Roast lamb

How to make a pie floater? A cook’s hack!

How to make a pie floater? A cook’s hack! I recently made a version of Greg’s creamy caper sauce from Greg’s Kitchen. Today I made another of Greg’s creations, viz., a pie floater.

Fair enough I didn’t make the mashed potato with mine. I couldn’t be bothered cooking spuds and mashing them.

I also didn’t cook my pie in the microwave oven. I much prefer conventional oven cooked pies.

How to make a pie floater? A cook’s hack!
Recipe Type: Lunch
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”http://garylum.me” target=”_blank” rel=”nofollow”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Butter
  • Frozen peas
  • Gravox brown onion gravy
  • Garlo’s beef and mushroom pie
Instructions
  1. Cook the pie in an oven at 200 °C for 25 minutes
  2. Make up a cup of instant gravy
  3. Make the mushy peas with butter in the microwave oden
  4. Put most of the peas in a bowl
  5. Put the pie on top
  6. Add the remaining peas onto the pie
  7. In a perfect world you would add mashed potatoes on top too
  8. Pour gravy into the bowl and over the pie
  9. Shoot a photograph
  10. Eat the pie floater
  11. Write the recipe
  12. Blog (verb)

Now I just need to buy a fair dinkum pie floater for comparison.

pie floater Garlo's meat pie Beef and mushroom
Garlo’s meat pie Beef and mushroom
pie floater frozen peas
Frozen peas
pie floater Gravox brown onion gravy
Gravox brown onion gravy
pie floater Beef and mushroom meat pie
Beef and mushroom meat pie
pie floater Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas
Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas
pie floater Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas
Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas
pie floater Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas floating in brown onion gravy
Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas floating in brown onion gravy
pie floater Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas floating in brown onion gravy
Beef and mushroom meat pie on mushy peas floating in brown onion gravy
Vegetable stack with poached eggs from Rocksalt Restaurant, Hawker Shops
Vegetable stack with poached eggs from Rocksalt Restaurant, Hawker Shops
Shopping trolley in Lake Ginninderra
Shopping trolley in Lake Ginninderra
HDR Lake Ginninderra
HDR Lake Ginninderra
Rabbit
Rabbit near Lake Ginninderra
Photograph of Slowly roasted lamb shoulder and quinoa salad
Slowly roasted lamb shoulder and quinoa salad for dinner

Have you had a pie floater?

Cooking Greg’s creamy caper sauce

Cooking Greg’s creamy caper sauce wasn’t really anything new or special. Making a cream sauce is pretty routine but watching this video last week gave me an idea for how I was going to enjoy my leftover rib eye beef and leftover lamb shoulder. I find Greg’s videos pretty funny. His YouTube channel has a pretty good reach and it demonstrates how with persistence and dedication you can make a success from meagre resources.

Saturday started as Saturdays do with grocery shopping and then a walk around Lake Ginninderra. I shot some photographs while I was out and about.

For lunch I had some Coles smoked salmon and feta stuffed peppers on Philadelphia cream cheese slathered Vita-Weat biscuits.

A photograph of Feta stuffed peppers with smoked salmon on Vita-Weat.
Feta stuffed peppers with smoked salmon on Vita-Weat.

In the afternoon I enjoyed the mild thunderstorm that Canberra experienced.

Thunderstorm from Gary Lum on Vimeo.

For dinner I had thawed the beef and lamb in the Foodsaver bags. Normally I would eat the meat after I’d heated the bags in a saucepan of hot water for about 30 minutes but this time I seared each side of meat in a hot frying pan with browning butter.

Cooking Greg’s creamy caper sauce
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”http://garylum.me” target=”_blank”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • [url href=”https://yummylummy.com/2016/01/24/standing-rib-eye-roast-beef/” target=”_blank”]Leftover ribeye fillet standing roast[/url]
  • [url href=”https://yummylummy.com/2016/01/26/here-is-my-australia-day-roast-lamb-dinner/” target=”_blank”]Leftover Australia Day lamb shoulder[/url]
  • White wine
  • Capers
  • Pouring cream
  • Butter
  • Salt
  • Pepper
Instructions
  1. Heat the beef and lamb in the Foodsaver bags in a saucepan of hot water
  2. When heated through remove the meat from the bags and take the carrots and onion and place on a plate and keep them warm
  3. Sear the meat in brown butter in a hot frying pan
  4. Cover the meat and allow it to rest
  5. Add ½ cup of white wine and reduce
  6. Add ¼ cup pouring cream and the capers and reduce to a sauce
  7. Season with salt and pepper
  8. Plate up the meat and vegetables and pour a good amount of sauce on the meat
  9. Shoot a photograph
  10. Eat the meal and enjoy the meaty goodness
  11. Wash the dishes
  12. Write the recipe
  13. Blog (verb)

 

Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
A rock near Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra
Lake Ginninderra

A photograph of my Leftover vacuum packed rib eye beef and lamb shoulder with creamy caper sauce served with carrot and onion.
Leftover vacuum packed rib eye beef and lamb shoulder with creamy caper sauce served with carrot and onion.
Dusky light on Lake Ginninderra
Dusky light on Lake Ginninderra

Do you like creamy caper sauce?

