Recipe For Roast Leg of Lamb

A New Zealand staple.
In a country of 3 million with 18 million sheep how could you not include this all important recipe.

The shank or leg as it is most commonly known lends well to roasting.

It is cooked at 320F or 160C for approx 30 minutes per 500grams.

Now we just used to put ours straight into the roasting pan to bake but, I have a friend from Wyoming who grew up amongst the Basque people and their specialty is sheep too and their advice was to cook the lamb above it's juices and you can do this by using a cooling rack inside your roasting pan.

The internal temperature of the lamb should reach 70-75C

Now, the trick is, if you leave the roast in a warm place for about 15 minutes before carving it, it allows the meat to set and will make it much easier for you to do a tidier piece of work carving it.


Gravy Recipe

1 Tbsp of fat in your roasting dish
1 cup of water
2-3 Tbsp of plain flour
salt and pepper to taste

You make it right in the roasting pan when you have removed your roast.

Pour off the fat from the roasting dish leaving approx 1 Tbsp. Sprinkle in the flour and lightly brown over a medium heat. Add the water slowly stirring constantly until boiling.
Add your salt and pepper to taste.

How easy is that!

Mint Sauce Recipe

Quarter of a cup of chopped mint leaves
boiling water
1 Tbsp of sugar
half a cup of malt vinegar
dash of salt

Put mint into a container and cover with boiling water. Add sugar and vinegar and salt to taste.
It makes about half a cup and can be placed to the side of your lamb.

Some people use a salt and mint leaf rub for their lamb prior to cooking it but for a fresh piece of lamb, it really isn't necessary and if you are using the mint sauce anyway, you may be going for a bit of mint overkill.


Carving the Lamb
There is a bit of a trick to it.
If you let your lamb sit in a warm place for 15-20 minutes you will find it easier to carve.
Obviously you are going to need a sharp knife.
If you cut across the grain of the lamb then your meat will appear more tender so you are going to want to cut at a bit of a slant.


Lamb is usually eaten with roast potatoes which can be done alongside the lamb in the same pan at the same time and a vegetable. Guess this really depends on your taste. Peas, beans etc.

And the beauty of this dish is that there is usually leftovers for sandwiches, stirfry, all kinds of stuff.
Nothing goes to waste and the dog can have the bone.
Enjoy

Coming To America- Recipe For Cheesecake

Since coming to America, I think that I have integrated fairly well with the culture.
I initially felt quite homesick and was advised by my mum to bring a little bit of New Zealand back with me every time I returned after visiting.
I brought back the usual knick knacks and that helped a lot.
My new friends were interested in our culture and our cuisine.
One thing that I definitely had trouble getting used to was the American way of putting ketchup on everything.
It is almost like a separate food group and although it doesn't show up much in recipes, it sure features a lot at a lot of the tables I have eaten at.
I count it as a vegetable now.
I would share my recipes with my friends and they are quite happy to try different meals.
We eat the same kinds of foods. There is little difference there.
A lot of times, I will take a recipe and just change it a little to try something different.
The only problem with that being, when people would ask for an encore, I often don't remember the variations of herbs and spices that I added.
Lately, I have been tampering with a basic recipe for Cheesecakes.
It is so easy to make and I end up with four.
They are easily frozen and thaw out quite nicely and they make excellent gifts or just when you want a special dessert that people will ooh and ahh over and think that it took you quite a while when in actuality, it only takes about 15 minutes from start to finish.

The trick is to thaw out the cream cheese, not to the point of it being runny but so that it is soft enough to work with, your cheese cake will look better without lumps in it.

I use three bars of cream cheese
three cans of condensed milk
the small container of whipping cream
2 sachets of gelatin
4 graham cracker bases

That is the whole thing.

Use an electric beater and beat the cream cheese till there are no lumps, adding the condensed milk as you go.
Then add the container of whipping cream and mix it all in until it is thoroughly mixed.

The next thing you can add is your flavouring.

I have tried adding half a cup of lemon juice and grating the rind of a lemon and that is quite refreshing on a hot day.

My new one is to add half a container of caramel, like the kind that you use on icecream.
Now that is yummy!
Save the other half of the container because after you have poured the mixture into the bases, just swirl a little on the top to act as a decoration.
These cheesecakes have had rave reviews.

After your flavouring is added, you are going to put a quarter of a cup of boiling water in a cup with the 2 sachets of gelatin and mix it until there are no lumps then add it to your cheesecake mix until it is thoroughly mixed.
Then it is ready to pour.

Your flavours are only limited by your imagination.
You can use the base recipe and then put just about anything in, pureed or whole fruit, I have even melted chocolate and used that.
The extensions to this recipe is limitless.

Then place them in the fridge or the freezer depending on whether you are going to use them straight away.
Refridgerate for an hour, hour and a half and you are ready to go.

Enjoy.