a shovel someone....!

johnnysmurfman

Under pressure again for Saturday. Last night when cooking for myself only, I fried the last of the portobello mushrooms with some garlic and served with pasta and Dolmio stir in sauce, it was pretty good actually but I need to make it a bit more respectable, i.e. add some meat and substitute the Dolmio for some respectable sauce that's not from a tub. Any suggestions? Maybe I could fry some beef cut into thin strips?

tSubh Dearg

Why not fillet steak with mushrooms, homemade roasted chipped potatoes and a salad?

You fry the fillet steak in a very hot pan, cooking it for whatever way you like it. Depending on the thickness, 3-4mins each side would do it medium.

Chop up a load of mushrooms finely and heat in a pot with some butter and crushed garlic till they shrink away to nothing. (chop the mushrooms in advance but they only need 5-10 mins to cook)

Peel some potatoes and chop into mouth sized pieces. (Depending on size I would say 3 potatoes each would be lots) Put into a pot of cold water. When the water is boiling set a timer for about 7mins. When that time has passed drain off the water and gently shake.

Take a roasting dish/oven proof dish, put the potatoes in it with lashings of olive oil, some salt, pepper and (if you like) some dried herbs. Cook in a hot oven for about 30 mins or until golden brown. You can also throw some garlic in with them for the last 10 mins or so to give them a nice flavour, you can also eat the roasted garlic if you like.

For the salad just have a good mix of leaves, tomatoes, red peppers, spring onions, radshes etc then toss together with some oil and a sqeeze of fresh lemon/lime juice.

Good luck!

The Sweeper

JSM, try a beef stroganoff if you're feeling daring? I love this recipe (which'd feed more than the two of you, but reheats are good):

750g fillet steak
125g butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
500g sliced mushrooms (I'd just use close-cap button mushrooms, but you can get adventurous if you want)
salt & pepper

6 fluid ounces of water with 2 beef stock cubes, (or a little over 1/3 of a pint of strong beef stock)
2 tablespoons tomato puree
300ml sour cream (you buy sour cream in tubs at the supermarket, I'm not suggesting you buy fresh yourself and leave it in the fridge for a month...)
1 teaspooon cornflour

I serve this with tagliatelle pasta - cook enough for two people using the recommended serving sizes and times on the packet. If you use fresh egg tagliatelle, which takes about two to three minutes in boiling water, it will be an extremely rich meal, but it cooks so quickly you can literally throw it on just as the sauce is done, watch it for two minutes and then drain it, thereby reducing the risk of serving soggy, overcooked pasta.

Method

Cut your fillet steak into bite-sized strips. Heat half the butter in a non-stick pan until very hot, and then seal the meat in batches - this means dropping a few pieces at a time into the butter and tossing them until they go from red to grey-brown all over. As they seal, take them out of the pan and put them on a plate - do this until all the meat is sealed.

In the same pan, add the other half of the butter and allow to melt, then add the chopped onion, Saute the onion - this means stir it about in the melted butter until it's starting to lightly brown.

Add the sliced mushrooms and allow them to cook down until they shrink a little - this'll take maybe 7 or 8 mins. Turn the heat down if you're finding it difficult to stop the onion and mushroom from burning or sticking to the pan - especially if you don't have a non-stick pan and you've had to use a steel one instead.

Now return the meat to the pan (get all the juices off the plate in there too), and add the tomato puree and either your water and stock cubes or your strong beef stock. Season with a good few twists of black pepper and a good pinch of salt.

Mix your sour cream and the teaspoon of cornflour in a bowl.

Let the meat and stock etc. come to boiling point, then reduce the heat under it and let it simmer for five minutes. Then gradually add the cream/cornflour mixture, a little at a time, and stir it into the pan as you add it. The whole mixture will thicken and start to bubble. Let it simmer for five minutes, then serve with tagliatelle.

Variation

Smoked sweet paprika - a half teaspoon of this, added at the same time as you return the meat to the pan, will change the flavour of this dish. It's a great dish without the paprika, and an interesting dish with it. If you're unsure, leave it out, and then the next day when you're scarfing the leftovers for your lunch, add a little smoked paprika while you're reheating so you can see what it does.

Minder

Try this Chicken Savoyarde recipe from Tamasin Day Lewis. It will really impress.

The hardest part is making the sauce. The chicken could be cooked the day before. The stock can be refridgerated once cold and the fat is easily taken off the top of the stock with a spoon.

The cooked flour and butter mixture is called a roux and is the basis for many sauces - cook on a gentle heat to avoid burning. Add the hot stock gradually and whisk or stir until smooth with each addition.

