By My Side - In Excess…

On the weekend, I headed out of town for a girls weekend at the farm. It had been in the diary for months and by the time we hit the road on Friday, we were all ready for some time out and fresh air. Not to mention a menu fit for a gaggle of ladies.

Incredible Baked Lamb Shanks

Braised Peas with Spring Onion and Lettuce

Doughnuts with Old English Spiced Sugar

I love lamb. I grew up on lamb. So I always enjoy a good session of lamb when I head to the farm. The lamb shanks recipe had been set aside for a farm weekend and when I mentioned it as an option to the girls, they jumped on the bandwagon. So that was easy. Pease and lamb. It just makes sense (well maybe not for Gem, but for the rest of us…). And the doughnuts. Well once the girls got word that they were on the menu, there was no going back…

After a day in the sunshine my “Farm-Sous-Chef” Tils and I headed into the kitchen. Starting with the doughnut dough, we mixed yeast with flour, caster sugar and warm milk, covered it and left it by the fire for 15 minutes, til it thickened and frothed. Then we added it to a mixture of flour, sugar, butter and lemon & orange zest. I got stuck in with my hands and used my Italian-Mama pasta-bred-guns to knead the crap out of it, til it was smooth and silky. It then sat in a bowl, covered with a damp cloth for about an hour, while we started on the shanks.

The best thing about the shank recipe was the simplicity of it – we were making shank parcels. No sautéing veggies, no slow cooking, so pots and pans, just lamb shank pockets. While Tils prepped the vegies – chopped leek, carrots & onion and whole garlic cloves – I made a herb butter (sage leaves and thyme, finely chopped and mixed with softened butter) and stuffed into the heart of the shanks. Then we made the parcels – sheets of foil topped with vegies, a shank, some more herbs, oil, S&P and a glug of white wine, all sealed up tightly like a sack, sat in a baking dish and popped in the oven for 2.5 hours.

Then before sitting down to a “friendly” game of Spicks & Specks, I rolled out the seriously risen dough. Did you know that you have to knock back dough? Nope? Me neither. It means I got to punch it. Yep, I gave that damn dough a good king hit and it really does knock the air out of it. Some people vent their anger in boxercise classes, I do it in the kitchen… And the other cool thing about this KO? The smell of the yeast. I’ve never used yeast before, so I was quite shocked at how powerful the smell was. Not a bad smell. Just a bread smell. So obviously bread smells mostly of yeast. Funny that. So after knocking it back and rolling it out, I cute circles (32 in total) of dough, spread them out on greased trays, covered them again with damp tea towels and left them to rise again.

As the time for shanks drew near, we did our mashed potatoes and our peas. Into hot butter, I stirred through a spoonful of plain flour, then chicken stock and finely chopped spring onions & lettuce and a bag of frozen peas. Left to simmer for 5 minutes and a squeeze of lemon later, they were possibly the best looking peas I’ve served up.

As were the shanks. Who doesn’t love a little prezzie on their plate? And that’s what we had. Lovely little parcels of juicy lamb shanks with creamy mash and peas.

So Jamie mentions in the blurb for the peas with lettuce recipe, that people who may turn their nose up at the idea of the lettuce, will be pleasantly surprised. Well, we had a room full or turned-up noses pre-dinner and Jamie was right – lettuce in peas is good! I’m not sure it was actually the lettuce, but overall the peas got a warm reception.

After a short break, it was time to doughy. Tils and I had quite a production line going – I made the holes in the middle, dropped them into the hot oil, Tils flipped them over and when done dropped them onto paper towel, then I tossed them through the spiced sugar (sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, vanilla seeds & lemon zest). We were in our own little world – a world like Wendy’s or Donut King. A world where Homer Simpson sometimes lives. And at the end of the production line, we presented a huge bowl (yes, 32 doughnuts is rather a lot) of pretty impressive doughnuts.

And so the challenge began. Could we eat them all? Well, goddamit, we gave it our best shot. Some of us fell short of our quota, but I won’t name names. Others smashed their doughnuts-eaten-in-one-sitting record. And one of us was heard to say they once ate a dozen doughnuts in one sitting…

So with the girls by my side, the following morning, we pushed through the pain of sore tummies and headed back to Sydney. It was worth every cramp and rumble.

Xx

PS – We didn’t finish the full 32.

PPS – I swear!!