Mediterranean Lamb Salad

 This one is a winner!  Yum, yum, yum!! I love salads that are a meal in themselves and this one is so delicious!  Made with both fresh and semi dried tomatoes, eggplant,  olives, capers and fresh basil, it really is so packed with flavour.
The marinade for the lamb is so simple, only lemon zest, olive oil, rosemary and garlic.  I used lamb steaks as I couldn't get lamb fillets (and because the steaks were cheaper!) but it really made very little difference.  It was so easy to throw all the ingredients together on the platter and then quickly fry the lamb for a few minutes either side, slice it up and toss it with the vegetables.  The vinaigrette is also quick and easy and I tend to use the same one on lots of my salads now.  Made of just lemon juice, olive oil, mustard, sugar, garlic and salt & pepper.  So yum and just so simple.  This is a must try - you'll love it! 

Orange Lightening Cake

I love cake!  It is the undoing
 of many of the diets that I start!  When we met Annabel last week, we were discussing some of her cake recipes and she said, if we liked those, we must try the Lightening Orange Cake.

 Oh my goodness, this cake is delicious!  I love the fact that the whole orange goes in, and it's all made in the food processor.  Annabel says in her notes that "whizzing the whole orange in the food processor keeps the cake wonderfully moist and tender" - and it does!  All the ingredients are things you already have in your pantry.  I love that.  Not having to make a special trip to the supermarket to get that one ingredient that you don't just have.

The cake took an hour to cook and the smell filled the house and as Annabel says, "makes a house feel like a home".  Definitely try this one, it certainly was lightening to make, no time at all to throw it all together and is just so YUM!

Meeting Annabel...again!

What a special night!  Yet another chance to meet and chat with Annabel.  It was the launch of her latest book, Simple Pleasures and we were lucky enough to have a lovely dinner and nice wine while we listened to Annabel speak.  We then had the opportunity to have her sign our books and talk with her.  I spoke to her again about my blog and she seemed genuinely honored to have her recipes blogged, very Julie and Julia!  She is so natural and it just feels like she could be one of your "besties" without even trying!  We talked about a few of our favourite recipes, and she suggested we have a go at the Orange Lightening Cake which I will post next.



As she did last time we met, Annabel wrote a lovely message in my copy of Simple Pleasures, it reads:
"Dear Catherine
With very best wishes for happy cooking!  I look forward to you blogging your way through this book in the next year or less!
Annabel Langbein"

Barbecued Lamb with Spicy Rub

Thanks to my wonderful friends who gently remind me "that it's been a while since we've had an addition to the Annabel Blog", here is the next recipe with my apologies that it's been so long! 
It has been an exciting week with the purchase of Annabel's latest book, Simple Pleasures which is such a pleasure to read!  I am thinking that with my collection now grown to three of Annabel's books, I am going to have to blog more and more of the latest recipes as I hate being confined to just one book!  So at this rate, to get every recipe, in all 3 books made, I'll still be blogging in the year 2102 (only 90 years away!) - what a wonderful thought!

Spicy Rub is easy to make and so full of flavour, my mouth was watering as I was making it.  I used long red chillies but if you wanted to add the smaller ones for extra heat that would be just as good - depends on what you like.

As with most of Annabel's gorgeous recipes, they are so versatile! Once made, this rub can be used as the base for a salad dressing or added to yoghurt to make a spicy dipping sauce - Yum!






My butcher de-boned a nice big leg of lamb for me and I added the spicy rub and left it in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Unlike in Annabel's book, I didn't have a perfectly shaped stone to weigh my meat down on the barbecue so as suggested by Annabel, I wrapped a brick in foil and it did the job!

Fifteen minutes on each side the the meat was cooked to perfection!  Lovely and pink in the middle with the taste of lemon, cumin and ginger seeping through.  Delicious!

Catherine

Cypriot Shepherd's Pie

To be completely honest, this wasn't one of the better recipes I've made.  It might have something to do with the fact that I'm not a huge Shepherd's pie fan anyway.  I remember my Gran used to make it with the leftover meat from the roast.  The cold meat would be put in the old fashioed cast iron mincer that was screwed on to the side of the kitchen table, I used to love having a go of churning out the mince. Back  then I remember smothering the finished pie it in tomato sauce to get it down!  

I was thinking that maybe the carrot and parsnip mash might be the deal breaker to this being a scrumptious variation to the old fashioned Shepherd's pie but I'm afraid not.  I think the thought of the Shepherd's pie I had growing up was just too much for me to overcome!  Well at least I gave it a try!

The family of course ate it all up but weren't over complimentary either - sorry Annabel, can't win 'em all, this is the first recipe that hasn't won over the whole family!
Catherine

Bacon & Egg Pie

Fresh Eggs straight from the chooks has made this beautiful bacon and egg pie.  Such an easy recipe and took no time to make.  My Gran used to make an egg and bacon pie and we'd have it on a Sunday if we went for tea or even have it cold for lunch, conjures up really lovely memories for me.
How lucky I am to get eggs bought down from Fish Creek by Mum and Dad when they come to visit.  When I got this last lot (complete with dates penciled on them by Dad) I knew I wanted to make this pie of Annabel's.  It is the very first recipe she makes on her Free Range Cook DVD set!
I used chives and parsley as my herbs, Annabel suggests using any soft herb.  The potato is boiled and then roughly chopped.  I loved the big pieces of potato, but my family suggested maybe grating the potato next time (don't think I will - I like the rustic feel of the big chunks!)

