And now for something completely different: cooking, recipes, food, yummy things.

[misslj_author]

I can't be the only foodie here - I know I'm not, actually, looking at meredith_shayne, vayshti, corellian_sugar and angharad_gam to name a few of you! So, after watching tonight's episode of Australian Masterchef, here's a challenge!

Okay, we're not in a spiffy, hi-tech kitchen, and you don't have 45 minutes to prepare a dish to ~wow~ me (although wouldn't it be awesome if we were? I think so!), but tonight's elimination challenge got me thinking, and that's always dangerous. I thought, I wonder what my foodie flist would do with this, and what I would do this, so here is the resulting post.

The list below are your ingredients. You also have, in this theoretical Masterchef kitchen, olive oil, water, salt and pepper. All of these together make Gary Mehigan's amazing looking lamb tagine. (Although, I'll take mine without the okra and the fennel. Okra tastes like snot, to me. And fennel is just ick. Yuck.) However, you, intrepid foodies, must follow the following:

1. You can only use five ingredients from the items below. (Remember you have olive oil, water, salt and black pepper).
2. Pick those five, then tell me what you'd make.
3. Method of cooking what you'd make would be awesome, but this isn't the real Masterchef, obvs, so don't feel you have to!

Oh, and coriander is cilantro in the USA.

The list:

coriander seeds
cumin seeds
caraway seeds
fresh coriander
onion
garlic
preserved lemon quarters
olive oil
lamb
sumac
cinnamon sticks
saffron threads
sea salt flakes
chicken stock
blanched almonds
medjool dates, pitted
mace
okra
broad beans
yoghurt
fennel
pistachios
bay leaves
green olives
carraway seeds

What I would pick and make:

Fresh coriander
garlic
lamb
broad beans
yoghurt

Because I have olive oil, salt and pepper, I take cubes of lamb and season them with the salt and pepper then cook them until browned in the olive oil. At the same time, I cook the beans in water with a pinch of salt, half the bunch of fresh coriander, half a head of garlic, cloves peeled and left whole. When the beans are cooked through, I drain them, reserving the water, and add them to the pan with the meat, to cook and get a bit crispy. I also add another 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed. (I like garlic, okay? :D)

With the water, I take a quarter of a cup, making sure I get all the garlic and coriander, blitz it up in the food processor, then add it to the pan with the meat and beans. Simmer for twenty minutes on a low heat to reduce the liquid, then stir in the yoghurt, cook for another five minutes.

Remove from heat and serve with a few sprigs of fresh corriander. Ta-da! Lamb and Beans a la Star!

Now, your turn!

Comments

[angharad-gam.livejournal.com]

Nah, that's cool. They have it at quite a few places in the Central Markets these days, so it's not hard to get hold of. Although I do miss the place in the markets where they sold it in 2l containers.

There's another 15th century Italian recipe - chicken in verjuice (although it's not really called that) which uses large quantities of verjuice. That's another yummy one. And very easy, so I might as well just tell you it :-)

Take whatever joints of chicken you will (drumsticks work as does Maryland if you want a _big_ piece). And some rashers of middle bacon (maybe half a rasher for every piece of maryland. Cut the bacon into large pieces and fry the chicken and bacon together (in a little olive oil if needed). The bacon can be cooked however you will, but the chicken only needs to be browned, not cooked through.

Put the chicken and bacon in a large pot and fill about 3/4 of the way up the chicken with verjuice. Bring to the boil and simmer for about 30 mins or until the chicken is cooked through. Add a handful of chopped fresh parsley towards the end, and you can, if you wish, add some pepper, ginger and cinnamon, but it is also perfectly good as is.

Generally you discard the liquid and just eat the meat, but you could also make a sauce of it with egg yolks, breadcrumbs or flour as above.


By the way, I totally forgot to mention that the fresh parsley in the last one is added at the end or used as a garnish.

[misslj-author.livejournal.com]

I saw she had that in ye olde cask wine type containers. $22 for 2L.

Ooh yes, I've made this one a while back. I added taragon to it as well as the pepper and cinnamon and it was so good.

Nomomom!