Braised Lamb according to Heston

I don't make lamb very often - but every time I do, I love it. And on my Del.icio.us, I had marked a recipe by Heston Blumenthal for slow-cooked lamb, that was actually written in the Guardian back in 2001. (Original, here.) So, when I finally got around to lamb cooking again, I knew I wanted to try it this way - a very, very slow braising in a barely warm oven. (Not ideal for summer cooking maybe - but there will always be rainy days.)

I shortened the time a little bit, and had to raise the heat towards the end to make sure the lamb wasn't too red (we had a pregnant guest) but it was still extremely tender, juicy and flavorful. Delicious! We served it with a green olive quinoa salad that I'll try to remember to post really soon - it was a great and unusual match.

Braised Lamb according to Heston
Serves 4-5

1 de-boned leg of lamb, about 900 g
olive oil
salt, pepper
2 yellow onions, coarsely chopped
fresh rosemary
fresh thyme
1 garlic (peel the cloves)
350 ml white wine (a fruity kind is good)

Preheat the oven to 65°C. Season the meat with salt and pepper and rub it with olive oil. Bind it using string or FoodLoops (always my preference) so that it'll keep it's shape. You can stuff it slightly with the fresh herbs, where the bone used to be.

Brown it in some oil in a fairly small and snug pot, alongside the onions and herbs. Add the garlic towards the end - don't let it brown too much. Add the wine, and bring to a boil.

Cover with a lid (or foil) and place in the now warm oven. After 45 minutes, remove the lid and make sure there's at least 1 cm of liquid. (I had way more but I used a fairly small pot.) If you don't, add water.



Leave the lamb for 4-5 hours. Check to see that the pot isn't drying up, every now and then, and if you feel ambitious, baste the lamb a little. Use a thermometer to check the lamb towards the end - you might have to raise the heat a little bit if you prefer your meat more done. We served our lamb at 68°C and felt that it was quite perfect.

Remove the lamb, garlic, onions, and sieve the sauce into a small saucepan. Bring to a boil and reduce slightly, then serve with the meat.

Recipe in Swedish:
Bräserad lammstek

Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Cookies

It's Friday, so I have a perfect sweet weekend treat for you to try. It all started when I was leafing through Martha Stewart's massive "Cookies" and trying to decide which recipe to try first. I decided on the Oatmeal Raisin cookies.. without raisins. And with chocolate. And walnuts. And hey, let's have some wholewheat flour instead of regular! (Actually, that was mostly because I had run out of regular and didn't feel like shopping.)

The result? Lots and lots (this is a pretty big recipe) of delicious cookies. I gave some away at once (a very stable strategy against overeating) and the rest are stashed in my freezer - they don't need thawing, so you can just grab one whenever you need a nutty, oaty, chocolate fix.

How many you'll get all depends on size. Don't make them too big, because they spread out very much during baking and my first two sheets turned out to be mostly square cookies since I had to cut them apart.

Oatmeal Walnut Chocolate Cookies
About 50 cookies

750 ml (3 cups) rolled oats
250 ml (1 cup) wholewheat flour
2 tbsp white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
250 ml (1 cup) granulated sugar
250 ml (1 cup) brown sugar
220 g butter (softened, if you have the time)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
80 g walnuts, chopped
150 g dark chocolate, chopped

Mix oats, both flours, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in a large bowl.

Beat the two sugars with the butter until really fluffy - for about five minutes. Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well. Add the vanilla.

Stir in the oat-flour mixture, and then the walnuts and chocolate.

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Place walnut-sized pieces of dough with plenty of space on the baking sheets, and flatten them slightly. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or a little bit longer if they don't look done yet. Let them cool slightly on the baking sheets before moving them to a rack.

Recipe in Swedish:
Havrekakor med choklad och valnötter

Eurodream Chocolates

Ever wondered what Sweden would taste like if it was a piece of chocolate? Or Germany? France? How about Greece?

John Messinger, chocolatier, knows. Or at least, he has an opinion. He's the producer of Eurodream, a special chocolate box with 25 different flavors - each one inspired by a European country.

