Dukkah-Crusted Lamb with Pearl Couscous Salad

I was invited to spend Christmas with friends this year and it was wonderful. I enjoyed taking a break from cooking and it was nice to be away from home for a few days. It was also terrific to spend time with my friends. However there was a bit of indulgence involved, especially with a trip to Bourke Street Bakery, along with all the other associated Christmas goodies. So I feel the need to have a few lighter meals for a while. This does not include the feast that I am making tomorrow for New Year's Eve, although I am mainly doing that for the leftovers that I can have for lunches. 

I started my lighter meals last night with this lamb recipe over on Taste but I didn't really follow the recipe so will post what I did instead. It was very good, although I think that my dukkah is starting to get some age on it and therefore lose a bit of its flavour so I think I will probably toss it and make up a new lot. The couscous was very good although I think I could have made it a bit healthier if I had used quinoa instead of the pearl couscous. You really could add any salad veg that you wanted to.

Dukkah-Crusted Lamb with Pearl Couscous Salad 

Serves 2

Ingredients: 

4 Lamb loin chops

Olive oil 

Pistachio dukkah (made with pistachios instead of almonds)

1/3 c pearl couscous

1/2 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved or quartered if large

1/4 continental cucumber, pealed, quartered and sliced 

1/4 red onion sliced 

1/2 avocado diced 

2 slices of feta cheese, diced 

Handful mint leaves, chopped

Raspberry vinegar (I bought this ages ago, it is so good and well worth it)

salad leaves to serve

Method: 

Drizzle lamb with oil and sprinkle with dukkah giving it a good rub. Set aside while making salad. 

Cook pearl couscous in some vegetable stock following packet directions, rinse in cool water and drain well. Combine couscous, tomatoes, cucumber, onion, avocado, feta and mint, drizzle with a small amount of raspberry vinegar and mix to combine. Refrigerate until serving. 

Heat pan over medium-high heat and add a small about of grapeseed oil to pan. Cook chops for a few minutes each side or until cooked to your liking. Remove and drain on paper towel and trim fat from lamb. 

Serve with salad leaves and couscous salad with an extra drizzle of vinegar. 

Middle Eastern Chicken with Olive, Walnut, Pistachio & Pomegranate Salad

It has been a big week at work. One that I am glad is over. Although there is still stuff that needs to be done. Records that need to be bundled up and filed. Stuff that needs to go to the accountant. One bonus though is that I can get my tax return submitted this weekend, hopefully today, and I should get a small refund if previous years are anything to go by. Anything would be welcome at the moment. 

I recently decided that I needed to make more of an effort to curb my spending habits. Less buying ingredients just in case I need them. Or think that I might use them at some point. Make a point of using all the fresh produce that I buy. Actually sit down and plan meals and make lists, consider what I already have in the pantry, fridge and freezer before deciding what to cook. Make a point of coming home from work for lunch or at the very least taking food with me to eat for lunch. I have already cut back in a few other areas. I am keen to save for some improvements to my house. I would also dearly love to purchase a Thermomix. Everything that I have seen and heard about them has convinced me that it really would be an asset in my kitchen. However, first I really need to replace my dodgy electric cooktop. Going back to gas cooking is my desire, I miss it so much. Hopefully by the end of the year I should be able to replace my cooktop and be on my way to saving for a Thermomix. 

Recently, while in the supermarket they had some pomegranates on special. I do love pomegranates. I have made a number of different things using them in the past. I really like them as an addition to salads. There was also a pomegranate, quince and raspberry sauce that I made to go over ice cream which I then added more sugar to and reboiled making a really lovely jam. This time I wanted to try something different so plugged "pomegranate recipes" into google to see what I could come up with. I was drawn to two recipes in particular and decided that they would work together perfectly since they had a few common ingredients and, more importantly, everything already in my fridge, freezer or pantry. The first was this recipe for Middle Eastern Chicken over on Not Quite Nigella. The flavours of this were just divine. My chicken was slightly smaller, at 1.1 kg, but I left all the rest of the ingredients the same. I was so pleased with this. I think I could easily eat it weekly. I served it with quinoa cooked in vegetable stock. 

The other dish served that night was an Olive, Walnut, Pistachio & Pomegranate Salad based on a recipe over at A Life (Time) of Cooking. The original recipe had green olives but I am not a fan of green olives. I do, however, adore black olives so I decided to use them instead. This salad was just incredible. The combination was just a revelation. Even the leftovers a few days later when the nuts had softened slightly were delightful. I still have pomegranate seeds and pistachios left so I am planning on making this one again tomorrow. In fact I think that I will make it as often as possible. 

