Day 197 - Lamb Cutlets with Indian spiced rice

Magnificent! Worth making again.

Every now and then we have a dish that is so good, it makes you want to eat it again. This was absolutley one of those!

It comes from the Donna Hay No Time to Cook book, page 106.

Lamb Cutlets with Indian spiced rice
2 tablespoons tandoori paste
6 lamb cutlets
1 tablespoon olive oil

Spiced rice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion but in wedges
2 cloves garlic sliced
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
2 cardamon pods crushed
1 cup Basmati rice
1 3/4 cups chicken stock
1/4 cup toasted slivered almonds
1/4 cup coriander leaves

lime pickle and yoghurt to serve

Heat a saucepan over medium high heat. Spread tandoori paste over lamb cutlets. Add oil to the pan and the cutlets, cook 1 minute each side or until browned, place on a plate and keep warm.

To make spiced rice, rinse pan and heat over medium high heat. Add oil, onion, garlic, cummin and cardamon and cook for 1 minute until fragrant. add rice and cook 1 minute. Add stock and cook until tunnels form in the rice. Place cutlets on top of the rice, cover pan with a tight fitting lid and cook on low heat for 2 minutes. remove from the heat and stand 3 minutes. To serve, stir through almonds, salt and coriander through the rice and divide between serving plates. Top with the cutlets and serve with the lime pickle and yoghurt.

Donna Hay says serve with Tzatziki, but plain yoghurt is better!

Day 196 - baked chicken

I have cracked the art of making sourdough, so we used it in our baked chicken dish. This was a quick dinner of chicken breast, tomato, garlic, onion & thyme. Baked and then served with garlic sourdough bread!

Day 195 - shanks & sourdough

More pantry surpise! I made shanks in the slow cooker. It was a super simple recipe and very tasty too.

Here is my recipe

I put my still frozen shanks in the slow cooker at about 10am with a cup of chicken stock, zest of a lemon and a handful of thyme. Then I forgot about them until Morry got home at about 8pm. When Morry was on his way home, I put some potatoes on to boil and mashed them in the food processor. When Morry came home I put the beans on and started serving.

I think the slow cooker is the best kitchen gadget we have! It is great for nights when Morry is not sure what time he will be home.

Below is my latest sourdough. I am really close to making the perfect loaf. It takes 24 hours minimum to make. The bread is perfect, it is the crust that I am working on. It is very crusty on top but not so on the bottom. I need to learn perfect the steam bath... Either way it will be magnificent toasted tomorrow morning with strawberry jam!

Day 194 - French food

Pantry surprise has never tasted so good!

Lashings of peas served with Gulf seafoods shoestring fries and a porterhouse steak. I only had one steak in the freezer so it wasnt the meatiest dinner but it was tasty. Morry made his own Hollandaise sauce - OH YUM!!

Day 193 - Laxmis

Date Night! Woo Hoo!!!

You know, it has been so long since we had a date night, the food would have to have been indigestable for me to have a bad time.

Morry read a review that said Laxmis was about the best Indian restaurant in Adelaide. Its possible this review was written by the owners mum. It was OK, but not as good as Chefs of Tandoori. The pickles were good though - maybe the mum made them?

Day 192 - cookies!

I ate pizza with the boys - smoked oysters and cold beer!! Morry was out.

But before that, Catherine and Mary came for a coffee today so I made cookies from Silvias Cucina. They taste great straight from the oven, but dont keep well. I havent actually found a cookie recipe that does keep well - maybe Anzacs? Ill try that.

Anyway, here is the recipe for these chocolate chip and oat cookies

Day 191 - Chorizo and lentil salad

This dish was really tasty and simple. The problem is, I cant remember where the recipe came from! The dressing was made using red wine vinegar which was fabulous. The chorizo is fatty and the lentils are heavy but the dressing really cut through it all. It was a great dish!