Simple and delicious lamb cutlets with fresh figs recipe
I love fresh figs. As a child, I watched my mother occasionally savour these exotic and expensive fruit. When she shared her delight and passed me a fragment to taste, I just couldn’t understand the passion. How she could like the pinky flesh, the seeds, the thick skin? Years later, wanting to impress, I picked a fig and gently took a bite. It was both surprising and sensuous. I fell instantly in love with the fruit. Suddenly I realised that it is the disparate combination of deep purple skin, blushing flesh, texture and sweet juice that...
read moreQuick and delicious lamb meatballs in a creamy tomato sauce
I’m quite particular about meatballs. They have to melt in the mouth. And they need a good, mellow sauce. I am not keen on fried meatballs, so often a chewy exterior extends to the interior. And I checked out other meat ball recipes on the internet this evening. What a palaver – make the meatballs, transfer to the fridge for 2 hours. If you are really gentle with your meatballs you can be snatching a pack of mince one moment and within half an hour, or so, serving this meal. Danny was back late from London this evening. I planned...
read moreEasy rack of lamb baked in a tasty sweet savoury sauce recipe
Fred’s racks of lamb are always chubby, tender and a real treat. Yesterday I drove back from Essex to find Danny creating a new sauce for a chunky rack. We like to make our sauces in the same pan as the roasting meat. If we get the ingredients right it’s a lazy way to make a sauce and sometimes the sauce also tenderises the meat. This sauce has soul. It was a treat at the end of a long day. Combined with spinach and creamed potatoes (champ) it was superb. If you prefer a thick sauce, a little corn flour or potato flour could be...
read moreSimple rack of lamb recipe
Rack of lamb (best end of neck) is such a treat. There are 6-8 cutlets on a joint. Sometimes we treat ourselves to one from Fred Fitzpatrick’s. His chops are much chubbier than the supermarket ones so he cuts the rack in half and we pop one half in the freezer. Our freezer clearing project has unearthed several delights and tonight we ate a half rack of lamb that had been languishing in the freezer disguised as something else. For years I used to order rack of lamb when I went to a restaurant, imagining that it would be a palaver to...
read moreSlow cooked roast Spanish lamb recipe infused with thyme and white wine
One Sunday many years ago, Danny and I were pressed for time before a lunch party. In a desperate, ‘they’ll be here in 5 minutes’ move, we threw all the dirty pots and pans from the sink onto the lawn. It was deep winter and we felt confident that our friends wouldn’t venture further than the kitchen table. Danny locked the door to the garden, just in case. All went well until a child, bored with the extensive lingering over coffee and Armagnac, got up and peered out of the tiny window that overlooks the garden. I knew...
read more
FD