Hello crime readers and food lovers! Today we are dining on a Castilian leg of lamb as we uncover the evil machinations of a shady group of evildoers known as The Big Four. This is certainly not my favourite of the books I have read so far as the plot seemed a little silly in parts. However one of the early stories significantly involves a leg of lamb This seemed like a great excuse for a roast dinner and the meal did not disappoint!
The Big Four- The Plot
This novel pits Hercule Poirot against four evil genius’ bent on world domination – they are an American – the richest man in the world, a female French scientist, the Chinese leader of the group – a criminal genius and “the Destroyer” the group’s assassin who is also a master of disguise and (wait for it) a British actor.
We have:
Sinister cabals
Poisoned curries
Poisoned grandmasters
Hijinks on trains
Stolen radium
Secret lairs under mountains
Twin brothers
Telltale tics
And, course Hercule Poirot (or is it twin brother Achilles?) using his little grey cells to thwart the villains and their evil plans.
The Covers
Given that we are talking about the Big Four – I’m showing four covers today. The third from the left is the one I read but I am rather taken by all the others.
The Recipe – Castilian Leg of Lamb
The recipe comes from the wonderful Keith Floyd and his journey through Spain – not in the search of arch criminals but in search of some damn fine nosh!
You can find the recipe here. You can also watch the entire series of Keith Floyd’s adventures in Spain on YouTube. Floyd is so engaging it is well worth investing the time.
In his hand he was brandishing a leg of mutton! “My dear Poirot!” I cried “What is the matter? Have you suddenly gone mad?”
“Regard, I pray you , this mutton. But regard it closely!”
I regarded it as closely as I could but could see nothing unusual about it. It seemed to me to be a very ordinary leg of mutton.”
Maybe it is the whole Covid thing or maybe it is just because it is getting colder here but I have been craving comfort food like nobody’s business. My particular drug of choice has been potatoes. I love them at the best of times but nowadays? I have eaten them pretty much every day since lockdown. And one of the best comfort foods around that has been feeding my potato addiction is Shepherd’s Pie!
Normally when we make Shepherd’s Pie, it is the job of the Fussiest Eater in the World. He can’t cook much all that well but he knows how to do good British stodge to perfection. And his Shepherd’s Pie is great.
But wait…I am probably making some assumptions here. So let’s start with…
WHAT ON EARTH IS SHEPHERD’S PIE?
Shepherd’s Pie is a dish made of cooked lamb topped with mashed potato. The same dish made with beef is called Cottage Pie or Hachis Parmentier if you want to be French and fancy. Which usually is my default mode (wound up to eleven) but today I am using lamb so common or garden Shepherd’s Pie it is!
Traditionally, this was made with the leftover lamb from a Sunday roast. We usually use bought minced lamb for our Shepherd’s Pie but this time round, I wanted to, what they would call on the cooking shows, ELEVATE the dish, so I used some diced lamb.
A DIGRESSION ON WORKING FROM HOME
I was very pleased to read Yinzerella’s post the other day on the pleasures of lockdown. I too am enjoying many of the aspects of being at home 24/7. For instance I have
More time to spend with Oscar and Holly.
More time to read, to craft, to study, to do yoga and to blog!
Started to declutter and organise my life
Massively reduced my carbon footprint The last time I filled my car with petrol was in March! We got solar earlier this year so even though I am using more electricity by being at home, it is being paid for by the power we are generating.
Invented a push-up challenge and am doing a Buzzfeed core challenge.
More time to cook. 4-hour slow-cooked lamb on a Tuesday night? Not a problem. Grapefruit brulee for breakfast? You betcha!
Totally embraced my basic B instincts! These faux fir booties? I know, so chav, but wearing them made my feet warn for the first time in DAYS!!!! I may never take them off!
Anyway, back to the Shepherd’s Pies. I slow-cooked that lamb for four hours with red wine and herbs and garlic and tomatoes until it was melt in your mouth tender.
Then I made mashed potato with heaps of butter and milk to top it, and then topped that with a heap of grated cheese!
This was so good. Tender lamb, cheesy mashed potato…what else can I say except if you are craving a cuddle in the form of food, make this straight away!!! Of course, you can use this mix to make one large pie but I love small food so individual serves it was – one for each of us and one for lunch the following day! This reheats beautifully so you can make a few extra to warm up for additional meals.