Gemma's Middle Eastern Chicken 

Ingredients:  

• 1 onion, chopped 
• 2 carrots, diced 
• 3 tbsp grapeseed oil 
• 1.5kg organic chicken (I used a 1.1kg) 
• 1 tsp cayenne pepper 
• 1 tsp ground allspice 
• 3 tbsp pomegranate molasses 
• 60ml brandy 
• 1 pomegranate 
• salt and pepper 
• handful of roughly chopped, toasted pistachios

Method: 

• Preheat the oven to 180C. 
• Heat oil in a Dutch oven over a low heat. Add onion and carrot and cook until onion is soft, approx. 10 minutes, then remove and set aside. 
• Increase heat to medium high brown chicken on both sides being turning carefully so as not to damage the skin. Ending with chicken breast side up.
• Remove from the heat and spoon carrots and onion around the chicken. 
• Sprinkle cayenne pepper and allspice on top of the chicken and drizzle with 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses and half the brandy. 
• Place lid on Dutch oven and bake for 1 to 1.5 hours. Adding water if needed to stop it drying out (I didn't need to). 
• Turn the heat up to 200C and baste the chicken with pan juices and cook for 10 minutes or until nicely browned.
• Remove the Dutch oven out of the oven. Carefully remove chicken to a serving platter and cover with foil to keep warm 
• Heat the Dutch oven over a low heat on the stove then add half the pomegranate seeds, remaining pomegranate molasses and brandy. Cook for about 5 minutes. Spoon this around the chicken on the serving platter then top with remaining pomegranate seeds and chopped, toasted pistachios. 

Olive, Walnut, Pistachio & Pomegranate Salad

Ingredients:

• 1/4 c walnuts, toasted and chopped 
• 1/2 cup pitted kalamata olives, chopped 
• 1/4 cup unsalted shelled pistachios, toasted and chopped
• 1/2  cup pomegranate arils
• 2 small shallots, peeled and finely diced
• 1 red chilli (or to taste), seeded and finely chopped
• 2 – 3 Tbsp shredded parsley leaves
• 1 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 Tbsp walnut oil
• 2 tsp pomegranate molasses
• juice of  1/2 a lemon
• sea salt 
• freshly ground black pepper

Method: 

• Combine nuts, olives, pomegranate arils, shallots and parsley in a bowl. 
• In a small bowl combine oils, chilli, pomegranate molasses, lemon juice, salt and pepper and whisk well. 
• Mix dressing with salad and let stand for 5 minutes to allow flavours to develop. 

July 2005 - Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

I had so many things marked in issue #40 that I wanted to try and it was very hard to pick just one thing out. The Thai-style pumpkin soup on the cover looked really nice. However I make pumpkin soup regularly. I have also done a Thai inspired one after having it at a cafe a number of years ago. I normally fry off some red curry paste before adding stock. It is very nice.

Glenn Reid's Field mushroom tarte tatin with cress salad was the first recipe to catch my eye but I cannot get cress so decided to move on to one of the other options.

I have had Valli Little's bean trenchers marked to make ever since I got this issue. It is basically a baked bean mixture cooked on the stove served on toast. I have made my own baked beans before. No matter how hard I try I always end up with a massive pot of beans and get sick of eating it before I get through it all. This recipe sounds great but serves 6 and I am sure that even if I cut the recipe in half I would end up with more than 3 serves as I find that most recipes give more servings than they say they do.

Another marked recipe is Valli's chunky potato corn & bacon soup. I have made this one before and it is a wonderful hearty soup. Perfect in the winter time. However since I have already made it before I decided to go with one of the many other options.

When I made up my blog menu plan for the month I had opted for Nancy Duran's date, gorgonzola & prosciutto tart. It is an easy recipe and perfect for lunch. I was going to make one change, substituting goat's cheese for the gorgonzola. This was for two reasons, firstly I am not overly keen on blue cheese and it is hard to get a nice gorgonzola here and secondly, I had some goat's cheese left over from another recipe. I ended up not making this because I used the goat's cheese for some thing else and it was another recipe that had a cress topping to the tart. I may have to look into how to grow some cress. On the couple of occasions that I have been able to purchase it, I have quite enjoyed it so if it is easy to grow it would be a nice addition to the edible garden.

I ended up making fig, pistachio & ginger muffins. A recipe from Tanya Beard, it was included as part of an article on Toby Smith, owner of Toby's Estate coffee. These were fabulous muffins. I uses pecans instead of pistachios as that is what I had on hand. I am sure the pistachios would be terrific in there too. The reconstituted figs soft and almost caramelised. Even though I burnt my hand while removing the pan from the oven. I am not sure that they were worth it exactly but they are extremely good. So good I have already bought more figs to make them again. This time I am planning to use macadamia nuts, again because I have them on hand. They store and reheat well too. I think that they could also be very successfully frozen.

Fig, Pistachio & Ginger Muffins

Makes 12

Ingredients

• 350 g dried figs
• 3 1/3 c (500g) plain flour
• 2 tsp bicarb soda
  
• 1 c (220 g) caster sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 c (560g) thick natural yoghurt
• 150 g unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly
• 3/4 cup shelled unsalted pistachios, chopped (I used pecans)
  
• 2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1/3 c (80 ml) milk

Method

• Preheat oven to 200 C. Grease 12-hole muffin pan.
  
• Soak figs in boiling water for 15 minutes then drain and chop.
  
• In a bowl combine all dry ingredients. In a separate bowl whisk eggs and then add yoghurt and butter and stir well to combine.
  
• Pour egg mix into flour mix and stir with a metal spoon until just combined.
• Add figs, ginger and nuts and gently stir to combine adding milk if the mixture is too dry.
  
• Spoon mixture into muffin pan until 2/3 - 3/4 full.
  
• Bake 25 - 30 minutes.