The taste was beautiful!  I actually made it a couple of days ahead and it reheated really well.  I also had some left over for lunch the next day with some homemade tomato chutney (thanks Mum!) and a little salad of baby spinach and fresh tomato.  Really YUM! 


A great tip from Annabel - put an oven tray in the oven first, oven at 200 degrees heats the tray so that when you put the pie in, the base crisps up well as it sits on the hot tray.  Gotta love that!  Enjoy this one, Catherine

Chicken, Eggplant and Green Bean Korma

 The South East Asian curry base that I made for this curry was so easy and it produced this delicious chicken and veggie curry that we enjoyed as an entree to a family gathering recently.  The curry was so flavoursome without being too spicy.  You could use any vegetable you liked but the simplicity of eggplant, tomato and green beans was a perfect combination with the chicken.  Beautiful Thai flavours in the base including ginger, lime and coriander made it really tasty. Originally I thought I might use the other half of the curry base to make something different but I loved this dish so much that I think I'll just make this one again.  My kids aren't huge fans of curries but they all really enjoyed this as they tasted it straight from the pot!  Annabel says in the book not to be daunted by the list of ingredients in the base, as once you have got them all together the food processor does all the work!  Cooking the base for a short time then adding the chicken and veggies just couldn't be easier.  Give this one a go, you won't be disappointed! Catherine

South East Asian Curry Base

I was so looking forward to making this curry base and of course it didn't disappoint.  Really easy to throw loads of beautiful fresh ingredients into the food processor and end up with an amazing flavour to use in either a vegetable or meat based curry.  I made the Chicken, Eggplant and Green Bean Korma which I am blogging next.  I used half the base in the chicken dish and froze the other half.  Another winner Annabel!

Cous Cous with Roasted Vegetables

I think that salads like this one, in fact all the salads that Annabel has in her book are my favorite recipes.  Someone asked recently, "if you had to choose a last meal, what would it be?".  As a lover of food in general this was a tough question!  I have a sweet tooth, savory tooth and every other tooth in between!  But what I really love is a sensational salad.  One with lots of ingredients including fresh herbs, vegetables, nuts and a mouth-watering dressing.

This is an scrumptious salad.  The vegies are baked after being tossed in olive oil and mapyl syrup so are so sweet and sticky.  Cous cous is one of my favourite things and I love the fact it is so easy to make!  Once the vegetables are done, they're added to the cous cous with some beautiful fresh mint, lemon juice and chopped pistachios - dow devine and once again Annabel - how easy, love this one!  Catherine

Vanilla Plum Cake

I am so lucky that I get beautiful fresh ingredients given to me direct from the vegie patch or orchard at Fish Creek!  Mum and Dad's plum tree is absoultely choccers this year and I got a big bag full of beautiful blood plums last week.

I knew that I would stew some of them, I love stewed fruit with my cereal in the morning and the kids love them with ice-cream for dessert.  I went straight to Annabel's book to get a recipe to blog and found this Vanilla Plum Cake, very easy and very delicious!

The cake only needed the plums for the top so I guess I really only used about 10 plums and stewed the rest.  Annabel suggests you can use any fruit, apricots or peaches would be nice too.  The inclusion of the buttermilk makes the cake so moist and with the vanilla and the zest of a lemon - so yummy!
The cooked cake would also make a really nice dessert with a dollop of cream or scoop of vanilla ice-cream.  I cooked the cake in a large baking dish, cut half to eat now and froze the rest to use in lunchboxes ready for the first week back to school!

 

Roasted Beet & Rocket Salad

Think I may have found my favourite Annabel salad!  This was SO easy to make and really delicious.  No many ingredients but the combination of the caramelised beetroot, the creamy feta and crunchy almonds is awesome.

This is especially yummy as the beetroot is from Mum and Dad's veggie garden at Fish Creek!  The beetroot was slowly roasted after being mixed through with olive oil, brown sugar, balsamic vinegar and salt & pepper.

 I used really lovely feta that I bought from a local deli that was marinated with some preserved lemon.  The feta was so smooth and creamy and with the hint if lemon, went so well with the lemon and olive oil that made up the dressing.  I took this salad to a Christmas BBQ and could have sat down and eaten the whole bowl on my own!  Will definitely make this one again!

Prawn and Mint Finger Rolls

My next few posts will all be recipes from Annabel's book that I made over the Christmas holidays.  As it is Summer and we go out a lot to friends and family, it's nice to take something to share, and people are now expecting an Annabel creation so I'm loving it!  

These delicious prawn and mint finger rolls were easy to make and went down a treat at my family pre-Christmas dinner.  Annabel's tip to use a damp t-towel was great as the rice paper was much more manageable and the rolls stays beautifully fresh.

The ingredients were all lovely, fresh and crisp.  Iceberg lettuce, carrot, mint leaves, coriander, vermicelli and prawn meat  made up the finger rolls - very simple.
The dipping sauce completed this quick starter which was a combination of sweet chilli sauce, lime juice and zest, fish sauce and the white of a spring onion.  So easy and so delicious!