Tag Archives: rosemary

Crispy Homemade Breadcrumbs

16 Saturday Mar 2013

Posted by in Under 10 Minutes!

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Breadcrumbs are super easy and quick to make. You’ll never buy them again once you’ve made you’re own. An added benefit is that you can add whatever flavour you fancy to your breadcrumbs. I usually add a mix of herbs, garlic and salt and pepper but feel free to be as creative as you want – only thing is your ingredients need to be quite dry so as not to bring moisture to the breadcrumbs.

What you will need:
2 slices of bread
1/2 finely chopped garlic clove
Tyme and rosemary (about a tsp eash)
Salt & pepper

Toasted bread

Toasted bread

Toast your bread and add to a blender along with all the other ingredients.

Blend toast

Blend toast

Blend all the ingredients until you get a small crumb.

Under grill

Under grill

Place the breadcrumbs in an oven tray under the grill for a couple of minutes or until they take a golden colour.

And there you have it, homemade crispy breadcrumbs that only take a few minutes to make.

Now you can have fun adding them to fish and meat! See our https://melandjoycook.com/2012/09/01/crispy-baked-chicken/

Enjoy!
Mel

Lamb shank with a twist

12 Monday Mar 2012

Posted by in Lamb

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Lamb shank

On Friday evening I went to Greensmith’s where there’s a great butcher. They have really good meat and it’s not over-priced. I decided to get some lamb shank and on Saturday we hade a nice roast. This is usually cooked with red wine but we didn’t have any, so I improvised. This is what I love about cooking, trying out new things, not knowing if it’ll work and when it does feeling proud of my new creation. Now I’m not saying my strange mixture is better than using red wine but it sure is a cheaper version and tastes pretty good.

What you need:
1 lamb shank per person
(the following amounts are for 2 lamb shanks)
2 sliced red onions
2 garlic cloves
4 tbs soy sauce
2 tbs red vinegar
1 tbs honey
Herbs – I used rosemary and sage
1/2 cup of beef stock
1 tsp olive oil

Heat your oven to 200C
Cut you garlic in two and make holes in the lamb and put your garlic in the holes. Do the same with some rosemary twigs (2 per lamb shank). With some string tie your herbs together – to make a bouquet garni – they will be easier to remove.

I used a normal cooking pot but if you can use anything with a lid that can go in the oven. Put the pot on the hob and add the olive oil, then add the lamb and brown every side. Then add the onions until they start to brown.

Lamb shank

Reduce the heat and add the soy sauce, vinegar, honey, beef stock and bouquet garni. Keep on the hob until the liquid boils, making sure everything is mixed well. Remove from the hob and cover with the lid and place in the oven for 2 hours (if they are large 2h30m). Check the meat half way through.

Remove your pot from the oven and remove your bouquet garni and the rosemary from the lamb. If you want your sauce to be nice and clear (a little messy) you can use a colander to drain the sauce through into a bowl, then pick out and bits of herbs then add the onions to your sauce.

We had yummy cheesy mashed potatoes with this. It all went down a treat and was really easy to make.

Place you lamb shank on some mashed potatoes and pour the sauce over it. Very yummy!

Enjoy
Mel

Mini Roast Chicken

13 Wednesday Apr 2011

Posted by in Chicken

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I’m cooking one of my favourites tonight, it’s easy, cheap and everyone likes it (well except for vegetarians) and I know that Claire will be happy to have the leftovers for lunch at work tomorrow!

What you will need:

4 chicken thighs
1 onion
1 lemon’s juice
Mushrooms (if you want and any other veg you fancy)
Potatoes (the timings are for new potatoes)
Rosemary
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
A large oven dish

This will feed 2-3 people

Before you do anything you want to turn your oven on to 200C so that it’s nice and hot. Slice up your onions and mushrooms and put them in your oven dish, add rosemary, salt, pepper and drizzle a little olive oil. Mix with hands so that everything is covered in oil (this will ensure that nothing burns).

Lay the chicken on top of the onions and mushrooms and add a bit of salt as this will help the skin go crispy. Drizzle just little of olive oil on top (you don’t need much as the thighs are already quite fatty) and make sure the whole surface is covered in oil. Then add the lemon juice and a bit of water – enough to cover the bottom of the whole dish. Put it in the oven.

Then you want to boil your potatoes for about 10 minutes, drain them and cover them all slightly with olive oil. I’d wait until the chicken’s been in the oven for 15 minutes before adding the potatoes.

Check the chicken every 10 minutes and add water when necessary, you want there to be enough liquid at the end to use as gravy. The chicken should take about 45 minutes to cook.

Either have a salad or some green beans with it.