A Crooked Little Lamb Recipe

I recently read a copy of Warren Ellis's most excellent novel Crooked Little Vein. After it finished Warren listed a number of recipes, including this one for Lamb with a garlic, wine and rosemary sauce. Warren also suggests a sprinkling of pomegranate seeds over the top at the end. Not something I personally think is necessary. This dish meets my criteria for most excellent food, simple to prepare, a classic combination of ingredients and a tasty end product.

Ingredients
A joint of Lamb
A bulb of garlic (that wee plump thing composed of lots of cloves), cut in half across the middle.
A sprig of rosemary
A glass of White Wine (don't use a wine you wouldn't be happy to drink on its own)
Tinfoil (do not eat)

Preparation

• Pre-heat the oven to 190C

• Rip of about 3 feet of tin foil and fold in half. Repeat with a second strip and lay at right angles across the first. Like a modern day Robert Harbin, give it the old Origami Kung Fu and make a (hopefully) leak proof pocket of the foil.

• Add the bisected bulb of garlic, the glass of wine and rosemary.

Time to dust off the abacus, the next two items need a wee bit of math to work out what hits the oven first and when the second item goes in. Aim to have the sauce cooked at the same time your lamb has finished resting.

• Seal the pocket and whack into the oven for at least 1 1/2 hours.
  
• Roast the lamb for 30 minutes a lb (450g) and rest for 30 minutes (the Lamb that is not yourself).

• Slice the lamb and strain the sauce over the top.

Eat swilled down with the remainder of the wine (hic), then dig out an issue of Transmetropolitan to read.

Bon Apetite.

Ana's Dumplings

Hailing from the land of Dan Marino, this Southern belle provided me with this delightful recipe for Bread Dumplings. The perfect accompaniment to thanksgiving turkey or your Chrimbo dinner if you're from the other side of the pond. Just make sure you don't fumble when taking them out of the oven, or they may end up incomplete. I'm sure when you get the first down, you'll want ten.

Ingredients for 6-8 Dumplings

6 Hard Rolls ( I use the Chicago hard rolls, that are a day old)
1/8th Liter of hot milk
1 small onion
30 grams of butter
2 Tbl spoons of parsley (the straighter. leafy version)
2 eggs
Pepper
Salt
A little flour

Preparation

Tear apart the rolls in small pieces or cut it in small pieces, pour the hot milk over it. Cut up the onions in tiny pieces and heat them up in a pan with the butter until they turn all glassy, throw in the parsley and let that heat up with the onions.

Then put the onions and parsley mixture and the eggs into the bowl with your bread, mix it and let it sit for a few minutes. Put in the salt and pepper. Dust the mass with a little bit of flour, not too much otherwise they’ll get hard as rocks. Moisten your hands with water, grab a handful of the mixture and form a ball. Dust with a little flour and put aside.

Fill a big pot with water, a little salt. Bring it to a gentle boil, turn the heat down, put in the dumplings and let them cook for approximately 20 minutes, don’t boil them and don’t cover the pot. When they float to the top and stay there, then they are ready.

These are great with roasts and gravies.

Touchdown !!!

For the curious amongst you, the picture of Ana shown above was taken at a John Mayall concert at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels. Go Rock Chick go, go,go !!

RED by Trev 11/1/89

The following recipe is an approximation. The thing about RED is that you can improvise.

One large batch: -

3lb course minced beef

3 large onions

Large tin plumb tomatoes

Half a tube tomato puree

6 heaped tablespoons chilli powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon tumeric

1 fistfull dried red chillis

Lots of fresh ground black pepper

quite a bit of salt to taste

1 heaped tablespoon paprika

1/4 litre approx. good oil

1/3 large size fresh double cream optional

2 lb mushrooms optional

1/2 bottle dry red wine optional

4 teaspoons garam masala

6 green cardomons

3 tablespoons oregano

The following is instructions for EXECUTIVE RED.