 

Here is my Australia Day roast lamb dinner

Here is my Australia Day roast lamb dinner. You may recall on Sunday I cooked a standing rib roast and in that post embedded a YouTube video outlining the marketing campaign for Australia Day roast lamb.

Before we get to dinner though let’s look at how I spent some of my Australia Day.

For breakfast I enjoyed a green and gold omelet with Coon cheese, a good Australian cheese.

Photograph of Australia Day green and gold breakfast omelet
Australia Day green and gold breakfast omelet

I then went for a walk around Lake Ginninderra.

What is this flower?
What is this flower?
What is this fruit on the same shrub as the purple flower?
What is this fruit on the same shrub as the purple flower?
What better thing to do on Australia Day. Family fishing on Lake Ginninderra.
What better thing to do on Australia Day. Family fishing on Lake Ginninderra.
Picnic breakfast on Australia Day
Picnic breakfast on Australia Day
Free wi-fi around Lake Ginninderra
Free wi-fi around Lake Ginninderra

Lake Ginninderra Lake Ginninderra

So I spent a good portion of today cleaning the apartment for a rental inspection tomorrow and also binge watching World War II in colour on Netflix. Nothing like learning a little modern history while my Australia Day roast lamb was cooking. I’m so grateful to the warfighters and civilians who fought and died for our freedom and our way of life.

So this Australia Day roast lamb was all about a low slow oven cook. I used the leftover beef stock and quinoa with green peppercorns from my roast beef to enrich the flavour of my roast lamb.

Here is my Australia Day roast lamb dinner
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”http://garylum.me” target=”_blank”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Boneless lamb shoulder
  • Onion
  • Lemon
  • Apple
  • Quinoa
  • Green peppercorns
  • Beef stock
  • Carrots
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Kale coleslaw
  • Sweet corn
  • Rosemary
  • Coon cheese shredded
  • Crushed mixed nuts
Instructions
  1. Prepare a baking tray with the beef stock, quinoa, green peppercorns, carrots, onion, apple and rosemary.
  2. Lay the lamb on top
  3. Cover with aluminium foil
  4. Cook at 120 °C for 3 hours
  5. After 2 hours add a cob of sweet corn wrapped in aluminium foil
  6. At 3 hours remove everything from the oven and allow everything to rest for 20 minutes
  7. Ladle out some quinoa, green peppercorns and rosemary and with a little fatty stock add it to the kale coleslaw and then add some crushed mixed nuts and Coon cheese
  8. Slice the lamb and plate up
  9. Vacuum pack the remaining lamb
  10. Shoot a photograph
  11. Eat the meal and consider what Australia Day means to me
  12. Wash the dishes
  13. Write the recipe
  14. Blog (verb)

 

Photograph of My lump of lamb for my Australia Day roast lamb
My lump of lamb for my Australia Day roast lamb
Photograph of Preparing my baking tray for my Australia Day roast lamb
Preparing my baking tray for the lump of lamb
Photograph of my Australia Day roast lamb Ready for the oven
Ready for the oven
Photograph of my Australia Day roast lamb straight out of the oven
Straight out of the oven
Australia Day roast lamb. Beef stock, Carrot, Coleslaw, Corn, Green peppercorns, Kale, Nuts, Onion, and Quinoa.
Australia Day roast lamb. Beef stock, Carrot, Coleslaw, Corn, Green peppercorns, Kale, Nuts, Onion, and Quinoa.
Australia Day roast lamb. Beef stock, Carrot, Coleslaw, Corn, Green peppercorns, Kale, Nuts, Onion, and Quinoa.
Australia Day roast lamb. Beef stock, Carrot, Coleslaw, Corn, Green peppercorns, Kale, Nuts, Onion, and Quinoa.

The rest of the meat has been divided in half and vacuum packed for future meals.

Australia Day ice cream with Milo
Australia Day ice cream with Milo

How did you cook your Australia Day roast lamb?

Vacuum packed leftover roast lamb

One of my favourite appliances is my Sunbeam FoodSaver. How did I use it for vacuum packed leftover roast lamb? I’ll get to that later.

I’ve had my FoodSaver for many years, even back to the days in Darwin. I don’t just use it for food saving either. I use it to pack clothes for winter or summer. I have keepsakes vacuum packed. I have my Member of the Order of Australia medals vacuum packed. Why? This thing helps you save space. It also means when you put things in storage, you don’t have to worry about metals discolouring. Woolen clothes compress and when you open the packet they immediately return to their original state.

Anyway, back to the lamb. It didn’t take long to get back into my routine on returning from my Hong Kong holiday. I hit Coles on Saturday morning and did my usual grocery shopping. On top of salmon and chicken I thought I may also get some lamb in the form of a small boneless lamb shoulder roll. I picked a piece that was about 500 grams (about 1 pound).

On Saturday afternoon at about 3 pm I put the lamb roll in a baking tray and added about 1 cm (½ inch) of water along with about 100 grams of tricolour quinoa. I quartered a lemon and added a quarter to the four corners of the baking tray. I also covered the lamb with a small tin of green peppercorns. I then sealed the baking tray with aluminium (yep, American friends it’s aluminium) foil and put the tray into an oven at 120 °C (about 250 °F) for three hours.

