Easy Lamb Rack

Ingredients:

1 lamb rack
Salt
Dried oregano
Dried rosemary
Dried thyme
Cracked pepper
Olive oil


Method:
Rub the oil, salt and pepper and herbs into the skin of the lamb rack.
In a hot pan, render the fat of the lamb rack
Once it is brown and looking nice, quickly sear all sides of the lamb rack and transfer to a oven dish
Put in a pre heated oven (160-180C) and cook for about 30-45 mins depending on how pink you like it

I find a lamb rack (about 7 rib bones) usually does 2-3 people. I serve with soft polenta and steamed greens or if Im really lazy, throw in potatoes, sweet potato, pumpkin and onions when cooking the lamb and have roast veggies.

Mikey loves the meat "lollypop". One of the few meat things he will consistently eat. And if you cut the potatoes into chip-style shapes, he may eat them as well!

Chicken Korma

Ingredients:

1 kg Chicken breast or mini breast fillets
1 heaped tablespoon of finely grated fresh ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
150g thick (plain) yogurt
1 dried red chilli
2 finely chopped onions
1 tbsp ghee or veg. oil
1 tbsp ground coriander
Pinch of ground black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp garam masala
water
75g creamed coconut
salt, to taste
2 heaped tbsps ground almonds
finely chopped Coriander Leaves, to garnish
juice of  1/2 lemon

Instructions:

1. Cut the chicken breasts into bite sized chunks
2. Mix the chicken with the ginger, garlic and yogurt. Cover and marinade for 12 hours or in the fridge overnight.
3. Liquidise the chopped onion and red chillies, add a little water if you need to. blend til smooth.
4. Heat the ghee/oil in a pan.
5. Add the ground coriander, ground black pepper, turmeric and garam masala and stir fry for about 1-minute over a low heat.
6. Turn up the heat, add the onion and chilli paste and stir fry for 10-minutes.
7. Add the chicken and the marinade and continue to stir fry for another 10-minutes.
8. Add the creamed coconut and enough water to *just* cover the chicken and bring to the boil, stirring until the coconut is dissolved. Stir in the ground almonds.
9. Reduce heat to low, cover the pan and simmer until the chicken is tender (30-40 minutes).
10. Remove from heat, add lemon juice and salt to taste. Mix well.

Potato, Leak and Mushroom soup

Ingredients

• 6 medium potatoes
• 3 leek stalks
• 300ml cream
• 2 onions
• 250gm sliced mushrooms
• 4 cups chicken stock
• butter
• salt

Process

1. Dice onions and put in pot with butter. Stir onions on a medium heat until soft and clear.
2. Add stock and salt and bring to the boil.
3. Add diced potatoes, leek and mushroom.
4. Simmer, stirring occasionally until potato is soft.
5. Blend the soup until smooth.
6. Add cream and heat through until thick.
7. Grind some pepper on top.

Serves 6

Alternatives
* Serve with some crispy prosciutto on top
or
* Put in 2 gloves of roasted garlic before blending.
or
* Add a spear of asparagus in with the potato

Lactation Boosting Biscuits

Ingredients :

* 1 cup butter
* 1 cup sugar
* 1 cup brown sugar
* 4 tablespoons water
* 2 tablespoons flaxseed meal*
* 2 large eggs
* 1 teaspoon vanilla
* 2 cups flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1 teaspoon salt
* 3 cups oats
* 1 cup or more chocolate chips or sultanas
* 2 tablespoons of brewers yeast* (be generous)

Directions:

Preheat oven at 190C.
Mix together 2 tablespoons of flaxseed meal and water, set aside for 3-5 minutes.
Cream butter and sugar.
Add eggs one at a time, mix well.
Stir flaxseed mixture and add with vanilla to the butter mix. Beat until blended.
Sift together dry ingredients, except oats and chips. Add to butter mixture.
Stir in oats then chips.
Scoop or drop onto baking sheet.

Bake 8-12 minutes, depending on size of biscuits.

Serves: 6 dozen cookies

Preparation time: 15 minutes

*can be found at any local health food store.
*NOTE* IT MUST BE BREWERS YEAST, NO SUBSTITUTIONS.

I make the flaxseed meal by grinding flaxseeds in a coffee grinder (if I can be bothered. I haven't noticed any difference if I don't put flaxseed in)

World's easiest one pot risotto

Serves 2-3.

1 cup arborio rice
2 ½ cups stock
60g butter
350g jap or butternut pumpkin, peeled and diced (or sweet potato or chicken or mushrooms)
½ cup parmesan cheese, finely grated
cracked black pepper and sea salt
1tbsp flat leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat oven to 190C. Place Arborio rice, stock, butter and pumpkin in an oven proof dish and cover tightly with a lid or aluminium foil. Bake for 30 mins or until rice is soft. Stir through parmesan, pepper, salt and parsley.

Chicken and Corn soup

Ingredients:

• 1.5L water (approximately)
  
• 4 chicken thigh fillets
• 400g tinned corn kernels
• small tin creamed corn
• salt
  

Alternatives:

1. Can use 2 breast fillets instead
   
2. 1 egg white
   
3. cornflour for thickening

Method:

Put water, salt and the chicken in saucepan on medium to high heat. Bring to boil and when the chicken is cooked pull out and using two forks, shred the chicken and place back into the water. Add the corn.

If using the egg white, whisk and then add to the soup.
If using cornflour, take some soup out and mix the cornflour into it and then add to the soup


Personal notes:

I like my chicken and corn soup quite salty, but I leave it to top salting so everyone can salt as much or little as they like.

The awesome Chilli con carne a la Gus

What you need

• A couple of onions, chopped
  
• Some garlic cloves, chopped or bashed
  
• 500g extra lean premium organic beef mince
  
• A spoon or so of cumin
  
• Some chilli flakes or powder or whatever form you want
  
• A tiny tin of tomato paste
  
• A small tin of red kidney beans (ie Edgell)
  
• A small tin of mixed kidney beans
  
• A tin of tomatoes (chopped or whole, just bash em up when you add them if you have whole tomatoes)
  
• A cup of rice (white is nice, but brown also works)
  

What you do

Put the cup of rice with 2 cups of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil. As soon as it starts boiling, turn it down to the lowest heat setting, put the lid on, and let it cook until the water fully reduces (apparently this is the "absorption" method). It's basically finished just before the rice at the bottom of the pan starts to burn.

Chop your onions and garlic and get your other ingredients ready.

In a large frying pan, splash some olive oil and cook the onions over medium-high heat for a minute or two. Throw in the garlic, then the meat (chop up the mince if it's stuck together too much). Put the cumin and chilli in, and cook for a couple of minutes until the meat is mostly brown. Also, add a pinch of salt and pepper.

Add the tomato paste. Drain the water from the tins of kidney beans. Add the tinned tomato and kidney beans to the frying pan.

Let it simmer for a few minutes, and you're done.

What you can eat with it

Pickled pickles, natural (tart) yoghurt and sweet chilli sauce all go very well with this dish. Also as a side you can serve sliced tomatoes topped with salt and vinegar (white or balsamic both work).

As extras, you could also grate a carrot into the meat dish as it's cooking.

What can go wrong

• Too much cumin. Generally you would not need more than one heaped dessert spoon.
  
• Too much tomato paste. No more than one tiny tin (like the homebrand tins), even better is using half a tin.
  
• Too much chilli. Ouch.