• Big Pan
• Oil in - turn on heat
• Chop onions (various ways) and add to pan as done. Cook till some just start to brown.
• Add all spices and seasonings except for garam amsala (+herbs).
• Add tomato puree.
• Cook stirring till oily red brown vicious looking mess.
• Add meat and stir in till all meat covered with spices.
• Add wine and cook for 5 mins.
• Add chillis (broken).
• Cook (simmer) for 1 1/2 to 2 hrs.
• Add garam masala & stir in.
• Add cream.
• Cook for approx 10 mins.
• Allow to cool before reheating and serving.

If you want to add mushrooms, add with the meat.
If you don't want EXECUTIVE, omit the wine & cream.

Carbonara Sauce

Carbonara is my favorite Italian sauce. Encapsulating my ethos of a simple dish using the finest ingredients prepared in a straightforward fashion to produce a stunning result.

It literally translates charcoal maker, so this is a charcoal makers sauce. One Italian food historian
claims that at the end of World War II, American soldiers befriended the locals and brough them fresh bacon and eggs. When asked to prepare a pasta sauce with this fare, carbonara was the end result. Perhaps the locals in question were in the business of making charcoal.

The key to success with this dish is to use the best ingredients you can find. A quality pancetta from your local Itailan deli (or better still Puddledubs if you live in Fife), free range eggs and a good quality pasta. Follow this rule and you'll make a dish fit for the Gods (Bachus would love it!).

Ingredients for 3 people

• 125g Pancetta or bacon pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic lightly mashed just breaking the skin which you discard.
  
• 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tbsp dry white wine (optional)
• 4 egg yolks
  
• 2 tbsp freshly grated Romano cheese
• 25 / 1 oz freshly grated Parmia Regiano Cheese
• freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp double cream (optional)
• 1 tbsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley
  
• Fresh Pasta (the usual pasta for this is spaghetti, but I always prefer a tagliatelle)

Preparation

• In a bowl beat the yolks of the eggs together. Some recipes use the white too but I think the yolks on there own make a richer sauce.

• Mix in the cheeses, the parsley, a pinch of salt, the pepper and if used the cream.

• Cook the pasta as per the instructions with a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp of olive oil.

• While it is cooking, heat the oil in a pan and fry the garlic until it is golden, when you should discard it.

• Add the pancetta or bacon and fry until crisp

• If using, add the wine and cook for a couple of minutes till it evaporates. Take off the heat.
  

• Drain the pasta and tip into the pan with the bacon, stirring it together.

• Mix in the cheese and egg mix. The residual heat will be enough to cook the eggs.

• Serve with some garlic bread and eat with a big grin on your face.
  

Yakitori Sauce

As basting sauces go, Yakitori belongs with the best of them. Tasty, sweet and imbued with conentrated essence of chicken. During cooking skewers of grilled chicken are dipped into the basting sauce, tare. This means that as time goes by its favor will improve. There are Yakitori restaurants in Japan that claim to have been using the same Tare base for a decade.

The following recipe doesn't require this sort of devotion to the sacred art of Tare making,but still achieves a wonderful result.

Ingredients

• 8 chicken wings
• 150 ml (3/4 cup) sake
• 260 ml (1 1/3 cups) mirin
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 260 ml (1 1/3 cups) shoyu (soy sauce)

Preparation

• Cook the chicken wings until they are browned over about half their surfaces.

• Pour the sake and mirin into a saucepan and bring to the boil.

• Turn down the heat to low and add the sugar, stirring until it has disolved.

• Add the shoyu (soy sauce) and browned chicken wings, bringing it to the boil.

• Cook over a low heat for 30 minutes.

• Strain the sauce through a sieve lined with a kitchen towel, reserving the chicken wings.

• Let the sauce cool to room temperature, before storing in the fridge.

The tare will keep in the fridge for up to a month although with it tasting as good as it does it is unlikely to last that long.

Don't forget those chicken wings, they make an excellent snack washed down with a glass of beer.

Enjoy.