I cut off about half the meat for dinner and put the rest into a Sunbeam FoodSaver bag and vacuum sealed it. That then went into the refrigerator.

A photograph of a plate of Slow roasted lamb shoulder with coleslaw kale and quinoa with a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer in the background.
Slow roasted lamb shoulder with coleslaw kale and quinoa

On Sunday evening I removed the vacuum packed lamb from the refrigerator and placed it in a saucepan of boiling water. Using a thermometer to measure the water temperature, I reduced the temperature so the water was about 80 °C. I warmed up the meat for about 30 minutes and removed the meat and allowed it to rest for about five minutes. Once I could safely handle the plastic wrap with my fingers I cut it open and sliced the meat on a cutting board. I knew immediately the meat would be amazing to taste and would be so tender. It was, it was bloody amazing. I’m going to try this with beef soon and see how it goes. I’ll let you know.

Vacuum packed lamb
Vacuum packed lamb
Vacuum packed lamb
Vacuum packed lamb
A photograph of Leftover roast lamb and coleslaw with avocado with a bottle of Bundaberg ginger beer in the background.
Leftover roast lamb and coleslaw with avocado
A photograph of Roast lamb and cream cheese on Vita-Weat
Roast lamb and cream cheese on Vita-Weat

Monday Canberra Food Blogger link love

So today in the Canberra Food Blogger Facebook group the links that were shared include:

They said YES! A Review of Marley Spoon from Anna

Copper Chimney, West Row, City – Road Testing A Menu For Six from Michele

Rockpool Est.1989 from Nadia

In my kitchen January 2016, a cool place to be from Elissa

Never fail roast lamb

Roast lamb with quinoa, pumpkin, sweet corn and asparagus
Roast lamb with quinoa, pumpkin, sweet corn and asparagus

Never fail roast lamb is easy as putting a lump of meat into an oven and drooling for a few hours. Trust me. Cooking lamb low and slow is the key.

It’s been a few months since I’ve roasted a joint of lamb. Tonight I wanted a lamb dinner with enough meat left over for lunches.

I bought my rolled boneless shoulder of lamb from Coles this morning along with half a butternut pumpkin (squash for my north American friends), some Aussie spears (asparagus), tricolour quinoa and sweet corn.

I also wanted to use some spike seasoning to help me remember Barb by.

Never fail roast lamb
Recipe Type: Dinner
Cuisine: Australian
Author: [url href=”http://about.me/garydlum”]Gary Lum[/url]
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1
Ingredients
  • Rolled lamb shoulder (boneless) 1.1 kilogram
  • Olive oil for rubbing my meat
  • Spike seasoning 1 teaspoon
  • Smoked paprika 1 teaspoon
  • Paprika 1 teaspoon
  • Mixed dried Italian herbs 1 teaspoon
  • Chinese five spice 1 teaspoon
  • Garlic salt 1 teaspoon
  • Brown sugar 1 teaspoon
  • Butternut pumpkin (squash) ½
  • Tricolour quinoa ½ cup
  • Water 1 cup
  • Sweet corn 1 cob
Instructions
  1. Get the lamb to room temperature
  2. Rub the lamb lovingly with some olive oil
  3. Prepare the spice rub and then gently rub it into the oiled up meat
  4. Put the meat onto a rack in a baking tray which has the quinoa and water added
  5. Cover tightly with some aluminium (note the spelling and pronunciation my north American friends) foil
  6. Put the baking tray into a preheated oven at 150 °C for 3 hours
  7. With 1 hour left start preparing the butternut pumpkin (squash) by removing the seeds and oiling up the surface and then placing oiled surface down on some baking paper on a baking tray
  8. Wet the corn cob under running water and wrap in some aluminium foil and add to the tray with the pumpkin
  9. Place the pumpkin and corn into the oven with 60 minutes cooking to go
  10. At three hours remove everything from the oven
  11. Place the meat onto a plate and cover with aluminium foil and rest for 20 minutes
  12. Spoon out the cooked quinoa and drain
  13. Cut the the pumpkin into slices
  14. Unwrap the sweet corn
  15. Carve the lamb into thick slices
  16. Put the spare meat and pumpkin and quinoa into containers and refrigerate
  17. Plate up and shoot a photograph
  18. Eat the meal
  19. Wash the dishes
  20. Write the recipe
  21. Blog (verb)

Click on a thumbnail to open the gallery and then scrolled through the images

 

Dinner preparation from Gary Lum on Vimeo.

Dinner preparation

For breakfast I had a light meal of fried eggs with cheese and wasabi sesame seeds. I’d had a crapulent sleep.

2015-11-28_07.47.41_001_GARY_LUM_FB

For lunch I made a burger on a bed of spinach with some cheese and capsicum.

Cheese burger with spinach and capsicum and agrum

So what do you think of my never fail roast lamb? Would you try to cook it?

If you want to know about the Little Monster Girl glass and mug click here.