Jamie Oliver's Lamb Racks (minus the racks...)

So I was excited to try a new tasty tray bake ala Jamie Oliver and I got together all the ingredients, except the main one -- the lamb racks! Turns out only one person in my local market sells lamb meat, and she was all out of ribs... So I just had to settle for some part of the upper leg that looked like it woud to well roasted...

It turned out pretty delicious, with the roasted veggies and fresh mint sauce drizzled on top! Better still, it made the house smell delicious as promised, while Jiahui and I watched a movie together :D

I doubled Jamie's recipe because I realized his portions are pretty small, and I intended to have leftovers to take to work...

Ingredients:
2 racks of lamb (just a big piece of meat in my case...)
1lb. baby white potatoes (these were one of the highlights of the dish!)
3 red bell peppers
2 zucchini
7oz. cherry tomatoes
8 cloves garlic
1/2 cup kalamata olives
1 medium sprig rosemary
1 small bunch mint
white sugar (Jamie said "superfine" but I just used regular and it was fine...)
red wine vinegar
white wine vinegar
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
pepper to taste

The Steps:

1. Preheat the oven to 190 Celsius, boil the kettle
2. Wash and scrub the baby potatoes. Cut any large ones in half and place in a saucepan. Add a pinch of salt and cover with boiling water from the kettle.
3. Place the pan on high heat and bring back to a boil. Reduce heat to medium and boil for 5min. Meanwhile...
4. Halve, deseed and roughly chop the bell peppers. Crush unpeeled garlic cloves with the heel of your hand. Crush the olives and discard pits.
5. When the potatoes have had 5min, drain them and transfer to a roasting pan. Add the chopped pepper, crushed garlic and olives.
6. Drizzle everything with olive oil, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and toss to coat. Cook in the hot oven for 30min, or until the veggies are soft and tender and beginning to turn golden. Meanwhile...
7. Score the fat on the lamb in a criss-cross fashion. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt and pepper and add a small drizzle of olive oil. Rub the seasoning into the meat.
8. Top and tail the zucchini and cut into 1cm thick slices. Pick the rosemary leaves, discard the stalks.
9. When the vegetables have had 30min, remove the tray from the oven, add te zucchini, rosemary leaves and tomatoes. Add a splash more oil if needed, gently toss and return to the oven.
10. Place the pan back in the oven then put the lamb directly on the oven shelf above the pan -- the delicious juices from the roasting lamb fall onto the veggies, giving them a delicious flavor!
11. Jaime says to cook for 15-20min but my piece of lamb took almost 30min... Meanwhile...
12. Pick and finely chop the mint leaves, discard the stalks. Put the sugar in a bowl and add a tablespoon of hot water. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.
13. Add the mint leaves to the bowl along with the white wine vinegar and extra virgin olive oil. Stir everything together and pop in the refrigerator until needed.
14. When the lamb is done, transfer it to a plate, cover with aluminum foil and leave to rest for 5min. 
15. Sprinkle the red wine vinegar over the roasted vegetables and return to the oven for a final 5min.
16. When the lamb is rested, divide into portions and serve with a good helping of roasted vegetables and a spoonful or two of the mint sauce.

The Verdict!

This dish was delicious, and the smell of it cooking was pure torture! It smelled so good, and the whole house smelled awesome. The lamb was pinkish on the inside and done well, but the cut I bought wasn't the best I don't think, and it was a little tough. The mint sauce was a great complement though, and it was definitely edible! The highlight though, was the veggies. They were so flavorful, and perfectly done. The little potatoes were amazing, soft and juicy. I think boiling them before putting them in the oven really helps them retain some moisture, and that's a trick I will be using in the future!

The leftovers were delicious reheated or cold, and I took them to the office in the form of a sandwich as  well -- delicious with some added cheese, and plenty of the veggie gravy/sauce added to it for moisture. Yum!

Will definitely try this again, preferably with the actual lamb racks next time!

Rosemary's (my) Baby!

My Rosemary sprig, which I had placed in water for weeks, suddenly grew little roots!

I was so excited I immediately planted the little tyke, and now I am worried I might have done it too soon! I guess time will tell, but I am hoping this hardy little plant will pull through!

As you can see, I had to improvise a little home for her :)

The One Big Secret to Easy Meals: Cooking Everything in Advance!

No one who comes home exhausted from work really feels like cooking... or maybe that's a sweeping statement; I do not like to come home from work and have to cook from scratch. But I do like to eat things that got cooked from scratch. So, unless you have someone to cook for you while you are at work, the only possible solution is to cook beforehand.

The problem with cooking beforehand is having the time and foresight to plan a weeks' worth of meals, especially given that I am whimsical and not sure what I will actually feel like eating on any given day. Plus, it's a lot of work.

So what usually ends up happening is, all the wonderful veggies you bought fresh in the market start to sit in the fridge for one day, two days, 5 days... and then they are not as fresh and appetizing as they once were!

The secret to saving time, eating good fresh food and not having to prep your meals from scratch every day is (drum-rolls!!) cooking your veggies as soon as you get them, and storing them cooked!

