Marinating and inventing...

I got an organic leg of lamb the other day at the store (reduced of course!) and was stuck for something new to do with it other than roast it like usual. So quick inventory of the fridge and larder yielded some possibilities and I soon got to work.

I decided to marinate the meat since it was a work night and I don't have time to do much when getting home but put dinner in the oven and get it quickly to the table. So decided that I had a few lemons - always good for juice and zest. I also had some garlic and a bit of onion. Again just chopped it roughly - pretty doesn't matter in a marinade. I then got out the olive oil - an essential! Then some fresh herbs from the window sill containers - some chervil, parsley and coriander. Oh yeah, and some dried herbs too - oregano (my fresh kind has only just come up), some ground coriander and finally a few coriander seeds as well.

So into a zip lock bag goes the leg of lamb, juice of three lemons and zest, some garlic, onions, good few glugs of olive oil, and herbs. All get put back in the fridge for the day (I did this in the morning before work) and turned at lunch time (yes, I work so close to home I can often come home for lunch!).

When I got home it all got dumped into a dish and into a hot oven for about 80 minutes or so and it was lovely. The lemons did their job and it was permeated throughout but not in a over-powering kind of way. Lamb is usually quite tender but roasting it usually if done too well is tough. this was just right.

My point in all of this is - there was no recipe. I see people all the time (telly especially) going through a recipe and such and really it is about your own tastes and what you like. I just put together things I thought would work - worst case is you have a crap dinner - but you learned!

I have had only one real disaster - the fruit disaster (see previous post). Others might have more - I do too I just don't always reveal them. But that you try and can laugh (usually at a later date!) then that is half the battle. I might recount some day the petit four disaster - but it was an editable disaster! I'm not quite at the laugh stage!

BTW, earlier in the week I went with the librarians who buy our promotional items for the libraries. Our title for this month's promotion was 'Food for Thought' - quite apt. Anyway, I went as 'cookery book' advisor. Translated that meant I got to pick the cookery books. I also got to help getting some of the fiction stock as well. I had a blast going through the books and deciding what was good/bad. I only wish we had more money - but alas we made do. Enjoy!

Pasta with a twist

Was tonight looking for a way to make pasta a bit different. I usually make fresh pasta and then just use a bit of garlic puree and lemon juice sort of thing. However, tonight I wanted garlic punch. I have seen garlic pasta but it pales once cooked. I think this is because it is dried and once you have cooked it for so long that its gone - at least the taste of it is.

So made fresh pasta (I use 100 grams of pasta to one large whole egg). However, I also added one clove of fresh garlic to the Magimix for every 200 grams of flour. What a difference this made to the final product. I then just did my usual of slicing thinly a red onion, added a knob of butter, some parsley and coriander, and the juice of one lemon. If you are really decadent then a small shaving of Parmesan is also called for.

All J could say was 'Cook that again!' which translates that it was a good thing (someone else says that!) and I can make it any time I want. I served it with some grilled zucchini and aubergine which was lovely with all its hatch marks on it (don't you just love the grill pan?!).

Anyway, try it sometime you might find you like it better. Off to have some tea and a cupcake. Last night had a burning passion for chocolate cake but made cupcakes instead with cream cheese frosting.