Helen's Summerstyle Leg of LambWritten by Helen Porter
Most people have probably tried Greek 'Kleftiko' lamb, a slow roasted dish that when done properly is probably very best way to cook this kind of meat. The downside is preparation involved - typically you have to cook lamb for up to 8 hours or so, and final quality can vary between fabulous and horrible. Well here's a variation direct from www.helensrecipes.com that solves problem, and will make your friends think you have spent an entire season in Greece, learning their cooking style! The lamb will fall off bone and be full of flavor, it's simple to prepare as are most of my dishes, as I believe good food shouldn't take hours and hours of preparation. You will need: Leg of Lamb (will feed 8-12 people) Celery x 4 - use strips then cut them into chunky slices Lamb Stock Cubes x 2 8 leaves of mint Fresh Rosemary Carrots Garlic cloves - slice them into small pieces Salt & Pepper Side Dish Olive Oil - enough so you have a semi wet mixture Whole Red onion chopped finely Peas - allow a handful per person part boiled but still al-dente Mint - 1 cup Flat Leaf Parsley - 2 cups Garlic Clove Salt & Pepper Pre heat oven to 220 degrees. Take lamb and put in a large deep roasting tin. Using a sharp knife make holes in leg - you should have around 12 evenly spaced around circumference. In holes put a slice of garlic and a sprig of rosemary. Around lamb put celery and carrot chunks - remember this is only used for flavor so be as rough as you like. Put sprigs of mint around lamb and then pour 2 pints of lamb stock over lamb. Season with salt and pepper and place in oven. The lamb should be covered in stock to a depth of about 2/3 of lamb. After 30 minutes of cooking turn oven down to 150 degrees, then baste lamb every 40 minutes or so. You'll need to be at home for this since lamb will take 6-7 hours to cook. 3 hours into cooking you will need to turn leg over in roasting pan.
| | Secret of Light and Fluffy Biscuits and PancakesWritten by Joey Robichaux
Would you like to lose some weight -- in your baking, that is? This one secret ingredient (that you likely already have in your kitchen) is not only inexpensive and healthy, it'll also add a bit of "cloud" to your biscuits and pancakes! And that ingredient is ... Oatmeal! Yep, I know what you're thinking ... just give me a moment and trust me on this. For instance, to make super light pancakes, I'll use normal, non-instant, oatmeal. I'll prepare a 1 to 1 1/2 serving size portion, usually in microwave. Next, add your normal pancake ingredients to oatmeal. I normally add milk first to cool down oatmeal (don't want eggs to cook!). You may notice that batter is a little frothy -- especially if you let it sit a bit. That's oatmeals extra viscosity coming into play. Cook pancakes just like you normally do. They'll look same and taste same (no oatmeal taste). However, they'll rise up nice, light, and fluffy! To make super light biscuits, you'll alter your normal biscuit recipt just a tiny bit. Prepare oatmeal as usual -- but, since prepared oatmeal is fairly liquid, it'll make your biscuit dough into a batter ... IF you add normal amount of milk!
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