Baked Pumpkin & Spinich Fritata

More to come, but made a fantastic fritata that mum found in one of my delicious mags. Used as a side, with a party mother and father had tonight with a few close friends. Had some steak, salads, and nice desserts. Tried out a recipe we found in aunty sue's cookbook called $100 cheesecake. (Named after the fact that someone tried it in a restaurant and asked the chef for the recipe, who asked for $100 for it.) Well it seemed to work pretty well. Put a layer of mango on top... nice.... Pics and recipe? (Maybe) to follow soon...

Sundried Tomato & Herbed Lamb Roast

Couple of friends round for a lamb roast on the webber. First leg roast ive done on it since getting the webber for xmas. Put some olive oil, sundried tomatoes, garlic, fresh herbs, salt and pepper in the wizzer and spread over it like a paste. Left for a few hours in the fridge to marinate, then straight on the webber for a couple of hours.

Pete & Jodes off to India

Well Pete and Jodes have started their trip. Flew out last Monday night. Follow their progress through asia on their blog site here
www.smogfree.net . For a visual, jump onto Google earth and follow their progress.

Chocolate Beetroot Cake

I saw this guy on tv some time ago, James Reeson. He was cooking from the cupboard and he said he had a choc cake mix and a tin of beetroot and some onions. So he went on to make a chocolate beetroot cake. It looked pretty good what he made, haven't gotten around to making it yet.

Here is a link to the recipe: Chocolate Beetroot Cake

And I have linked his main page in my food links on the right.

Seared Scallops & Carrot Fritters with Yoghurt Dressing

Well gave it a go, and turned out pretty well. Got the approval from the expert taster. Check below for the recipe. May add the full details later.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/searedscallopscarrot_72807.shtml

Tomato and herb lamb shanks

Last night I made some Lamb Shanks after seeing some ideas on a tv show. Ducked up to the butcher and grabbed some trimmed shanks about $3 each. Most of the below ingredients are just stuff i had in the kitchen, as i didnt really feel like shopping for many ingredients. I did grab some fresh parsely from the supermarket though for garnish.

Ingreds

4 trimmed lamb shanks dusted in plain flour
2 cans tomatoes
fresh garlic
vegetable stock (some in freezer)
1/2 punnet of grape of cherry tomatoes
1 bottle red wine (1/2 for the pot 1/2 for me)
1 large onion chopped roughly
celery
fresh herbs, parsely, oregano, mixed herbs, couple of bay leaves, black peppercorns
parsely and grated lemon rind for garnish

Mash
enough potatoes for the number of ppl
butter
2 tabs cream cheese
2 tabs fresh cream
seasoning

Method

Fry the shanks in a large pot with some olive oil to brown up on all sides. Put aside in large deep sided baking dish.

Add onions and garlic to pot, and saute until onion starts to caramelise.

Add red wine, stock, tomatoes, bay leaves, fresh herbs and the rest of the ingredients and simmer gently until reduced a little.

Pour over baking dish with shanks, cover and put in the oven for a couple of hours.

Prepare the mash about 25 minutes before the shanks are ready, and serve with some freshly steamed green beans or peas. Serve 1 shank per person on top of the mash, and sprinkly with some freshly chopped parsely and grated lemon rind.

Enjoy with the rest of the bottle of red. The meat should just fall off the bone, and be very soft and tender. This can be prepared a day ahead and left in the fridge - then reheated, like stews, they are often better the next day as they have overnight to absorb loads of flavour.

First post

Well I have created a blog site. In the process of working out what this will be used for, but have a good idea that I will comment on food and cooking mostly as this is what i spend most of my leisure time doing.

On holidays at the moment, enjoying the cricket on tv. South africa are now 7/397, pretty good score so far, but hopefully AUS will get a couple of quick wickets and get a bat today.