(Sorry if this is teaching your Granny to suck eggs)

The recipe serves 6, so reduce the quantities accordingly, I would use half the ingredients for the sauce. Buy a whole chicken and cut off the legs for another recipe. Poach the rest for about 1 hour. You shouldn't worry too much about all the vegetables for poaching the chicken - they add flavour but a bit of thyme and an onion & carrot will do the trick. Poaching the chicken keeps it moist.

You don't need to use Gruyere cheese - a strong chedder makes a good alternative.

johnnysmurfman

This whole cooking thing is just out of control at the moment, those recipies are far too much hassle, what was wrong with my pasta, mushroom, garlic, beef suggestion? All I need is the ingredients for a tomato sauce to serve with it. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

johnnysmurfman

All this grammes and fluid ounces nonsense has me driven round the bend. You should have seen me last night trying to calculate grammes of butter from a 454 gramme block without the aid of a measuring scale, I mean who has a measuring scale anyway? I was using a measuring tape, pen and paper and a calculator, lucky nobody saw me in the kitchen with my pen behind my ear scratching my builder's arse wondering what the handiest way to crush digestive biscuits is. I'm starting a new trend, any recipe ever penned by me will give the measurements for the ingredients in good old fashioned feet and inches and will encourage the use of implements normally found in the average home, good old fashioned things like hammers and screwdrivers, none of this lemon zester and baking tin nonsense.

I was trying to make cheesecake last night, which ended up tasting more like a cheese sandwich than a dessert, and looking like somebody had beaten it with a big rubber hammer before getting bored and leaving it to sink into it's own biscuit base. It took me about 25 minutes to clean the neighbour's food processor before returning it to her as well. Al these lies are just not worth it, I might be forced to come clean in a couple of weeks but in the meantime I'm riding this cooking train until I puke (or she does).

Minder

johnnysmurfman wrote:

This whole cooking thing is just out of control at the moment, those recipies are far too much hassle, what was wrong with my pasta, mushroom, garlic, beef suggestion? All I need is the ingredients for a tomato sauce to serve with it. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

You asked for an easy chicken dish, I gave you an easy chicken dish. Follow the recipes until you are confident with the basics, then you can cobble together a dish without having to measure everything down to the last gramme.

I don't get the weighing scales out for a simple roux. A dollop of butter and some flour in a pan, add stock, wine, cheese and tarragon. Job done. Couldn't be easier, it is chicken and you won't find it in a jar in Tesco.

Tomato sauce

Recipe I

1 Kg fresh tomatoes
1/2 head of garlic
1 Pkt basil

Cut the tomatoes in half, drizzle with olive oil, season, cut garlic in half, add basil. Roast in the oven at 180c for 1 hour. Push the cooked tomatoes through a sieve. Job done.

(I know - you haven't got a sieve and you neighbour won't lend you one after the mess you made of her food processor. )

Recipe 2

Two tins of tomatoes, blitzed
Garlic & Basil
1 Onion

Peel the onion - leave whole
Smash the garlic
Fry onion and garlic in olive oil to add a little colour
Add blitzed tomatoes & basil
Cover and cook for 40 mins
Take out the onion
Add to steak & 'shrooms

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majd, that Stroganoff recipe sounds delish, I'll be trying that one. Cheers.

The Sweeper

johnnysmurfman wrote:

This whole cooking thing is just out of control at the moment, those recipies are far too much hassle, what was wrong with my pasta, mushroom, garlic, beef suggestion? All I need is the ingredients for a tomato sauce to serve with it. Anyone? Anyone? Bueller? Anyone?

If you look at the recipe I gave you, it has pasta, mushrooms and beef. If you're that desperate for garlic you could add that too. It also draws on the stock and cream idea that you used yourself in the first meal you made. I don't see how it's too much hassle when it's pretty much combining all the things you've done already tbh - that's why I posted it.

Your pasta, mushroom, garlic, beef suggestion is fine, but it will be a rather acidic meal unless you take time to make good tomato sauce, but from what you've said that may also be too much hassle for you. Good cooking isn't hassle free - well, certainly not if you're used to boiling pasta for 10 minutes and then stirring through a jar of something.

After a while you learn what suits you and what doesn't.

Delia has a chocolate mascarpone cheesecake recipe that's a stunner, but it will take some effort. (Her site's down at the moment so I can't post the link - just search chocolate mascarpone.) Oh - word of warning - when baking desserts, it's a bad idea to substitute tin sizes. If the recipe wants a 7 inch tin, use a 7 inch tin. Much of the glory of a baked cheesecake comes from its depth, and using a larger tin won't give you the same effect.

