The very tolerant boyfriend and I are on holidays at the moment. We've come to stay in a beautifully remote and quiet cottage in Wales, which we borrowed from my equally tolerant parents. It's blissful here. We've mainly been sleeping, walking in the hills and drinking wine.
We decided to treat ourselves to a really special three course dinner one night. The menu was a subject of some debate in the weeks running up to our break. We might have been looking forward to this holiday quite a lot, if you hadn't guessed.
We started with
poached asparagus on toast with hollandaise sauce, a suggestion which we had found in one of the excellent Rachel Allen cookbooks. We'd thought that hollandaise sauce was going to be a struggle, after watching numerous Masterchef contestants cock it up this year. Maybe it was beginners luck, but the very tolerant boyfriend pulled off an amazing hollandaise. Not a hint of scrambled eggs in sight.
The main was a suggestion from the lovely Charlie. We did a Bill Granger,
spiced pomegranate slow cooked shoulder of lamb with a bulgar wheat and pomegranate salad and some flat breads. Words can not describe how good this was. Make it, make it now. The left overs also make amazing wraps for lunch the next day.
The Lamb
2kg/4lb shoulder of lamb, bone in
1 lemon
4 tbsp pomegranate molasses
1 tbsp olive oil
1½ tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp salt
We marinaded the lamb overnight, although the recipe doesn't call for this.
We also used about half that amount of lamb as there were only two of us. This reduced the cooking time from 4 1/2 hours to about 3, but we kept the spice mix the same and the results were very pleasing indeed.
Cook the lamb in a roasting tin for 30 mins at 200 C, remove from the oven cover tightly with foil
making sure it's quite sealed round the edges. Then return to the oven and reduce the temperature to 140 C for the next three hours. The recipe called for the lamb to be cooked for another 30 mins with the foil removed at the end, but ours absolutely did not require it. The meat fell from the bone, tender and beautifully spiced.
For the salad
200g/7oz bulgur wheat
Juice 1 lemon
2 garlic cloves, crushed
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground allspice
3 tbsp olive oil
Small bunch flat-leaf parsley, leaves only
Small bunch mint, leaves only
1 red onion, sliced
100g/3½oz pomegranate seeds
Mix together the spices, lemon juice and oil into a dressing, then throw the rest of the ingredients in and toss.
For the flatbreads I used this recipe, but I only made up half of in and in the event, we ate one each rather than the seven I made.
basic dough:strong, white bread flour 500g
salt 10g
instant yeast 10g
unsalted butter 30g
water about 300mls
When the dough has been proved, roll out small rounds and then brush each side with olive oil before dry frying.
We paired this with an excellent Lebanese red wine, which was a recommendation from one of my favourite wine shops
Corks of Cotham. They're excellent when it comes to recommending good wine. I get to go in and tell the quys who work there what I'm cooking and they never fail to come up with something unusual to go with it. Bristolians, go forth and purchase wine from them.
For dessert I did a Raspberry crème brûlée. Mainly because I like playing with blowtorches to be totally honest.
250ml double cream
1/2 tsp vanilla extract (the stuff with the seeds, that I use when I'm too lazy for vanilla pods)
50g caster sugar (plus extra for the topping)
3 egg yolks.
Preheat the oven to 150C. Add the vanilla to the cream and heat to boiling point, then reduce the heat and simmer gently.
At the same time add the egg yolks to the sugar and beat until pale and fluffy. Bring the cream back up to boiling point and then pour over the egg mixture, whisking continuously until it starts to thicken, which indicates that the eggs have started to cook.
Pop some fresh raspberries in the bottom of the ramekins and then pour over the mixture. Put the ramekins in a bain-marie and then bake for 40-45 minutes. They should be set, but still wobbly in the middle when they're done.
Fridge overnight and then scatter with sugar before caramelising with the blowtorch (we might have got carried away at this point) before serving.
The next day we went and walked up a VERY big hill to try and burn some of this off.