I cut the recipe in half for these pies because I only had 500g of lamb but the full recipe will make one large or 6 small pies (depending of course on the size of your small pie dishes).
250ml beef stock (more if cooking for a long period of time)
200 ml red wine (I used a cabernet merlot)
145g tomato paste
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 sprig of rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 kg potatoes peeled and halved
50g butter
175ml milk
180g Cheddar cheese, grated
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
Instructions
Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add half the lamb and cook, turning as required until browned on all sides. Transfer to a plate and repeat with another tbsp of oil and the remaining lamb.
Heat the remaining oil in the pan over medium heat. Add the onion, carrot and celery and cook until the vegetables are softened, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and cook for another minute, stirring to ensure that the garlic does not burn.
Sprinkle the flour over the onions and cook, stirring, for 1 minute.
Gradually add the stock to the pan followed by the wine, stirring to remove any bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Add the lamb, tomato paste, Worchestershire sauce, rosemary and bay leaves. Cover, reduce the heat to low and simmer for between one to four hours – you may need to add more stock or wine if you are cooking for longer than an hour.
While the lamb is cooking, boil the potatoes in salted water for 20 minutes or until tender. Then drain and return to the pan. Add the butter and milk and mash until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Preheat the office to 200C.
Once the lamb is cooked, measure it out into 6 small (1 cup capacity) ovenproof dishes. Top with the mashed potato and then with the grated cheese.
Cook in the pre-heated oven until the cheese is golden brown and melted – around 25-30 minutes.
Enjoy!
What is your go-to comfort food? I hope you get to have some this week! My next post will also be comfort food but of the cake variety,,,,
My modern take on Lebanese food consists of what is probably my favourite fast food – pizza! The name for these pizzas in Lebanese is “lahembajin” which means “meat on dough”. Hmmm… what was I saying just last week about the wonderful poetic names for food in the Middle East? Never mind the pragmatic name though, this Lebanese Lamb pizza is delicious!
This Lebanese Lamb Pizza has some differences to the traditional Italian pizza.
First, the base is either pita or, to be more authentic Lebanese flatbread. There is also no cheese although you can top it with a dollop of labne just before serving.
The meat to base ratio is much higher than your typical Italian pizza, making the Lebanese Lamb Pizza more like a Meatzza!
The topping is minced lamb cooked with pomegranate molasses, onions and spices like cinnamon and allspice. Once cooked, the pizza is topped with toasted pine nuts, labne, herbs, chilli and another hit of pomegranate molasses. My recipe was a slight variation in the one below from the book Arabesque by Greg and Lucy Malouf.
My variations to their Lebanese Lamb were:
To use pita bread as my pizza base
I topped my pizza with labne (made by straining a dollop of yoghurt for about an hour)
I garnished my pizza with fresh coriander and chilli and another drizzle of pomegranate molasses
December 31st not only marks the end of the year but also the birthday of actor Anthony Hopkins. Let’s celebrate both events with a delicious recipe from Zach Neil’s The Nightmare Before Dinner called…well you already know… Silence of the Lamb Chops! This was the very first recipe I wanted to cook from this book because, for me, Silence of The Lambs is a perfect film.
The actors are stunning, the direction is flawless, the script is tight, the cinematography is en pointe. For my mind, Silence of the Lambs has no weak link. Plus…and this one I could be wrong on this one but in my mind, Hannibal Lector defined a new type of movie villain. Intelligent, eloquent, charming…he is a bit Hans Gruberesque….but at the end of the day, however, suave Gruber was, we were all happy when he fell to his death. No one wants Hannibal to die. We’re glad he escapes. And let’s be clear. He is a monster. And therein lies the magic of the Silence of the Lambs.
I had thought I’d taken a million photos of the Silence of the Lamb Chops.
I totally did. It was so good. The chops are marinated in olive oil, garlic, rosemary and apple cider then grilled. They are served with a mushroom and apple sauce which was great. An unusual combination but it worked really well with the lamb. This is then drizzled with a glaze made from raspberry preserves and soy sauce which is again an odd combination but works well. The Silence Of The Lamb Chops is like a flavour explosion. There is the herby, fattiness of the lamb set against the earthiness of the mushrooms and the apple. The sweet and salty raspberry soy sauce acts as a highlight, a little oomph!
