587/1038 - Salad of grilled lamb

Simple, simple, simple! 

Everybody knows I love to cook, but I do still struggle to find wonderfully simple and tasty mid-week meals. This is definitely one of those! 

This was the first time I had attempted to create gorgeous cross-hatch grill marks on my meat and now I am kicking myself for not taking a picture before I sliced it up. With the digital timer running, I stuck to the one minute per position grilling time and was thrilled that all four fillets turned out perfectly. 

Given my utter focus on the meat and its constant need for attention, the best I could muster vegetable-wise was the recommended handfuls of baby spinach the meat was to be laid upon. Unlike me to have such little variety on the plate, even my eldest looked at his dinner plate and said, "Oh just spinach. OK."

Anybody out there with a lamb backstrap and no inspiration, this recipe is for you! x

586/1038 - Pumpkin and amaretto tart

This is the second time I have made this pumpkin and amaretto filling. The first time it was as a filling for ravioli, which we absolutely loved...but as a tart filling it is even better! I am pretty sure this is because you get a much bigger mouthful of the stuff when it is not wrapped in pasta. 

I did meddle with the recipe just a bit, making the following changes;

• Substituted the sage for fresh tarragon because my lovely sage plant has died! A project for the coming weeks, I think
• Swapped amaretto for Sambucca. So good! 
• Roasted, instead of steamed, the pumpkin. I think either way would work well

The trick to really making this tart special is to take the butter to a lovely burnt place when frying the sage, or in this case, tarragon. It should be dark and smell quite nutty when it is ready. My mouth is watering just thinking about this again.  

Because my pumpkin had SO many seeds, I felt bad throwing them in the compost. While the pastry was blind making in the oven, they were washed, dried and spread on an oven tray. They cooked at the same time as the tart which meant no wasted energy, and most importantly, less heat for my house in this warm weather. 

My last recipe signified the beginning of a new chapter (kiwifruit) and this recipe represents the twentieth chapter I can tick off my list! That's right, of one hundred and twenty five chapters, we can now officially say goodbye to;

Broccoli

Prawns

Bacon

Sweet potatoes

Chives

Bugs

Asian greens

Abalone

Corn

Carrots

Parsley

Cauliflowers

Mint

Kangaroo & Wallaby

Lentils

Beans, dried

Pasta & noodles

Bananas

Apples

...and now Pumpkins! 

Getting there x

Roasted pumpkin seeds with smoked salt. Mmmm...

585/1038 - Kiwifruit sorbet

With some ageing kiwifruit in the fridge, I went to the supermarket specifically to buy some glucose syrup so that I could make this recipe. I will be honest, I was not excited. I have no idea why, but the thought of  kiwifruit sorbet just did not float my boat. 

Clearly, I have no idea. Kiwifruit sorbet is, quite simply, a revelation. Smooth, sweet and with just the tiniest hint of tang, it is now ranked in my top ten of desserts. It really was that good! I was not alone; my little family of four wolfed down the entire batch minutes after the churning was complete. It was almost not worth the effort I took to carefully freeze the kiwifruit shells to use as little bowls, but of course it made for a lovely photo even if that little touch was lost on those closest to me. 

This wonderful, wonderful recipe marks yet another chapter started, with only 14 chapters as yet untouched out of 125. 

It has been almost a month since my last blog post (goodness, it sounds as if I am in the confessional) and I will admit I have been suffering from a severe lack of interest in this challenge. I have no idea if my enthusiasm will return and so for now, I am simply glad that I managed to push out my self-imposed minimum of one recipe this month.  

Stay tuned. Hopefully a burst of challenge energy is coming my way.