So, about the flavors - according to Messinger, Sweden tastes like cloudberry, Germany like hazelnut, France is all about champagne and Greece about anise. Interesting! I especially like the choice for Poland - vodka! In fact, I'd love to try a box of this - but it's pretty pricey, 249 SEK for a box with 25 chocolates. I wonder if they're any good - let me know if you've tried them!

Baked Sliced Vegetables

Here's something quite different! At least I've rarely made anything like this - but now that I've tried, I'll definitely make it again. It's a really easy vegetable dish that you can either serve on its own, or have a simple side. You could use any vegetables you want - I had a few small zucchinis to use up, and I was craving fennel, so that's why this particular combination came about.

I served it with sausage, a fairly new one on the Swedish market called Txistorra. It's subtly flavored with tomato and thyme, and went very well with the veggies.

Baked Sliced Vegetables
Serves 2, generously

3 small potatoes
2 small zucchinis
1 small fennel bulb
1 tomato
olive oil
flaky sea salt
75 g feta cheese, diced

Heat the oven to 200°C.

Slice all the veggies very thinly. (A mandolin is very helpful.) Place potatoes and zucchini in small oven-proof dishes (or one large), alternating as you go and making sure that they're pretty much standing up. Add fennel and tomato at regular intervals.

Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the veggies have softened. Add the cheese, and bake for 10 more minutes so that the cheese softens and browns slightly.

Recipe in Swedish:
Ugnsbakade grönsaksskivor

Läkerol Wild Strawberry/Mint

Läkerol makes sugar-free candy. Or not really candy, but throat lozenges, really. Although some of the flavors are really guilt-free candy - my favorite is violet and salty licorice. (Yes, combined!) They recently launched the two-tone candies ("Split!") in the picture - first, three flavors with half licorice, half berry (raspberry, lingonberry and cloudberry) and now, two flavors with half mint, half fruit. The ones I've tried? Mint and Wild Strawberry. (I think the other one had blood orange - not completely sure, I haven't seen it in many stores yet.) Anyway - it works a lot better than I'd expected. The mint is mild, providing more of a background to the vibrant wild strawberry flavor. Tasty! Oh, and I did mention they're guilt-free, right?

Chorizo Bean Soup

I've been holding back on this recipe because.. I don't have a photo. I simply forgot to take one when I was making it, and I've been thinking for months that I need to make it again, and take pictures, but.. that's not been happening. Honestly though, soups rarely photograph all that well, so... perhaps you won't mind? The recipe is good, anyway - really good. It's another one by Gordon Ramsay, from his "Fast Food"-book. (Which by now you should know that I really, really liked)

This has clean, strong flavors, and even a non-beaneater like me enjoyed it a lot. I used a can of cannelini beans (not great) and one of soybeans (much better!!) but you can pick and mix as you please. You could even soak and cook your own beans, but that would severely take away from the "fast" element of this dish.

Chorizo Bean Soup
Serves 4

250 g chorizo sausage
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small red onions
2 garlic cloves
1/2 tsp thyme - dried, or a few stalks of fresh thyme
2 cans (each about 400 g) of beans
salt, pepper
freshly squeezed lemon
flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped

Chop the red onion, slice the chorizo thinly and slice the garlic. Rinse the beans and drain them. Bring some water to a boil in a kettle - about one litre.

Fry the onion, garlic and thyme in the olive oil in a deep pan or a saucepot. Add the chorizo and fry until the oil starts to color from the sausage, and the chorizo turns crispy. Add the beans. Cover with hot, preferrably boiling water, and let it simmer for 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper, some lemon juice and finally scatter over the parsley.

Recipe in Swedish:
Chorizo- och bönsoppa

Weekend Cat Blogging: my cats, a random weekend

Glinda, peeking up from a laundry basket that Hamlet has worked his magic on - note the raggedy edges. *sigh*


Kelly, rudely awaken from one of her many, many naps. (This is the one we hope is pregnant - things are looking quite positive, but we don't know for sure yet.) And for those who might wonder, didn't she use to be fluffier? Yes, indeed. She's been to the hairdresser, and now sports a much shorter look.


Hamlet, keeping watch of the perimeter.


Ywette, preferring the high ground.


Glinda, who knows that the bed is the best place for sleeping.