Quick and Easy Pasta Sauce

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Ingredients
Basic sauce

• Olive oil
• 1 tin of tomatoes (chopped for preference)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• salt and black pepper
• Pasta of your choice

Variations

• 8oz mushrooms, sliced
• 1 packet of sliced salami
• Pitted black olives
• Fresh basil

I thought it was about time the more southerly Greasy Trucker put in an appearance, so here I am. This dish is particularly quick and easy; an ideal one to try if you're new to the world of cooking or if your cupboard is getting empty. Follow it with Marinated Miniature Figs and Mascarpone for an effortless but wonderful meal.

Tinned tomatoes are fine for this dish, but I'd be inclined to steer clear of the very cheapest ones. Similarly, if you need an excuse to find out why certain brands of pasta cost twice as much as others, you won't go far wrong here.

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Preparation
Basic sauce
Peel and cut each clove of garlic into 4-5 pieces. Fry it in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until it begins to go golden. Don't overdo this as it will go bitter if you do. Add the tomatoes, break them up if they're not already chopped, and cook until the sauce thickens. This should take about 10 minutes, during which time you can cook the pasta. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve on top of the pasta.

This sauce more than repays the tiny amount of effort needed to make it.

Variations
Add some sliced mushrooms to the basic tomato sauce at the start of the cooking time, and some supermarket salami cut into inch squares, a dozen or so pitted black olives and a handful of fresh basil (tear it, don't cut it) at the end for a tasty variation.

Pasta
Cooking pasta always seems to involve more water than you think you'll need. Use a big pan to give the pasta plenty of room to cook in. I don't time pasta - I keep trying it until it's done the way I like it; slightly softer than 'al-dente', but not boiled limp. This usually takes about 8-10 minutes. Now drain it, put a small splash of olive oil in the bottom of the now-empty pan you used to cook the pasta in. Return the drained pasta to the pan and add some freshly ground black pepper and a splash more olive oil. Give the pasta a quick stir and serve. I haven't given quantities here, but I suggest about 4oz dried pasta per person as a rough guide.

Pasta is generally made by forcing dough through a nozzle. The nozzle has a critical part to play in the process, not only does it govern the shape of the pasta, it affects the surface. Teflon nozzles give a smooth surface and allow fast production. Bronze nozzles give a slightly rough surface to the pasta and slow down production (and, inevitably, push up the cost). The rough surface of bronze-nozzle pasta allows it to pick up more sauce than teflon-nozzle pasta. Bronze-nozzle pasta is much more readily available than it was - at least here in the UK - your supermarket will probably stock it.

The basic tomato and garlic sauce is adapted from Pizza and Pasta by Susan Conte, which is a book worth adding to your shelf. Used copies seem to be available from Amazon.

Smoked Haddock with Black Pudding and Bacon

In the Tao of Truckers the best dishes are made with quality ingredients, simple, easy to cook and bloody tasty. This recipe from Sue Lawrence's - A Cook's Tour of Scotland fulfills all of these criteria, with extra bloody tastiness coming from the inclusion of black pudding. Now, prior to cooking it I wouldn't have thought that black pudding and fish would work together. I was wrong.

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Ingredients (enough for 2 people)

• 2 pieces of skinned undyed smoked haddock fillets (approx 200g / 7oz in weight)
• 2 thin slices of black pudding (cut very cold to stop it crumbling)
• 4 rashers of traditionally cured unsmoked back bacon
• Olive oil for drizzling

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Preparation

• Preheat the oven to 230C (450F)
• Put the fish on some greaseproof paper on a baking tray
• Arrange the black pudding slices on the fish
• Wrap the bacon around the fish and black pudding
• Drizzle with Olive Oil
• Cook in the oven for about 15 minutes or until the fish is cooked
• Serve with some good quality bread and a side salad. Pour over the magical juices from the pan.
  

I told you it was simple. I added some cherry tomatoes to the baking tray prior to cooking and added these to the salad. Most excellent.