Meat – Craig Cooks

Sous Vide Moroccan Lamb

December 17, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

I cooked a half leg of lamb for 15 hours overnight in the souse vide water bath. I use an Anova Precision Cooker stick and a Trespade Vacuum Sealer.

The cooking time came from Dale Prentice’s excellent book “At Home with Souse Vide” (stunning photos by my friend Mike Emmett and his friend Bec at RedFishBlueFish Photo.

Dale is the talent behind Sous Vide Australia. I also bought my smoking gun from them.

The recipe was as follows:

3 tbsp Moroccan spice powder. (For once I used some from a jar.)
1 x 5 cm knob of fresh ginger sliced thinly
3 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
1 long red mild chilli, sliced and de-seeded
1/3cup white wine
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp fig jam
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp sea salt

In hindsight I wish I had added juice of 1/2 lemon. Next timeI would stud the meat with the garlic.

After cooking it overnight, I finished it off on the BabyQ gas Weber.

It tastes really good, although next time I’ll use a home-made spice mix to give it more kick.

I’m going to serve it cut up with warm pita bread and accompaniments.

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Smoked Tomato Achiote Pork

December 10, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

Tonight I put a Mexican twist on a Spanish roast pork dish.

The pork leg was studded with slices of 3 cloves of garlic. The pork was put in the following marinade for only a couple of hours and should have been longer.

Marinade
50g tomato paste
1/2 cup red wine
1 tsp hot smoked paprika
1 1/2 tbsp achiote paste
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp black pepper
1 tbsp lemon juice
A generous pinch of ground cloves (maybe 1/8 tsp?)

The measurements above are approximate.

Achiote paste is from the annatto plant – a peppery spice. I keep a block of it in the fridge. It has an intense red colour but is mild in terms of heat. Great with pork or fish (or chicken…)

The pork was barbecued with sprigs of fresh oregano from our garden and smoked with some hickory. The fresh herb adds a wonderful aroma to the meat.

I use a Thermoworks ChefAlarm probe to check the temperature. It is a fantastic tool. I use it every time I BBQ.

Served up with a warm salad of charred zucchini, baked cherry tomatoes, charred red onion, mango, baked carrot (really! It was OK), smoked corn and coriander. (I forgot the lettuce and other leaves that I had picked from our garden…) Plus a wedge of lime to give the salad some tang. And some home-made BBQ sauce on the side if people needed it.

I cooked the pork crackling separately in the oven. The roast leg had plenty of time to rest (which I usually fail to allow). The pork was crisp on the outside and moist in the middle. Perfect.

I must say this tasted fantastic. This is a winner recipe that I will tweak and repeat. I will probably add some chilli to the marinade…

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Toulouse Sausages

August 9, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

A couple of nights ago I made a cassoulet, a French casserole with pork and duck. It is a truly divine thing. Confit duck or goose, tender slow-cooked pork, pork sausage, beans. When I’ve made it, I’ve varied it based on what is at hand. I’ve never had confit duck or goose at hand. To be honest, in our one brief trip to Paris we did not get to eat a local cassoulet. I must post about making cassoulet.

Among other things, a cassoulet has Toulouse sausages. So I made some using the recipe from “The Sausage Book” by Nick Sandler and Johnny Acton. There are some good sausage-making recipes in this book. I wish there were more! A small part of the book is about making sausages and the rest is about cooking with sausages.

2 kg minced pork belly (I used pork shoulder – usually $8-9 per kilo rather than $14-20 for pork belly)
30g fine sea salt
2g freshly grated nutmeg
5g freshly ground black pepper
100 ml red wine
2og finely chopped or minced garlic
20g chopped flat leaf parsley
4g chopped sage leaves
4g thyme leaves

Parsley, sage and thyme from our garden.

This is a great recipe. Next time I want to increase the red wine a little or add a couple of teaspoons of tomato paste.

They were excellent in the cassoulet, and we’re about to eat the rest with some potato mash, peas and mushrooms. Mmmm….

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Mediterranean Lamb Shoulder

May 7, 2017 by admin Leave a Comment

Today I’m slow-roasting a shoulder of lamb.

The lamb was studded with garlic slivers, then seasoned with salt and pepper and covered with tomato paste.

I then sprinkled it with some smoked paprika, and added sliced lemon and cloves in the top.

Oregano all around. Plus onion, white wine and water. Part way through I’m adding some diced white anchovies to the top.

I cooked it covered loosely with foil for about 5 hours then cranked it up to 150 or so for a couple of hours. I took the foil off at a could of points so it could brown.

Before the last couple of hours I added 2 x 400 g cans of crushed tomatoes and some sicilian green olives.

I also made a celeriac and potato puree, baked beetroot and brussels sprouts sauted in bacon fat. Yep.

Here’s the end result.

Dessert consisted of pears poached in red wine and spices, a crumb of salted candied pecans + toasted coconut + toasted crumbled blueberry muffin, a few blueberries, candied ginger, lemon & honey ice cream, chocolate-dipped orange rind, and the pear syrup.