This morning we had one slice of peanut butter on toast and half a grapefruit each.
We ventured out today, we had loads to do, including the grocery shop for the dinner tonight. We had food court chicken pitas for lunch then braved the supermarket.
All I can say is STUFFED if you can find lamb here! We had to try butchers and meat shops, and a butcher in The Healthy Butcher told us that there is a massive lamb shortage in Ontario and that the prices have jacked right up, and they wont stock lamb for another six weeks! I will definitely go back there though, it was an amazing store.
Anyway, we found a leg end fillet of lamb, so I adjusted the recipe to suit, mainly on guess work and a bit of research. The recipe is from I Know How to Cook which is a French cook book Lee bought for me a couple of Christmases ago. And here it is:
100g unsmoked bacon
100g pork
1 handful flat leaf parsley
1 tbs Cognac
Salt & pepper
1-1.2kg shoulder of lamb, boned
50g butter
30g flour
400ml stock
Optional: potatoes or turnips
Now, here is where I vary from the recipe. I substituted the pork for pork mince, the Cognac for brandy (what is the difference other than region, really??), I couldn't find the lamb as mentioned so used a leg end fillet, which had a bone so I had to take that out and a fairly large amount of fat and sinew. I also used less butter and more stock, and chose to add potatoes. Here is the method:
Finely chop the bacon, pork & parsley and mix together in a bowl with the Cognac. Season with salt and pepper. Have a sip of wine.
Lie the lamb out, rub with the stuffing, then roll up and use kitchen string to tie it together tightly. Have another sip of wine. Stringing a piece of meat can be frustrating, so additional sips may be needed.
Melt the butter in a heavy base pan, brown the lamb all over, then remove and let sit aside. Optional sip of wine.
Add 30g of flour gradually, stirring constantly, and then gradually add the stock while still stirring. Make sure your glass of wine is in reach because you cant stop stirring.
When its all combined, return your lamb to the pot, cover and simmer gently. For a big shoulder of lamb over 1kg it says to cook it for 2.5 hours, adding potatoes if you wish after 1.5 hours. Because I used a different cut of lamb which is also smaller, I reduced the cooking time to 1 hr 50min, and added the potatoes after half an hour.
I served with green beans and a salad. I had to adjust the cooking time of the lamb which meant my beans were cooked too soon, so I plunged them in cold water to stop them cooking any more, and then tossed them in a pan to reheat with some almonds & a little olive oil when I was ready.
Overall verdict? Delicious!
Would I recommend? Hell yes!
Would I make this again? Absolutely!
Findings?
- Was difficult to stuff such a small piece of meat. Definitely will work better with a shoulder piece, especially trying to string up a short fat bit of meat!
- When I added the first portion of flour, it was what I expected. When I added the second I panicked because it went really thick and lumpy. I smoothed it out, but think the heat may have been too high, so note to self, next time turn it down and maybe remove from heat when adding the flour.
- It is also a lot creamier than I thought it would be.
- To get a gentle simmer, I had to have the stove on medium heat. No idea why, but it wouldn't simmer under the 4 notch.
- I adjusted the timing and while the meat was pink it could have been more tender, so would prob change it to 1hr 40 mins cooking time, and chuck the spuds in sooner.
- French cooking is not for the weak hearted or for someone on a diet. They are so skinny because they eat very little, so be mindful of portion size when serving up an artery hardener!
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