Something For The Weekend.

I am staying in on a Friday night...woah. It actually feels good, and Sainsburys was so quiet! Perfect time for me to share a favourite dish of mine. This never fails and everyone loves it. It's a dish that I created and is so easy to make but super tasty if I say so myself! Here are a collection of photos from the different times that I have made it.....recipe below pictures.

Lovely Lamb by Natali.

Either a shoulder, half a shoulder, a leg or a rolled shoulder of lovely lamb

tin of chopped tomatoes

tin of cherry tomatoes

baby tomatoes on the vine

kalamata olives

whole bulb of garlic

good quality chorizo

bunch of rosemary

generous amount of virgin olive oil

salad

crusty loaf of bread

The quantities are rough just depends on the size of your dish and the size of you lamb. Chop the chorizo and layer it on the base of a large oven proof dish, just layer the area where the lamb will sit. Lay the sprigs of rosemary on top of the chorizo and then put the cut of lamb on top of the layers. Rub malden salt on the top of the lamb. Tip the tins of tomatoes around the lamb evenly, scatter some olives and peeled garlic cloves and try to mix into the tomatoes. Place the vine tomatoes on either side of the lamb. Season really well and pour some olive oil around the mix. Pop into a preheated oven at about 150 for 3-4 hours or slower at a lower heat, if it looks like its getting dry then cover with some foil.

Serve with some leaves. Pull the bread apart and dunk into to the deliciously rich tomato sauce. Perfect recipe for a lazy weekend.

Needs a meaty song...Welcome to the jungle!!!

Dhru da man

Congratulations to Dhruv this years winner of Masterchef. I have been glued to this series although always watching catch up on BBC iplayer at the weekend with Tarek as I never seem to be at home when its on telly. I particularly love watching it with the man, we get so into it. I cried in every episode. My mum ruined the surprise for me but I still enjoyed watching the final. Dhruv was my favourite, I also think he is a bit of a pin up!

I used to have wild dreams of entering Masterchef but there is no way that I am ready yet...so for now they will stay dreams.

Loving the sunshine listening to Kate Bush.

Dan Can.

I temp at a digital music distribution company, The State 51 Conspiracy. We get bought lunch every day which was a real seller for me. At about 1pm I go to fetch the lunch, we tend to choose from the Thai van in the Truman Brewery (in front of the route master bus), Taz Firin a turkish restaurant on Bethnal Green Road, Harem another turkish on Brick Lane, Square Pie or when feeling healthy a soup from Franze & Evans an Italian deli on Redchurch Street although they NEVER give enough bread with their soup! We all eat around a big wooden table and although I only tend to understand 4% of the chats that the computer boys have occasionally my ears prick up as the chat turns to food. One day the chat turned to baking bread and I mentioned how I was wanting to make my own leaven. My boss Paul said he had a great book on baking by Dan Lepard and that I should get it. I said it was my Birthday coming up so I would ask for it. Anyway a few days later I came into work and the book was on my desk. Paul had got it for me for my Birthday!! Thank you Paul.

This is truly a great book. Dan works with Georgio Locatelli, Ottolenghi and lots of other wonderful chefs and restaurants. Paul says the Chelsea Buns recipe is great. I want to try the Almond Milk Loaf and the Buckwheat Pancakes. I haven't had a chance to make anything yet but will get round to it soon. My kitchen is so small for bread making so maybe i'll wait till I move....which is soon....

Ba Na Naaaa

I made a rather silly cake for Micke's Birthday.

Micke likes...

So from that I decided to make him a cake in the shape of a bunch of bananas with yellow icing and a REALLY blue sponge. I dreamt about this cake for a week and worked out that if i used a round cake tin i'd be able to cut a bunch from it. It was a case of suck it and see. This is what I ended up with and below is the rather scatty recipe!! It was nice although the icing was so sweet that it made my cheeks tingle. Cecilia and Kate made it with me.

Sponge.

