Rosemary, wholegrain mustard & garlic lamb steaks

A perfect, quick mid-week meal - very tender and full of flavour!

 The best part for me was having leftovers and making a lamb steak sandwich the next day...

Serves 2
- olive oil
- 4 lamb steaks
- 2 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- sprig of fresh rosemary
- 1 red onion, quartered

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200 degrees and drizzle some olive oil in a small roasting tin. Place in the oven to heat up whilst you prepare the lamb.
2. Coat the lamb steaks in the wholegrain mustard. Feel free to cut the fat off the lamb if you prefer - I kept it on for extra flavour and some of it crisped up which tasted great, but you can just cut off the fatty parts when eating.

3. Remove the tin from the oven and place the lamb steaks in the hot oil. Spread the crushed garlic on top of the lamb and sprinkle with plenty of fresh rosemary, tearing with your fingers. Place the quartered onion around the lamb steaks and drizzle with some extra olive oil.

4. Cook in the oven for 15-20 minutes, or longer, depending on how you like your lamb.

Enjoy :)

Roast Chicken

Buying a whole chicken to roast from the supermarket is a much more cost-effective way of having chicken if you like all the different parts of the chicken. I personally prefer the leg, thigh and wing meat to the breast but all the chicken you can get off this roast is great to use throughout the week once you've had your Sunday Roast. I had a portion of chicken the night I cooked it and then set most of it aside for a chicken pie the following night (recipe to follow!) and the rest of it I have frozen to use in sandwiches or to make chicken stir fry with next week. I highly recommend buying a whole chicken as it will go a long way and I find the meat to be so much more moist, tender and flavoursome. 

I have done a post on roast chicken before here: www.eatrainbowlove.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/roast-chicken.html so this will be pretty similar but thought I would do another one just to encourage everyone to roast their own chicken because it is a lot easier than you may think and will leave you with lots of delicious meat which will transform your meals for the following week!

You will need

- whole medium (or large) chicken
- olive oil
- 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
- dried mixed herbs
- herb and spice blend for chicken (or just salt, pepper, paprika)

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees.

2. Place the chicken in a roasting dish and brush with a generous amount of olive oil

3. Coat with the crushed garlic and sprinkle with the herbs and spices.

4. Cover with foil and roast in the oven for an hour, then baste the chicken (brush with the juices in the bottom of the roasting dish) then return to the oven for another 45 minutes with the foil still on. (Cooking time will vary depending on size)

5. Rest for a few minutes before carving and serving, then you can enjoy a delicious roast chicken dishes and roast chicken sandwiches for the rest of the week!

Enjoy :)

Barbecue treats

I may have missed the mark since the rain is coming in, but as you all know, the weather has been gorgeous in England for the past month. I have had a few barbecues, and although I don't have many photos, I thought I would share a quick chicken kebab recipe and some gorgeous melt in the middle beef burgers (both pictured above) - as well as some ideas for fun BBQ food :)

Chicken kebabs

Simply chop up your desired amount of red onion and any coloured pepper, and thread on a kebab stick with some diced chicken. Just drizzle with olive oil and you're good to barbecue! So simple but very delicious. If you prefer more flavour than marinade the chicken before hand.

Melt-in-the-middle goats cheese burgers

So yummy - you can replace the goats cheese with any cheese like cheddar or stilton or brie.

Makes 2:
- 250g beef mince
- 1 small red onion, finely chopped
- handful of fresh parsley, finely chopped
- salt & pepper
- 1/2 beaten egg
- two thick slices of soft goats cheese

1. Mix together the mince, onion, parsley and seasoning in a mixing bowl.
2. Add in the beaten egg and mix until combined. If too wet, then add a bit of flour.
3. Shape into 4 small patties, and place the goats cheese on two of them.
4. Place the other two patties on top of the goats cheese, and shape around with your fingers to seal, until the perfect burger shape, and the cheese is covered.
5. Time to barbecue!

On my birthday this year, we had a lovely barbecue in the evening with so much food - standard burgers and sausages, along with corn on the cob (boil it first!), sweet chilli chicken, lamb marinated in mint, pineapple on the bbq, and lots of potato salad.

Hope this gives you some BBQ inspiration!

Enjoy :)

Moroccan Lamb

I made this meal a few weeks ago in an attempt to make two lamb steaks a bit more interesting. I looked up various Moroccan lamb recipes and most of them were slow cooked and different cuts of meat so I had to make quite a few adjustments. I nearly always use smell to decide what I should put with what, and this is especially important when adding spices in this dish, but I had a blocked nose at the time so cooking this was a bit of a nightmare. It also meant I couldn't really taste it  very well when eating it - all I know is that it was very hot in my mouth (spicy hot), but I am a massive wimp when it comes to spice so if you enjoy spicy food this will probably seem very mild. My mum said it had a lovely flavour so I'm trusting her and sharing this with you guys! The honey and apricots will add a sweetness to counteract the spice, which will go perfectly with the warm cinnamon and tomato flavours.

