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Showing posts with label rosemary. Show all posts
Showing posts with label rosemary. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Rosemary and Olive White Bean Spread

I made this dip just before we went to Spokane for Thanksgiving.  I had had some white beans I wanted to use up before our trip across state and knew I would be able to bring along the dip to share with my family in the cooler we were packing.

This dip is great for a party, and with the particular olives I used, it gave the dip little specks of green and red.  Very Christmas-y, yes?  If you are just making the dip for your own household use, I would suggest making only a half batch.

What I love best about this recipe is that it has that zing that lemon gives traditional hummus, but without the need to get out your lemon juicer.  However, beware that, depending on the type of olive you use, most come in a pickled form that has quite a bit of salt already added in.  If you are trying to watch your salt intake, perhaps you could rinse off your olives before chopping and blending.

Rosemary and Olive White Bean Dip
Time: 10 minutes
Servings: party-size


Ingredients:
    Bean Dip:
        2-16 oz cans white beans, rinsed and drained (approximately 3 cups cooked beans)
        3/4 cup green olives
        1/2 cup raw cashews
        1/3+ cup water
        2 tsp dried rosemary
        black pepper to taste

    Dip Topping:
        1/4 cup green olives, roughly chopped
        1 tsp dried rosemary

Instructions:
1.)  In a food processor, process 1 can of beans with the cashews and water until smooth and creamy.
2.)  Add the second can of beans and continue to process until smooth and creamy.
3.)  Add the green olives, rosemary, and black pepper, and process until relatively smooth, with a few small chunks of olive.
4.)  Place into a large serving dish and sprinkle with chopped green olives and additional rosemary.  Serve with veggies and whole grain crackers to dip.

Amys Notes:
Like I said above, be careful with how salty the olives are that you add to the recipe.  If you find that your food processor has a hard time getting cashew pieces to become really creamy, I would suggest soaking them for a few hours before processing.


Health and Happiness,

Amy
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Sunday, March 13, 2016

CHORIZO ROSEMARY STUFFED ROAST PORK

I had the most incredible meal last night at Kurobuta in Chelsea - I was so busy tucking in that I completely forgot to take photos - at least it has given me an excellent reason to go back as soon as possible! Their "Japanese junk food" was out of this world.

Today being Sunday was roast day and Pascal and I had decided to cook this pork recipe from Olive magazine - you were meant to use a boned pork belly but they didnt sell this in my supermarket so I had to alter the recipe….thankfully it worked!

Ingredients for 3 people:

1kg boneless shoulder of pork roasting joint (mine was from Sainsburys)
1 leek, chopped
Olive oil
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp rosemary needles, chopped
75g chorizo, chopped
Sea Salt



I love recipes with so few ingredients!

One thing to remember when roasting pork is to take the meat out of the fridge a couple of hours before if you can (or even just 30 minutes if that is all you can manage). You want the skin to be dry for the crackling, I helped this along by also patting excess moisture out with kitchen roll.

Start by preheating the oven according to the packet instructions. We preheated ours to 220 C / 200 C fan / gas mark 8.

Prepare the ingredients for the stuffing. Chop the leeks, chorizo and rosemary.


Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and then add the leeks and cook over a low heat for around 3 minutes until they soften. I burnt mine a little as the heat was too high!!



Then add the rosemary and fennel and cook for a minute.



Finally add the chorizo and continue to cook for a further few minutes.




Take off the heat and leave to cool.

Score the pork and rub with olive oil and then rub in sea salt. It always scares me how much salt I use with roast pork but you do need a LOT for good crackling so dont be shy and cover the skin. I assure you, you need more than you think!



Then make a hole and stuff the pork with the chorizo and leek stuffing and tie with string if necessary. Without a doubt some of the stuffing will fall out but dont worry about it. 



Put the pork in a roasting tin and put in the oven for 25 minutes.



After 25 minutes, turn the oven down to 180 C / 160 C fan / gas mark 4. We then cooked our pork for a further 55 minutes however it will depend on the exact size of your joint and the packet instructions.



Rest for 15 minutes.



Finally serve and enjoy. We served it with French peas (recipe to follow).




As roasts go, this was super easy - not too many ingredients, not complicated and not too time consuming. Perfect for a lazy Sunday. The fennel seeds add a great twist to the flavour and it looks impressive too - fantastic for a family lunch or perfect for impressing pals at a dinner party.

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Wednesday, February 10, 2016

SLOW COOKED ROSEMARY AND GARLIC SHOULDER OF LAMB

I am sure in past posts I have mentioned my love of Greece and especially Greek food, although Pascal is the exact opposite regarding the food and so it has been knocked off our holiday destination list…I guess I overdid it by dragging him there 3 summers in a row. Therefore I was dicing with danger when I suggested cooking a Greek lamb dish in the slow cooker which I had messed up completely when I tried to use it a few weeks ago (raw lamb anyone?)!!

This time I made sure I read all the instructions 3 times before attempting to do anything - luckily this slow cooking recipe was much more successful than my pressure cooking!!

Ingredients for 4 people:

3 garlic cloves
2 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp dried mixed herbs
Salt and Pepper
750g boneless lamb shoulder
500g potatoes, peeled and cut into 5mm slices (roughly)
1 small onion, chopped (we had shallots in the cupboard so used those instead)
300ml hot lamb stock

To serve:
Feta or halloumi cheese (or both)
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Hummus
Flat breads or wraps or pitas



Cut one of the garlic cloves in half and rub it round the slow cooker basin, then chop it finely along with one of the other garlic cloves and slice the onion (shallots in this case).


Mix all the dry herbs, rosemary and a crushed garlic clove together in a bowl and then rub over the lamb and season well.


Line the slow cooker basin with the potato slices, making a few layers.


Place the lamb on top of the potatoes and surround with the chopped onion/shallots and garlic.


Pour over the hot lamb stock.


Place the lid on the slow cooker and cook on HIGH for 6-8 hours until the lamb is easy to pull apart (we did 7 hours).



Once it is ready slice the lamb.


Put the potatoes in a bowl.


Finally serve in a wrap - I had hummus, feta, tomatoes, lamb and cucumber with potatoes on the side - yum!!


This was an incredible meal!! The slow cooker has got the big thumbs up and we devoured everything. Even though I only like potatoes covered in melted cheese, these were exceptional and Pascal pronounced it the best Greek food he has ever had!! It was so easy too - great for any type of meal, I think we will will be doing this for our next dinner party and next weekend we will try slow cooked pulled pork. 

I thank my friend Sally very much for buying me this fabulous cooking contraption!!
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