The Aussie Butcher

Ingredients

4 frenched lamb shanks
¼ cup plain flour
8 whole baby brown onions, peeled
4 stalks rosemary
4 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced
½ cup red wine
1½ cups beef stock
Mashed potato and steamed green vegetables to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C. Season the flour with salt and pepper, and mix well. Dust lamb shanks in the seasoned flour, shake off excess.
2. Heat a large fry pan over a medium high heat, add a little oil. Brown the lamb shanks well on all sides. Remove and place them in a small roasting dish or large casserole dish.
3. Reduce heat in pan and add a little extra oil, add the baby onions, cook for 1 minute, stir occasionally. Add rosemary and garlic, stir for 30 seconds.
4. Gradually pour in the combined wine and stock. Stir until the mixture boils. Pour over the lamb shanks. Cover the dish tightly with lid or foil, place in oven. Cook for 1½-2 hours or until the lamb shanks are very tender. Serve shanks with a spoonful of the thickened sauce and mashed potato and green vegetables (beans and sugar snap peas).

Ingredients

8 Lamb loin chops
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 baby cos lettuce, torn into bite size pieces
1 watercress, washed and trimmed
1 avocado, sliced
4 radishes, thinly sliced
¼ cup French salad dressing

Method

1.Brush the Lamb chops lightly with oil. Season with salt and pepper, and sprinkle with the rosemary. Preheat the barbecue before adding the Lamb.
2.Cook on one side until the first sign of moisture appears. Turn Lamb chops once only. Test the chops for degree of doneness with tongs. Rare is soft, medium feels springy and well done is very firm.
3.Remove Lamb from heat, loosely cover with foil and rest for three minutes before serving. Toss together the lettuce, watercress, avocado and radishes, drizzle with the salad dressing.
4. Serve the Lamb chops with salad.
Tip: You can use Lamb cutlets, eye of shortloin/backstrap or Lamb fillets/tenderloins for this recipe.

Ingredients

• 500g lean Quality Mark lamb mince
• 2 Tbsp oil
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 parsnip, peeled and diced
• 2 Tbsp flour
• ½ C beef stock
• ½ C good quality chutney
• 1-2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary

Topping

• 1kg potatoes for mashing, peeled
• 2-3 Tbsp milk
• 1 C grated tasty cheese

Method

Topping: Cook potatoes in boiling salted water until tender. Drain and mash with milk and half the cheese. Season with salt and pepper if wished.

Brown lamb mince in a dash of oil in a hot frying pan. Keep the temperature high so the meat browns and does not stew. This is best done in 2 batches. Set aside.

Gently pan-fry the onion and parsnip in a little oil until tender. Stir in the flour and cook until frothy, gradually add the stock, stirring constantly until sauce thickens. Return the meat to the pan with the chutney and rosemary and season with salt and pepper.

Turn into a large lasagna-style dish and cover with the mashed potatoes. Sprinkle with a little extra grated cheese if wished.
Bake at 180°C for about 30 minutes until golden and hot.

This delicious meatball recipe is inspired by the traditional Moroccan tagine, or slow-cooked stew. Using minced meat instead of shanks more than halves the cooking time. The meat is tender and the sauce is rich and spicy. Look out for Moroccan spice mix at the supermarket or ‘ras el hanout’ at specialty food stores. You can cook this dish equally well in an ovenproof dish covered with tin foil if you do not have a clay tagine.

Meatballs

• 500g lamb mince
• 2 tsp Moroccan spice mix
• 1 cup fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 1 tbsp olive oil

Sauce

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, crushed
• 2 carrots, peeled and cut diagonally
• 1 large kumara, cubed
• 200 g canned tomatoes (puréed or mashed)
• 50 g dried peaches or apricots, finely chopped
• 2 tbsp clear honey
• 375 ml chicken stock
• 2 tsp Moroccan spice mix
• 1 tsp allspice

Buttered couscous

• 250 g couscous
• 200 ml boiling water
• knob butter
• fresh herbs

Method

In a large bowl, mix together lamb mince, spice mix, breadcrumbs and egg yolk. Get in there and use your hands!

Shape meatballs from a tablespoonful of mixture rolled in the palm of your hands. Then roll each ball in flour that you have seasoned with salt and pepper. The flour coating will seal the balls and also help thicken the sauce. Heat oil in a non-stick frying-pan and brown meatballs gently on all sides for 10 minutes. Place in tagine or covered casserole dish and prepare sauce.

Preheat oven to 180 °C.

