Meat – Page 7 – Myfrenchkitchen

The past weekend was summer. Beautiful long, lingering days. On weekends like this, you want energy. You want healthy. A ham spring roll.

Ham spring rolls

There is no formal recipe for this. See what your fridge and pantry comes up with and take the road to fresh and seasonal.

Cut some vegetables into matchsticks. I’ve used carrot, cucumber, mango, rocket leaves and chives. Place a slice of ham on a chopping board and stack some vegetables onto the one end. roll up tight and secure with a toothpick or tie with a chive(softened in boiling water for a second or two).
Serve with a dipping sauce made of natural joghurt and chopped herbs and splashed with a swirl of lemon juice.
Or serve with a lime ginger sauce: A tablespoon of each – freshly squeezed lime juice, rice wine vinegar, mirrin, soja sauce and some grated ginger and chopped lemon grass. Taste and adjust.

This is an entry for Weekend herb blogging, hosted this week by Ahn at Foodloversjourney.

Time for a little indulgence. Although January is a month of light eating, the desire for something more substantial and velvety arises on cold, rainy evenings. Then we take comfort in slow cooking meat meals with a voluptuous sauce, where we sit back and lick our fingers and sweep the sauce from our plates with fresh chunky bread. This is a recipe from Mariëtte Crafford’s book, Sonskynkafee(Sunshine café), a delicious book filled with stories and great recipes.

Lamb-shanks with a curry sultana sauce

6 small lamb-shanks with the bone cleaned and a nice helping of meat
olive oil
500 ml organic chicken stock
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 cinnamon sticks
3 bay leaves
a chopped onion
a few open cardamom pods
3 tablespoons masala
5 t cumin seeds
5 t white mustard seeds
5 t black mustard seeds
2 garlic cloves, leaned and crushed
a piece of ginger root, grated
4 tablespoons of water
150 ml yogurt
250 ml sultana raisins
salt and pepper
150ml cream
125 ml flaked almonds
fresh coriander/parsley leaves

Sauté the lamb-shanks in oil in a heavy based casserole until nicely browned, cover with the stock, add the lemon juice, cinnamon and bay leaves and cook uncovered until the lams begins to soften.
Sauté the onion and add to the lamb.
Mix all the spices with the 4 tablespoons of water and add to the lamb.
Season to taste.
Stir in the yogurt and add the sultana raisins. Simmer gently until the lamb is very tender and the sauce has reduced and thickened.
Stir in the cream and leave for 10 minutes to heat through.
Serve with rice in bowls, pour over some sauce and finish off with a sprinkling of flaked almonds and fresh coriander/parsley leaves.