Serves 2
- 2 lamb steaks
- olive oil
- 1 tsp cayenne pepper
- 1/2 tbsp paprika
- 1/2 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tbsp turmeric
- 1 onion, chopped
- 2 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 400g tin chopped tomatoes
- 300ml lamb/beef stock
- handful of dried apricots, quartered
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- handful of pine nuts
- handful of parsley, chopped

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 / 160 degrees. Rub oil on the lamb steaks.

2. In a dish, combine all the spices, and rub the lamb steaks in the mixture until coated. Keep in the fridge for half an hour.

3. Fry the onion and garlic in a large pan until soft. Add the lamb steaks, browning each side. Then, add the tinned tomatoes and stock, and bring to the boil. Simmer for about 20 minutes or until the liquid has started to reduce.

4. Next, add the apricots, pine nuts, honey and parsley and stir.

5. Return the mixture into the dish and cover with foil. Cook in the oven for about an hour, or until the meat is tender and the sauce reduced. Serve with rice and vegetables!

Enjoy :)

Food, glorious food

Just wanted to do a quick post about some delicious food I've eaten recently (not cooked by me)!

I went to Ibiza on holiday with my boyfriend at the end of June and the all inclusive food was not anything special, but we did eat out a few times, my favourite being this caesar salad:

It was the most delicious salad I've ever tasted - the chicken was bread crumbed which added brilliant texture and it was still so moist, there were mini garlic croutons, lots of lettuce, but the best part was the sauce. The caesar dressing was creamy and refreshing but there was also a ton of balsamic vinegar (reduction) drizzled over the top. I would never have thought of putting balsamic vinegar with caesar (and I put it with most things!..) and I wish I had because it is genius. So next time you are making a caesar salad, don't forget to try it because the sweetness works perfectly with everything else.

On holiday, I also started an obsession with milka chocolate - this oreo one is amazing, and I also tried the caramel one and Daim one too. Nothing beats the oreo though! I haven't seen this oreo one anywhere in England yet, so let me know if you come across it :)

One evening we ate at this beautiful restaurant overlooking the sea with this view of the sunset:

 It was a beautiful place - I definitely recommend going on holiday to Portinatx. It's north of Ibiza, so the non-clubby part. The beaches are lovely, and our hotel was right on the sea, and the town had some lovely restaurants including this one.

The salads were great, mixing normal salad stuff (lettuce, carrot, tomato) with meat or fish (chicken and tuna), as well as lots of fruit (pineapple, strawberries, melon etc.) I wouldn't have thought so many flavours would taste so delicious together but they did. I particularly loved the pineapple chunks with the chicken - so refreshing and sweet, mm mm.

For main we both had a mixed grill which was steak, two different cuts of chicken, lamb and pork. It was all marinated beautifully and was very tender. It was a nice change from the normal British mixed grill of sausages, gammon and a ton of bacon!

Back in rainy England, I celebrated my birthday with my mum and sister at this lovely restaurant in London called Little Sicily - the website is http://www.littlesicilylondon.com 

The cocktails were so delicious but I'm here to talk about food so... we started with a bread basket of focaccia, breadsticks etc and a meat board of different salamis and hams which were scrummy. My sister and I also shared the calamari which came with a perfect tartare sauce. I'm not quite sure how I feel about squid yet... it wasn't rubbery which was good, but occasionally when I realised what I was eating I did feel slightly grossed out - I love fish but I'm not great with the more unusual seafood!

 For main course I had Pollo Creme which is basically a big piece of chicken served on papperdelle, with a creamy, mushroom and white wine sauce. I am a sucker for anything creamy so this was my perfect meal. The flavours were great and the chicken very moist, although I think it could have done with more sauce.

 The desserts were presented beautifully - I ordered the cheesecake with berry coulis and my sister had the hot chocolate souffle with pistachio ice cream. They were to die for!

I would definitely recommend this restaurant, the service was great, as was the atmosphere and the food was brilliant - a bit expensive but perfect for a celebration.

My friend also took me out for lunch on my birthday to the Blue River Cafe - http://www.thamesriviera.com/dining I had the rosemary foccacia filled with chicken, bacon and a blue cheese sauce, with a salad. It was so yum - and actually very filling. The chicken had a bit of a spice to it which was interesting but there wasn't enough blue cheese sauce so parts of it were a little dry, but it was a lovely lunch all the same.

My boyfriend and I decided to go less posh and ordered Dominoes for my birthday meal - what beats texas bbq and new yorker pizzas!? He then made me pancakes and porridge the following morning which was a lovely surprise.

I hope everyone else has been enjoying some delicious food recently, since the weather is so rubbish in England we need something to treat ourselves! I have a few posts lined up including egg fried rice, another salmon recipe, and the cupcakes I made for my birthday, so don't forget to check back :)