Lamb Shank Ragu

Tim made this one. It was super yummy and reasonably priced .... I thought it was a bit like spaghetti bolognaise with better meat!

Ingredients:
1 onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
2 Tbsp your chosen oil
2 lamb shanks
1/2 cup red wine
400g tin chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup beef stock
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tsp treacle (we used molasses)
1 sprig rosemary
1 bay leaf

In a heavy pan heat the oil and gently fry the onion, garlic, carrot and celery until golden and translucent. Remove from the pan and set aside, adding the in lamb shanks to brown on all sides. Once the shanks are browned, add the wine to deglaze the pan.

Transfer the shanks, reduced wine, and all other ingredients to an ovenproof dish or slow cooker. If putting in the oven, cook for 2-3 hours at 150deg.

When cooked, the meat should fall off the bone. Shred the meat into the sauce and serve tossed through cooked pasta, topped with parmesan.

Food interlude: Walking home from work on an autumnal Tuesday evening....

I like to combine my work commute with exercise, killing two birds with one stone. I aim to cycle 2 days per week (that's about all a fair weather cyclist can get in wellington), and do a walk-drive combo the other days. All-in-all it gives me a minimum of 1 hour exercise every day.... This is what I got today....

'Put together' carrot radish capsicum salad that really worked!

Ok, so this was put together using left overs from the fridge, but it actually tasted really delicious!

Ingredients:
- grated carrot
- green pepper, sliced really thin
- spring onion, sliced
- radish, sliced into small slithers, really thin
- tamari roasted seeds

Just mix together. No need for any dressings at all!
I served with crumbed fish and lemon couscous. Yum!

Fish Veracruz

This is a slight variation on Alison Holst's Fish Veracruz recipe....

For 2 serves:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, sliced
2-3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 dried red chillies, deseeded and sliced
1 green pepper, deseeded, quartered and sliced
2 bay leaves
1tsp cumin
1/2tsp oregano
400g whole tomatoes in juice
300g firm-fleshed fish (eg: monk)
1-2Tbsp fresh coriander leaves, chopped
1 Tbsp lime (or lemon juice)
Salt

Heat oil in a large frypan. And onion and garlic and cook until the onion softens, then add the chillies, green pepper and bay leaves.
Continue to cook, stirring occasionallly, until the onion is translucent and the green pepper is soft. Add the cumin and oregano, and then the tomatoes.
Carefully stir in the cubed fish, and simmer gently, stirring once or twice to turn the fish. Remove from the heat as soon as the largest cubes of fish are just cooked, and stir in the coriander leaves. lime juice, and salt.
Serve over rice.

Yummy weekend lunch

Now just for a non-recipe interlude.... I had to take a picture of the scrumptious lunch that we had whilst on holiday in Motueka over Easter....

Tasman Bay mixed fresh herbs, cherry tomatoes and cucumber from the holiday house owners, locally grown white radish, celery, Nelson feijoas, a bit of shop bought ham, coleslaw and buns, and some sauted cajun chicken...... YUMMM!

Tim's Mushroom Stroganoff

Ingredients:
-  200g penne pasta
- 1 Tablespoon oil
- 20g butter
- 1 onion, sliced thinly
- 2 cloves garlic, sliced thinly
- 3 Teaspoons smoked paprika
- 2 Tablespoons dijon mustard
- 500g mixed mushrooms
- a few rashers bacon (opt)
- I can brown lentils
- 1/4 cup dry white wine
- 3/4 cup stock (we use chicken or veggie)
- 1 cup sour cream

Cook pasta. Rinse under cold water.
Meanwhile, heat oil and half the butter in a large saucepan. Add garlic and onion, and cook, stirring until onion softens. Add paprika and mustard, cook stirring for 1 min. Stir mushrooms and remaining butter. Cover, and cook for 10 minutes stirring occasionally.
Add wine and stock to pan. Cook uncovered for about 5 minutes until liquid is reduced slightly. Add lentils and sour cream, and simmer gently, uncovered for 5 minutes. Serve over pasta.

On-the-spot Venison, Mushroom and Lentil Stew (Slow cooker)

I have a whole bunch of venison cuts in the freezer, from a colleague at work who hunts....

Ingredients
- Wild venison steak, roughly 250g, chopped into chunks
- 1 can brown lentils
- Roughly 5 large or 10 small mushrooms (a mix of types)
- 1 Onion
- Couple of cloves of garlic
- 2 cups stock, + 1 cup water
- 1/3 cup red wine
- A dash of kaitaia fire (chilli sauce)
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 10cm sprigs fresh rosemary (or whatever herbs you desire)
- 2 Tablespoons corn flour mixed with a bit of cold water (for thickening)

First I sauted the onions and garlic, and put them in the slow cooker. Then I seared the venison pieces, and put them in. Then I put in the mushrooms, red wine, and rosemary, soy sauce, molasses, kaitaia fire, and stock so that everything was just nicely covered. I put the slow cooker on low, and went to work!!...
Then when I came home from work I sieved the casserole to separate the juice, which I boiled up for about 30 min until it started to reduce. I also added the cornflour mix. Then once the sauce had thickened a bit, I poured it back into the casserole, along with the lentils. And 'voila', a super delicious casserole!!

I served it with mashed potato. I would also recommend a green veggie, like green beans.