For sauce, heat oil in a frying-pan and gently sauté onion and garlic until softened, before adding remaining sauce ingredients. Simmer for 5–10 minutes. Pour sauce over meatballs and cover tagine before baking in a moderate oven for 30 minutes to enable flavours to develop.

Ten minutes before tagine is cooked, put couscous with salt and pepper to taste into a large bowl and stir in boiling water. Cover with a tea towel and leave to soak for 10 minutes. Add a knob of butter and fresh herbs to taste. Heap couscous directly into tagine and serve at the table.

Ingredients

• 1 butterflied leg of lamb
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 Tbsp prepared Dijon-style mustard
• 2 Tbsp chopped fresh rosemary
• 1 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp coarse sea salt

Method

In a small bowl, combine the honey, mustard, rosemary, ground black pepper, lemon zest and garlic. Mix well and apply to the lamb. Cover and marinate in the refrigerator overnight. Before cooking, remove the lamb from the marinade and grind over the salt.

Cooking in the Oven

Preheat oven to 190°C. Place the marinated leg cut side up, on a rack over a roasting tray. Fan-bake in the oven for 15 minutes. Turn the lamb over and continue to roast for another 15-20 minutes or until cooked to your liking. Rest in a warm place, covered, for 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve with your favourite seasonal vegetables or salad.

Cooking on the BBQ

Lightly oil a preheated barbecue and grill the butterflied lamb over a low steady heat, turning it several times and basting with any leftover marinade, for 30-35 minutes. Remove from the heat and rest in a warm place, covered, for 10-15 minutes before carving. Serve with your favourite seasonal vegetables or salad.

Greek Spring Lamb Leg Roast

• 2kg leg of lamb, at room temperature
• 4 cloves garlic, cut in thin slivers
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, finely diced
• 2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
• 1 cup black Kalamata olives, chopped

Method

Preheat oven to 200°C. With the tip of a sharp knife, make deep thin slits all over the lamb meat, and then insert slivers of garlic into each incision. Season lamb all over with salt and pepper and place in a large oven pan. Roast lamb for 30 minutes.

At the same time, heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and cook over a medium heat for 10 minutes to soften but not brown.
Add chopped tomatoes and 1/2 cup water and simmer for five minutes. Add olives and rosemary and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Reduce oven temperature to 180°C. Pour hot tomato sauce over lamb and continue roasting for one hour, basting occasionally with tomato sauce. Remove lamb from the oven, cover with a tent of foil and rest for 10 minutes, so that the juices set. Slice to serve with a green vegetable, such as steamed beans, on the side.

Ingredients

• 1 hollow-boned full leg of lamb
• 250g frozen or fresh spinach
• 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely chopped
• ¼ cup well-packed chopped fresh parsley
• ½ tsp dried dill leaves or 1 Tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• ¼ cup grated parmesan cheese
• ½ – ¾ cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1-2 onions, peeled and finely chopped
• 1-2 tsp minced garlic
• 1 cup dry white wine
• ½ cup olive oil, extra virgin is nice here

To Finish

• 400g can borlotti beans, butter beans or chick peas, well-drained and rinsed
• ½ cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 cup green olives
• grated rind one lemon

Method

Turn the slow cooker on to pre-warm while gathering and preparing the ingredients.

Defrost the spinach if frozen and place between two dinner plates. Squeeze the plates over a sink and allow excess moisture to fall away. Press as firmly as possible as you want the spinach to be as dry as possible. If using fresh spinach, wash the leaves, remove the stalks and cook the leaves in a saucepan with only the water that clings to the leaves until wilted. Drain and chop finely.

Mix the spinach together with the spring onions, parsley, dill, feta and parmesan cheeses and pine nuts. Season well with pepper.

Using skewers, secure the opening of the boned leg of lamb at the knuckle end. Pack the filling into the cavity where the bone has been removed. Use skewers and or string to secure the opening at the top of the leg of lamb to ensure the filling is well-enclosed.

Brown the lamb as well as possible in a dash of oil in a hot frying pan. Transfer to the slow cooker.

Scatter in the onion and garlic and pour in the wine and olive oil. Season with pepper and salt and cover with the lid. Cook on low for 5-7 hours or on high for 3-4 hours.

Carefully remove the lamb from the slow cooker. Scatter in the chick peas, parsley, olives and lemon rind and stir to mix. Cover and cook on high for a further 30 minutes while the lamb is resting.

Serve the lamb sliced with spoonfuls of the chick peas and juice and accompany with grilled sliced aubergine and baked vine tomatoes.