Beetroot & trout salad

Roast beetroot, (2 or 3 pp)
Drizzle with balsamic & EVO oil
Top with smoke trout (1/4 fish pp) & dollop with sour cream mixed with horseradish.
Chives and black pepper to finish.

Roast beef with horseradish cream, dutch carrots, yorkies & blue cheese.

Get Dutch carrots in at 200C.

Horseradish cream (5ppl):
5 tablespoons natural yoghurt
2.5 tablespoon horseradish
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper
1/2 lemon
extra virgin olive oil

Put the yoghurt and horseradish into a small bowl with a pinch of salt and pepper. Halve your lemon and add juice. Add a splash of extra virgin olive oil and mix well. Taste and add a little more horseradish if you think it needs to taste more fiery.

Make a crunchy green salad.

Yorkies (makes 5):
vegetable oil
1 large free-range egg
50 g plain flour
50 ml milk
sea salt
freshly ground black pepper

After the beef. Oven to 225°C. In a cupcake tin and add a tiny splash of vegetable oil into each of the 12 compartments. Pop into the oven for 10 to 15 minutes so the oil gets really hot.
Meanwhile, beat the eggs, flour, milk and a pinch of salt and pepper together in a jug until light and smooth.
Carefully remove the tray from the oven, then confidently pour the batter evenly into the compartments. Pop the tray back in the oven to cook for 12 to 15 minutes, or until risen and golden.

Beef (800g fillet):

Preheat oven to 200°C. In a large non-stick pan, heat olive oil over a high heat. Season beef fillet, and sear on all sides until golden brown. Roll in chopped rosemary.

Place beef on a baking tray, and cook in the oven for 10-12 minutes, or until cooked to your liking. Rest for 10-15 minutes before slicing (slice against the grain).

Sprinkle with crumbled blue cheese.

Pumpkin curry

2 BIG serves:
1 Tbsp garam masala

1/2 tsp chilli flakes

1 tin tomatoes

165ml tin coconut milk

Salt

1 tin chickpeas

1/4 kent pumpkin, roasted w chilli & cumin seeds
1/4 cauliflower, riced

1. Heat a little oil in a medium frying pan. Add spices and cook for about 20 seconds.
2. Add tomatoes and simmer for 5 minutes or until the sauce has reduced a little.
3. Stir in chickpeas and coconut milk. Taste and season.
4. Add butternut chunks and bring back to a simmer.
5. Serve on bed of steamed cauliflower rice

Spiced lamb with hummus

ENOUGH FOR 3
2 onions, peeled & diced
500g minced beef
2 teaspoons baharat
handful pine nuts
8 large tablespoons hummus

1. Heat a generous glug of oil in a large frying pan. Cook onion over a medium heat for about 5 minutes, until starting to soften but not brown.

2. Add beef and increase the heat to high. Cook, stirring often until the beef is well browned all over.

3. Add the baharat and stir fry for another minute or so. Taste, season.

4. Served on a bed of hummus, with a piece of barley wrap underneath and pine nuts & chilli oil sprinkled over the top, with a lemony green salad.

Lamb & prune "tagine"

Enough for 4.
4 lamb shanks
4 red onions, quartered lengthwise
200g pitted prunes
1 can tomatoes (400g)
1 stick cinnamon



1. Place lamb, onions, prunes, tomatoes and cinnamon in slow cooker with 1/2 cup water.

2. Cook on low for 10 hours.

3. Taste and season. Serve on cous cous or mash.




Next time: up the cinnamon

Baked chicken with tomato, olive & caper salsa

2 people:
4 skinless chicken thigh fillets
1 T olive oil
salsa:
1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives (used garlic & herb marinated)
3/4 cups cherry tomatoes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 T capers
1 t caper juice
2 T good quality olive oil
1/4 large red onion, diced
1 to 2 T chopped fresh basil
salt and pepper


Pre heat the oven to 180C.
Heat he olive oil in a frying pan, and when hot, pan fry the chicken breasts on each side until golden. Remove and set aside in a medium size roasting tray.
Mix all the salsa ingredients together and spread over the chicken breasts and in the tray.
Roast for 25 minutes until cooked through.

Served with cauliflower rice.

Sausage supper

serves 2:
2 brown onions, peeled & cut into 6 segments
4 parsnips, trimmed & cut into batons
1 small head garlic, broken into individual cloves
5 thick pork sausages
1 cup chicken stock

1. Preheat the oven to 200C. Place the veg in a baking tray, drizzle with some olive oil, top with the sausages and pop it in the oven.

2. After about 40 minutes, give everything a stir and add the stock.

3. Bake for 50 mins or so until the veg and bangers are brown and the stock has reduced to almost nothing.

Jeff's herbed BBQ lamb leg

Leg of lamb, roughly 2.75kg (6lbs)

For the herb oil:
150ml olive oil
2tbsp freshly ground black pepper
1tsp ground cumin
Few sprigs each fresh thyme, rosemary and marjoram leaves
2tbsp chilli powder (optional)

For the baste:
2tbsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
2tbsp honey
Small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

For the dressing:
6tbsp olive oil
Small bunch fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

METHOD
Score the top side of the lamb leg in a criss-cross pattern at 1cm (½in) intervals, 1cm (½in) deep.
Mix and crush the herb oil ingredients in a large bowl.
Add the meat and leave for at least 3 hours, or up to 24 hours in the fridge.

Prepare the barbecue for indirect cooking: food should be away from the heat source and the temperature, if your barbecue has a thermometer, should be a steady medium heat of 150°C-160°C.
Put the meat on the well-oiled heated grill and cook, covered, for 1 hour.
Meanwhile, combine the baste ingredients. Baste the meat every 15 minutes, cooking for a further 30 for blushing meat, or until done to your liking.
Combine the dressing on a board. Turn the lamb in it to coat and rest for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Onion & white bean bake

For 4 as a side:
3 brown onions, sliced
2 tins cannellini beans, drained & rinsed
4 sprigs thyme, leaves picked
90g cheddar cheese
1/3 cup chicken/veg stock (optional)

Oven at 200C. Slice onions and fry in oil until soft & golden brown. Stir through thyme leaves & layer in casserole with beans and cheese, finishing with cheese. Pour over stock (if remembered.) Bake about 25 minutes, until golden.

8 hour baked beans

400g dried cannellini, haricot or northern beans (about 2 generous cups)
2 onions, peeled & chopped
800g tinned tomato
3 Tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 Tbsp honey
1 ham hock (skin off)
2.5 cups water

In slow-cooker on low for 8 hours. Season well & serve.