I served mine on a bed of mashed potatoes which added a creamy element. If you wanted to though, you could serve it….
Here’s the recipe:
And here’s my only other photo:
So, it’s the end of the year. Time for me say a massive
to you all for reading and commenting and being a part of my tiny corner of the internet. It’s been another amazing year. I think my highlight was Pieathalon in London and getting to share pies with fellow pieathletes Jenny from Silver Screen Suppers and Battenberg Belle.
Stay tuned for 2019, I think it’s going to be just as much fun!
Have a great week And a fabulous New Year.
May all your dreams and wishes come true. Love you lots!
Today we are taking a huge step back in time and heading back to the time of gas lamps, hansom cabs and thick London fogs. How nice then in this cold inhospitable atmosphere to pop into the Oriental Club for a spicy mutton curry to warm your cockles on a cold winter’s night! Just think, Arthur Conan Doyle could have tucked into this curry as he pondered the intricacies of the first Sherlock Holmes story.
And now you can too!
Our mutton curry comes from 1861 from The Oriental Club’s chef, Richard Terry who made use of the ingredients from the first Asian grocery warehouse in London to recreate a curry recipe he had learned from Indian cooks. It is also indicative of Britain’s and Briton’s long-lasting love of curry!
This is certainly not a curry in a hurry! There are several parts to making this, which is time-consuming but if you have the patience, it is well worth the effort. Also, whilst the original recipe called for mutton, I used lamb. I could not find mutton anywhere – not even dressed as lamb. Funnily enough though, my mum says that in Sri Lanka when any recipe called for lamb or mutton, what they actually used was goat so use what you can get.
First up, you need to roast up some spices to make a curry powder. This will make more than you need for one curry so you will have supplies if you want to make this again or you can use it in other curries.
One thing that is strange about this curry is that you not only need a curry powder but also a curry paste.
Whilst we’re roasting and grinding those spices, let’s talk Sherlock! I am a HUGE fan of the BBC series with Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman and Andrew Scott because who doesn’t love a bad boy right? And I am over the moon excited to see Series 4. Tom Hiddleston! Colin Farrell! This series is going to be AWESOME!
Now, a very weird thing about this curry paste is that it contains lentils which you grind up. I have never heard of this technique before but…hey, if it’s good enough for the The Duke of Wellington, who was the President of the Oriental Club back in the day, it’s good enough for me! The genius stroke is that they help to make the gravy lovely and thick.
Mutton curry (maybe even one based on this recipe!) features as a clue in a Sherlock Holmes story. In The Adventure of Silver Blaze, which not only contains the phrase”Consider the mutton curry,” the title of this post but also “the curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, a mutton curry is doused with powdered opium, putting the stable boy meant to be guarding the race horse Silver Blaze into a stupor and hence rendering him unable to do his job.
The paste mix will also make more than you need for one curry but will keep in the fridge for months.
Sadly, Sherlock Holmes may not have been a fan of curry. At least not according to the 1946 film, Terror by Night. This however is not based on a Conan Doyle story so this is open for debate. Terror By Night is also available for free download here. Personally, I think Sherlock would have been a fan of this mutton curry…with or without a garnish of powdered opium.
The 19th Century Mutton Curry was delicious, dark and spicy, thanks to those lentils, the gravy was lovely and thick and the meat was tender. This was a winner! And hey, I’ve got paste and powder left so I’ll definitely be making it again!
Best served with an ice-cold beer! Whilst watching Series 4 of Sherlock!
Any leftovers? A curry jaffle is THE best hangover food known to man. Just sayin’. Tis the season after all!
Oh and by the way, the Oriental Club still exists and curries still feature on the menu. I am adding to the list for a trip to London next year!
Combine all the ingredients in a jar. Mix. Cover with a tight lid.
Store away from heat and sunlight.
Makes 7 tablespoons.
For The 19th Century British Curry Powder
Put the coriander seeds, split peas, peppercorns and cumin into a medium cast iron frypan and set on medium heat. Stir and roast until the split peas are reddish, the coriander has turned a shade darker and all the spices begin to give off a roasted aroma.
Empty them into a bowl and allow to cool.
Put the roasted spices and the mustard seeds into a spice grinder or food processor and grind as finely as possible. Place in a bowl.