20 cm Spring form tin.

225g/8oz butter or margarine, softened at room temperature

225g/8oz caster sugar4 medium eggs

225g/8oz self raising flour

milk, to loosen

Natural Organic blue food Dye.

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

2. Grease and line 2 x 18cm/7in cake tins with baking paper. I never bother with the lining the side of my spring form but if yours is an old tin then may be best to give it that extra love.

3. Cream the butter and the sugar together in a bowl until pale and fluffy.

4. Beat in the eggs, a little at a time.

5. Fold in the flour using a large metal spoon, adding a little extra milk if necessary, to create a batter with a soft dropping consitency. Stir in the food dye till you get the desired colour.

6. Divide the mixture between the cake tins and gently spread out with a spatula.

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until golden-brown on top and a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

8. Remove from the oven and set aside for 5 minutes, then remove from the tin and peel off the paper. Place onto a wire rack.

Icing. (very rough quantities)

My icing was a bit too runny so I have modified the ingredients here.

About 2 tubs of cream cheese

Half a bottle of fridge banana milkshake

6 ripe bananas

Lots of icing sugar

Yellow organic food dye

Chocolate icing for piping the banana

Blend all the ingredients together till you get the right consistency. If its too runny then add more icing sugar if its too stiff then add more banana milk.

Pop some icing in between the sandwiches, then cut your cake into bananas. Ice them and then position eh voila!

of course you should listen to Micke's amazing music whilst making this check it:

http://www.myspace.com/lindebergh

Cause i'm back on the blog...

Apologies for my lack of posting but all you lovely (2) readers (Mummy and Ciaran) will be pleased to hear that I am back...whoop.

Now its my Birthday on Sunday so I am a busy bee but by next week there will be posts and pictures up of my latest culinary adventures which include Chocolate making, Malteaser caking, my very lovely new bread book (thank you Paul), Valentines breakfast, Roast lamb, Bone marrow, Fennel, Pizza, Walnuts, Sweden and a few more bits and pieces.

I have been loving the soundtrack to the film Where the Wild Things are by Karen O and the Kids

check it!

Natella's Dense Chocolate & Almond Loaf

On a freezing cold Saturday afternoon I trekked across London to Clapham and Emily's beautiful home for Alex's baby shower.

I was late, very late but luckily I was armed with a yummy variation of Nigella's Dense Chocolate Loaf. I was supposed to be sticking to the original recipe (a big favourite of mine) but I had no bloody vanilla essence left. So I thought i'd go crazy and add almond essence instead. The result was magnificent even if I say so myself! Here is the recipe and some pictures from the day. Thanks to Emily for hosting and Nikki for all the games!

Natella's Dense Chocolate & Almond Loaf.

225g soft unsalted butter

375g dark muscovado sugar

2 lrg eggs, beaten

1tsp almond essence

100g best dark chocolate

200g plain flour

1 tbs bicarbonate of soda

250ml boiling water

23 x 13 x 7 cm loaf tin

Pre heat the oven to 190c.

Grease and line tin (very important)

Cream the butter and sugar. I did this by hand and therefore recommend an electric handheld whisk as I now have huge guns! It was hard work.

Add the beaten eggs and almond essence, beat well.

Fold in the melted chocolate. I melt the chocolate before I do anything so that by this stage it has slightly cooled.

Add the flour and water gradually do not over beat. You should be left with a smooth and fairly runny mix.

Pour the mixture into your lined tin. I find that this recipe makes too much mixture for the size of tin, it is important to only fill the tin to 3/4 full as this cake seriously rises. I used the left over mixture to make a couple of mini loafs to take to work.

Right back to the main loaf. Pop it in the oven and bake for 30 minutes then turn the heat down to 170C and cook for a further 15 minutes.

Wait for it to cool before turning it out.

I topped it with fresh strawberries and served it with double cream.

I listened to Joy Division on the journey to Clapham. SHE'S LOST CONTROL