Carrots, red bell pepper and zucchini, washed, chopped and tossed, are ready for the oven!

Why?!

• Saves time
• Once veggies are washed, chopped up and cooked, turning them into a meal takes just a few minutes!
• Saves time!
• Most veggies keep much better once they have been prepared!
• They actually taste better once cooked and allowed to sit in the fridge for a couple of days!

I usually go to the veggie market on the weekends, and tend to cook my food on Sunday for the whole week.

The best way to cook veggies so they keep well and are flavorful is by roasting them in the oven!

How To:

• Buy fresh veggies, whatever you love most.
• Pre-heat your oven to about 290 degrees Celsius (about 375 degrees Fahrenheit)
• Wash veggies thoroughly.
• Chop them up!
• Toss them in some salt, olive oil, and, if you like, minced garlic and black pepper. Some veggies also go well tossed with some fresh herbs, like rosemary. I especially love that on potatoes!
• Spread veggies on a baking sheet (there doesn't have to be much order to the madness, unless you are putting together veggies with very different cooking times, e.g. carrots with broccoli. In that case, arranging them so it is easy to remove the broccoli before the carrots is a good idea!)
• Most veggies take around 40-45min to cook through, depending how small you chop them. Harder veggies like carrots, potatoes and beets can take longer, around 60min. Your veggies are done when it's easy to stick a fork in them!
• Remove the veggies from the oven, allow them to cool a bit, and then put them in tupperware in the refrigerator.
• Voila! You now have wonderful ingredients you can easily make into a quick meal!

The great thing about baking is that once the veggies are in the oven, you don't really have to do much. You can clean the house, do the laundry, watch tv or write without having to stand over a burner. Your day can be much more productive!

The Tater-Tots:

I bake my beets and potatoes with the skin on. I like to eat the potato skins, and the skin comes off the beets very easily once they are cooked!

Step 1: Wash thoroughly in running water.

Step 2: Chop in half.

Step 3: Toss in salt, olive oil, minced garlic and some fresh rosemary!

I added fresh rosemary to the little tater-tots! They bake well with beets since their cooking time is similar.

The potatoes and beets were done after about 60min in the oven. While they baked I was able to surf the web and watch Brasil vs. US women's volleyball, where Brasil won gold in the olympics!

What About My Spinach?!

Leafy veggies are not that great for the oven, unless you want them crisp (which can be a fun and healthy snack option, e.g. kale or spinach chips!)

I usually just wash my greens thoroughly and, unless they are to be eaten raw, do a quick and deliciously simple sauté with olive oil, garlic and salt. Here's my how-to for spinach:

Step 1: Wash thoroughly, taking care to get the dirt between the stems and leaves!

I don't usually cut my greens, just sauté them whole! In China, where the spinach comes with a bit of the root attached, I eat that too!

 Step 2: Prepare some crushed or minced garlic.

Step 3: Add a drizzle of olive-oil to a large pan and let it get nice and warm. Toss in the spinach, garlic, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Step 4: Toss around in the pan for a few minutes, to ensure everything gets covered in the oil, garlic and condiments.

Step 5: Cover with a lid and reduce the heat a tad so that the spinach can cook in a bit of its own steam.

Step 6: After about 3-5min your spinach will be done, still bright green and with the roots and stems still a little crunchy!

Spinach is done, delicious and healthy!

In My Kitchen Window

From left to right: Basil, Rosemary&Thyme, Spring Onion and Mint!

These are my kitchen herbs, Mint, Basil and hopefully the Rosemary and Thyme cuttings I got a hold of will sprout and join the party soon. The little Spring Onions are an experiment of sorts, since I have seen them grow outside even in the dead of winter and they seem like a cute, low maintenance addition to my collection :)

I don't think keeping kitchen herbs is necessary in most situations, as you can easily buy them pretty fresh at the grocery store. However in China, where these herbs are not used very often in the home, they can be really hard to come by at most grocery stores and vegetable markets!

I have cooked with dry herbs quite a bit here, especially since my first attempts at growing herbs was a bit of a disaster. But I have a bit more experience now and my herbs seem to be happy, at least for the time being.

My kitchen window faces East which means my herbs get plenty of light in the morning and then more indirect light in the afternoon. They seem happy with this arrangement, since they don't bake in the afternoon heat! Basil and Mint get watered every evening, until water drains from the bottom of the pot.

I also learned that the secret to keeping them healthy and growing lots of new leaves is to just use them as often as possible! I cut off here and there whenever I start seeing them getting a little tall and like magic, new little leaves start shooting off the stems just a couple of days later. If they don't get trimmed back, they end up growing really tall and scraggly, with fewer leaves and woodier stems, eww!

The Thyme and Rosemary I bought fresh at one of Shanghai's best-kept non-secrets, the Avocado Lady (I promise to post about her next!!)

Rosemary & Thyme looking happy and fresh!

I trimmed off the leaves at the bottom of the stems and put them in water to see whether or not they will grow roots. Opinion online seems to vary about whether or not this is likely to succeed, but I take it as a good sign that they do not look as though they are drying out!