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| Liz & Ewe Photo by Neil Corder (c) |
We are unbelievably lucky that our lamb comes from the neighbouring farm Eastvale in Rosetta and that we know its provenance. Lambs are born and raised on the farm and are only selected for slaughter once they have reached the adequate weight which can take up to 12 months. They are fed on a diet of mainly grass and one can really taste the difference.
I'm not a farm girl at all but now that we live in the countryside for part of the year, I'm keen to learn my Massey Fergussons from my John Deeres. I know even less about lamb farming so a few days ago photogragher Neil Corder and I went out to watch Liz Williams and her sheepdog, Katie. It was a fantastic sight to see a working dog in action and how Liz calmly moved the sheep from field to field, high above the new Springvale Dam. I loved being under the big sky and felt a sense of timelessness as we watched the most ancient of practises as sheep scuttled all around us.
No way our Psycho Puppies could ever do anything remotely as useful as this.
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| NEIL CORDER (c) |
I thought bakers worked hard, but I think farmers work even harder! Forgive the cliche, but farming really is a noble profession and I'm pleased that we can both benefit from and support our local farmers and reap the delicious rewards. I now need to start thinking about benefiting from the local gym too, an altogether more twenty-first century pre-occupation, but necessary if I want to wear my new jeggings in public ever.
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| NEIL CORDER (c) |
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| NEIL CORDER (c) |
The boys and I attended the Tenebrae service at St George's on Thursday evening, which I'd not been to before. It was contemplative and a good way to start the weekend as Easter rituals seem to be increasingly about Easter Egg hunts and a few days at the Coast, not that we don't wish for either!
I've spent a most enjoyable Good Friday morning munching Hot Cross Buns and trying to decide how I want to cook our Easter Sunday Lamb. I have many favourite food websites and blogs that I spend hours pouring over: Manger, What Katie Ate, and Sunday Suppers amongst others. We also use Epicurious, Saveur and Australian Gourmet Traveller a lot but the website that I come back to time and time again is BBC Good Food. Boring as this may seem, it's unfussy and the recipes are well-tested, simple to follow and by fabulous chefs. I rarely see something that I don't like the look of and it's not all just plain English cooking either.
So after sifting through a prodigious amount of lamb recipes I've finally plumped on Slow-roasted Lamb shoulder with anchovies and rosemary by James Martin. I always make a point of reading the readers comments, so as a result have decided to skip the lemon which is in the original recipe as apparently it makes the lamb juices taste a bit bitter. Since the lamb recipe has a Mediterranean bent to it, I'm using the lemon in some crispy Greek lemon roasted potatoes instead, which should make a good accompaniment. We won't need much more than a green salad with lots of rocket and endive, if I can find it.
Now that I've sorted the lamb, there's pudding to decide on. Here in the Southern hemisphere we're going into Autumn, so despite all the ubiquitous Easter Spring imagery we're actually all about falling leaves, apples and berries at the moment. We've collected a whole lot of chestnuts from a friends farm ( I am becoming shameless at the offer of receiving seasonal gifts), so I'm thinking something chestnutty.
Tyler has also just called to say that he's bought some rabbit from Riteway (his favourite thing to eat) so could I please find some bunny recipes, which is a bit gothic for Easter, but think of it more as a Resurrection kind of thing . The bunny lives on. As does the lamb.
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| JML |
Slow roasted shoulder of lamb with anchovies and rosemary
4 rosemary sprigs
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp capers, finely chopped
3 anchovy fillets, drained and finely chopped
2 tbsp oil
1.5kg shoulder of lamb, on the bone
2 red onions, cut into wedges
Small glass white wine
Method
- Heat oven to 160C/140C fan
- Finely chop rosemary and mix with garlic, capers, anchovies and olive oil
- Make 3 or 4 slashes across the lamb and rub all the mixture in and over
- Scatter the onion slices over the roasting pan and place the lamb on top
- Roast at 160C for an hour
- Take out and pour in the wine and roast for a further 3 hours or until meat is very tender
- Leave for 15 mins to rest
- Pull into chunks rather than carve.
- Serve with pan juices
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| NEIL CORDER (c) |
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