Hard to think of a healthier lunch, and it was pretty tasty too (at least the adults of the house thought so – kids were more into their post footie pastries and fair play to them). Made with left over slow cooker lamb casserole (bone-in lamb leg steaks, pumpkin, carrot, garlic, onion, fresh ginger, red lentils, a random selection of spices that included turmeric, star anise, cinnamon stick, paprika, cumin and possibly more besides but was throwing things in pre-school drop off so wasn’t exactly keeping notes. Seem to recall a tin of chopped tomatoes going in, some cider vinegar, red wine….you get the idea, slow cookers are seriously forgiving of general acts of randomness)
Leftover casserole mixed with some leftover pumpkin soup (see last post) with some fresh baby spinach leaves added just before serving, topped with lacto-fermented ginger carrots (recipe from Nourishing Traditions). For more on lacto-fermented veg read this post. The ginger carrots are just made with grated carrot and ginger using same method.
Now, must be time to think about chocolate cake again after all that crazy healthy stuff….
If you simmer a pork hock slowly, over several hours – maybe even all day, it will reward you with a rather lovely stock and some very tender meat that makes a fabulous soup. By trial and error I’ve discovered it’s easiest to cook the pork hock the day before and then let everything cool down overnight (or for an hour to two at least) and then strain off the stock and extract the meat – that way you can pull the meat out from under the fat easily – when it’s freshly cooked it all kind of falls apart and it’s quite an extraction job to get to the good bits.
So I cooked the hock on Friday and then on Saturday morning it was just a matter of cooking some celery, carrot, garlic and a little turmeric, adding the stock back with the pulled meat and a cup of split green peas and then letting it simmer away – add the spinach and parsley just before serving for a green boost of goodness.
I used a pile of lamb leg steaks, bone in, and cooked this slowly over the course of an afternoon (about 5 hours) so that the end result was a cross between a mild curry and a ‘bone broth’ sauce. The lamb becomes braised and falls apart so there is no need to cut the steaks up. If you leave a bit of fat on the steaks when you cook them it, makes a very rich sauce indeed.
Start with a little coconut oil and some onion and garlic – then add spices – I think curry is an area you can be very slapdash with the spices provided you don’t go too wild with the chilli. Being a bit random means you keep getting slightly different results, which keeps life interesting. For this one I used a fresh chilli, a good lump of grated fresh ginger, turmeric, cumin, garam masala, star anise, a cinnamon stick, cardamon pods, salt and pepper. Get the lamb steaks straight into the hot pan and brown them with the spices. Then a tin of chick peas, a couple of carrots, some chopped dried organic apricots and a handful of sultanas. Cover completely with water and a splash of apple cider vinegar (if you have it) and bring to the boil on the stovetop and then put in a low oven and cook slowly – it would be done in 2 hours at about 160 but I kept adding more water and cooked around 140 for about 5 hours.
You do need to eat around the bones (the meat will have completely fallen off) and keep an eye out for a rouge cinnamon stick but that kind of stuff is hardly a major hardship. We had it with fresh mint leaves and slivered almonds and a side of cucumber mint yogurt, some mango chutney as well as rice and poppadoms.. be as regular readers of this blog will have figured then we can be a bit greedy around here.
This is a great Friday night supper on a number of levels. For a start it’s roast chicken – always a winner , smells great while it’s cooking and as easy as putting the chicken in the oven to roast. You can get a bit flash with sticking things in the cavity (lemon / garlic / herbs etc) but if you can’t be bothered I reckon even just slamming the bird on a tray in the oven with a bit of salt and pepper still gets a fine result.
You can make the salad in advance so that when the pre-dinner slump hits and all you can think about is a large glass of wine then you can kick back with your large glass of wine, put the TV on for the kiddos and smell the chicken roasting. Sweet. Also, all that raw veg in the salad is super-healthy so you can treat yourself to an extra wine safe in the knowledge your brightly coloured vegetables are busy de-toxing your liver for you while you drink it.
To make the salad, grate up whatever vegetables are to hand. I used my lovely swirly grating machine (which for those of you feeling like your life is incomplete without one (I did get that comment this week so I know the sentiment is out there!) is a Tefal fresh express – got it from Moore Wilsons for about $90 I think. I used courgette, carrot, beetroot and celery – also put some grapes in because I wanted to crumble in a little blue cheese at the end and grapes and blue cheese are a very happy pairing. The ‘super grain’ part is a mix of white, red and black quinoa and amaranth that you’ll find from Ceres in the organics section (you can get it ready mixed all in one bag). I feel healthy just writing it and it has a nice mild nutty flavour that seems to go down OK with the kids (it’s gluten free as well). You just simmer it for about 15 mins in boiling water and then cool it for the salad (you can rinse it in cold water using a sieve if you don’t have time to let it cool on it’s own). I put some olive oil, apple cider vinegar and lemon on to dress the salad but it would carry any dressing well.
If you’re looking at the salad photo and thinking it might be a bit of a hard sell to the little guys then it’s easy to cut them some sticks of the vegetables with maybe some mashed avocado to dip them in and to give them a serving of the super-grains on the side. That’s how my little dudes like it but all kids have their own strange ways.
The final hurrah of this fantastic Friday supper is that you get a chicken carcass, and maybe even some leftover chicken if you have a slightly less greedy (or smaller) family than mine. You can put it straight on to boil for stock and then you’ll have a lovely batch of stock to cook with over the weekend. You can also make the salad bigger than you’ll need as it’s a great BBQ accompaniment or pizza side which make Saturday’s meals a bit easier.
Onion, garlic, celery, carrot, zucchini, button mushrooms – cook down for a few minutes in olive oil with salt and pepper, added good beef mince and brown then a jar of passata (400g) cup of red wine, cup of veg stock – cover and simmer for an hour and half, add a cup of milk and simmer uncovered for another 30 mins.