I made it last Thursday night, leaving it to cool in the oven overnight, before decorating it with chocolate curls and cocoa powder the next morning. The one thing I'd say is don't bake the base for as long as she recommends - mine was on the edge of burning at only 10 minutes, where she suggests 20. It was greeted with suitable ooos and aaahs when I served it after dinner.

We were entertaining on Friday night, so I picked a recipe that was all the work in advance - roast lamb in red wine. I prepped all the veggies ifirst, then roasted a 2kg leg of lamb in a full bottle of shiraz on a low heat for four hours until it was nearly melting off the bone. The veggies also roast in the wine. I made some mashed potato (20 mins on the hob) at the last minute, but other than basting the lamb once an hour, I basically had four hours of peace before the guests arrived and all I had to do was mash the boiled potatoes with butter and serve up what was in the oven - I wasn't juggling 20 pots on the stove top when they walked in the door.

TequilaMockingBird

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

We were entertaining on Friday night, so I picked a recipe that was all the work in advance - roast lamb in red wine. I prepped all the veggies ifirst, then roasted a 2kg leg of lamb in a full bottle of shiraz on a low heat for four hours until it was nearly melting off the bone. The veggies also roast in the wine. I made some mashed potato (20 mins on the hob) at the last minute, but other than basting the lamb once an hour, I basically had four hours of peace before the guests arrived and all I had to do was mash the boiled potatoes with butter and serve up what was in the oven - I wasn't juggling 20 pots on the stove top when they walked in the door.

Any chance of an invite next time your cooking! Melting Lamb...ooohh! Is it just a bottle of Shiraz you use, nothing else? I usually just use a little water.

xxdilemmaxx

How do you roast the veg - do you just put them in the wine??

Minder

Was there any wine left in the roasting tin after so long in the oven ?

The Sweeper

The roast lamb was based on a delia recipe for lamb roast in beaujolais. (But I'm in Australia and I'm not paying the price for French wine!)

You prep a tray of root veggies, lightly oiled and seasoned, and you put your leg of lamb, rubbed with olive oil, salt and pepper in a separate deep roasting tin. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees and put both trays in for half an hour. The veggies brown at the edges and the lamb seals.

Then you put the veggies to one side, lower the heat to gas mark 3 (about 170 I think) and sit your lamb roasting dish on a hot hob, and pour a whole bottle of wine over the lamb, basting it thoroughly as you pour. Then sprinkle a tablespoon of each of chopped fresh thyme and chopped fresh rosemary over the lamb. When the wine starts to simmer in the tray on the hob, put a tent of tinfoil over it and put it back in the oven.

Another three hours of cooking follows - the first 90 mins is the lamb on its own, then you take it out, lift the foil, baste it, add the veggies to the pan and toss them well in the wine, then put the foil back and put it in for another 90 minutes.

Keeping foil on it means you have some wine left in the tray when you're done - you decant everything to warm plates, then stir some redcurrant jelly into the wine on the hob and let it reduce. It makes a really rich, sticky sweet sauce.

The vegetables that have been roasted in the wine tend to be very mushy after 90 minutes in the tin, so to be honest if I were doing this again I'd add them in the last hour, do some separate roast potatoes and do something light with them - maybe steamed runner beans and baby corn - something that feels like it lifts the whole thing. I can't fault how the meat cooked though - it was excellent.

johnnysmurfman

I was forced to come clean, my lies caught up with me, she seemed to understand though so I suppose it's not as bad as it could have been. People should learn from my mistakes, never claim to be a cooking genius when in actual fact you haven't a notion, there's no long term benefits to it.

_blank_

Minesajackdaniels wrote:

JSM, try a beef stroganoff if you're feeling daring?

http://boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=53651197&postcount=39

I made this to the specified recipe today but I substituted Sirloin for the Fillet steak. I'm a cheap bastard, I know. At least it wasn't Stewing though

I also don't like Pasta, so I had it with Brown Rice.

I wouldn't exactly say it's daring though. It's a fairly simple recipe to make, majd your instructions were very easy to follow, thank you. Basically it's just lump everything into the pan.

It's absolutely delicious, and I reckon you'd feed four with the amount there, just looking at what's left in the pan now. I'm going to divvy it up and freeze the rest. (I eat by myself while the gf is on a world trip )

Have you any more similar recipes to this? I'm really getting pissed off buying sauces at this stage.

Thanks again for a lovely recipe majd, very impressed.