Ren Behan - Author Wild Honey and Rye

Food Writer

Family Favourites

Lamb and Potato Moussaka

With less than two weeks to go until my third baby arrives, I’ve been in nesting mode  – it’s amazing really how this instinct kicks in just when you think you have no energy left! For me, this has also meant batch cooking and madly bookmarking easy and healthy recipes to support being a new mummy again, such as Pinch of Yum’s Creamy Potato Kale Soup, portions of vegetable lasagna (also layered up with kale and spinach) and ‘quick to throw together or stick in the oven’ recipes, such as the easy Lamb and Potato Moussaka below. A traditional Moussaka would use layers of grilled aubergine, but my kids are really not keen on the texture, so I just replace the aubergine with thinly sliced potatoes. I’m also sure I won’t want to be standing around stirring a Béchamel (white sauce) so a fail-safe tub of crème fraîche along with some grated cheese is a useful back-up plan for making a super-quick cheese sauce ready to pour over the top of this dish before it goes into the oven. I’ve included tips for making ahead and freezing in the recipe notes below.

Lamb and Potato Moussaka

Part-way through my marathon batch-cook, the freezer decided to break down. So I’ve been scrubbing, clearing out and cleaning that, too. Remind me never to freeze red wine in sandwich bags again for later use in sauces, since that’s what created the biggest mess. Can I blame Nigella for that one?! I’m sure it was one of her tips… Luckily, I’ve saved most of what I had already prepared food-wise, but still, it’s not what you need. On the plus side, everyone, including the husband, declared the Lamb and Potato Moussaka dish to be super-tasty – so much so that I’ll have to make another batch to freeze. If you are vegetarian or simply looking to include more pulses into your diet, you can add a tin of cooked lentils to the lamb or leave out the lamb altogether and just make the base out of beans and/lentils (with onions, garlic, the tomato sauce and spices).

Lamb Moussaka

I’ve also been busy road-testing a new kitchen gadget – the Sage By Heston Blumenthal Kitchen Wizz Pro, which I hope to be writing about tomorrow. It’s really a super-powerful food processor, with plenty of chopping and slicing options. I was able to quickly whizz up the onions and garlic for this Moussaka, make my own quick lamb mince (I used British lam leg steaks) as well as thinly slicing the potatoes for the top of this dish. I’ve been extremely pleased with results so far and look forward to coming up with more time-saving recipes, soon.

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Easy Lamb and Potato Moussaka

Prep

Cook

Total

Yield 4 -6

A quick and tasty Lamb and Potato Moussaka recipe, using potatoes in place of aubergine, flavoured with cinnamon and oregano and topped with an instant, tangy cheese sauce.

Ingredients

  • 5-6 large potatoes, I used Maris Piper, peels and finely sliced
  • 2-4 tablespoons olive oil or rapeseed oil
  • 1 onion, peeled and chopped
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
  • 500g/one pound lean ground lamb mince
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon dried oregano
  • 1 teaspoon tomato paste/puree
  • 1 can chopped plum tomatoes
  • Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • For the cheese sauce -
  • 200g/one cup crème fraîche
  • 50g/half a cup grated cheddar cheese
  • 50g/half a cup grated Parmesan cheese
  • A dash of milk
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • A little butter for the baking dish

Instructions

  1. Heat a tablespoon of rapeseed oil in a large, flat pan. Firstly, start by gently browning the potato slices. Do this by frying a few slices for one-two minutes on each side, in batches, until they are all slightly golden. Add a little more oil to the pan as necessary. Keep all the potatoes to one side, on some kitchen paper, until later. You can skip the potato-browning stage if you want a quicker version.
  2. Once that's done, in the same pan, add a further tablespoon of oil and cook the onions and garlic until soft and golden. Add the minced/ground lamb, turning up the heat a little to brown the meat all over. Sprinkle over the cinnamon and dried oregano and stir. Add in the tomato paste, canned tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Turn down the heat and allow the sauce to simmer for 30 minutes.
  3. In the meantime, make the quick cheese sauce by gently heating the creme fraiche and stirring through all the cheese until melted. Add a splash of milk to loosen the sauce, take it off the heat, allow to cool a little then whisk in the beaten egg.
  4. When you are ready to eat, preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
  5. Lightly grease three small dishes or one large baking dish with a little butter. Spoon in some of the lamb sauce, then a layer of potato, then a further layer of lamb sauce followed again by potato. Pour the cheese sauce over the top.
  6. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 35-40 minutes, until the potatoes are soft and the top is golden.

Notes

Freezer Tip: Bake the Moussaka and cool completely. Portion up into small containers, double-wrap in foil and freeze. Defrost in the usual manner and reheat in microwave (or oven) until thoroughly heated through for a quick meal.

Courses Main

Cuisine Greek

I hope you feel inspired to give this easy Lamb and Potato Moussaka a try – it’s a great family-friendly meal or perhaps even a crowd-pleased to bookmark for the upcoming World Cup!

What are your favourite batch-cook or make ahead recipes?

Review: Tum Tum Tots Tableware

The school holidays are flying by so quickly. Most days we’ve been out and about, visiting some great (though usually packed) local places and keeping as active as possible. It’s back to school in less than three weeks and the big question is – ‘school dinners or packed lunches?’ 

We may have been a little swayed this week by a parcel that arrived from Tum Tum Tots which included a very sweet little lunch bag and a few other bits which we’ve been sent to sample.

We didn’t receive the whole range (below) just a few bits to try!

The range, shown in full above, includes some really beautiful tableware for kids, cleverly designed by product designer parent-team Suzanne and Andrew Stokes for their two children aged three and one. As they watched their own kids battling with the classic ‘peas rolling off the spoon’ or ‘food falling off the plate and onto the floor’ dilemmas they decided to design their own tools for the job and came up with this new range specifically created for little fingers.

I was immediately impressed with the packaging as all of it was entirely recyclable with the added bonus of having pictures outlined for the children to colour in before recycling it or using the packaging for another purpose. For example, the triangular box that the cutlery set comes in could be coloured in and then used as a box for crayons or the dining box packaging could be used as a little carry case in itself.

Product features include:

·         turned up sides on the plates so the food doesn’t fall off the side
·         a scooping corner at the bottom of the plates and bowls
·         non-slip bases on all the tableware
·         dishwasher-safe
·         BPA, phthalate and PVC free
·         recyclable packaging (as mentioned)
·         bright, colourful and engaging images
As a parent, all the items in the range tick all the boxes for me.

I particularly liked the lunch bag and the snack pots from the ‘out and about’ range as they are a little less generic than most of the things we find in the supermarkets these days…these might sway us towards packed lunches!

  
We also tried the Tum Tum Tiny Dining Set which my children loved, especially the hedgehog plate with turned up sides and a scooping corner. The illustrations/images were fun and the plate was not too big – my four-year-old does tend to get a little overwhelmed by large portion sizes so it was the perfect size for him. My two-year-old liked the bowl and managed really well with the cutlery set too.

The table mats were engaging enough to get them happily to the table and stayed in place well – there’s nothing worse than a mat that slides around in my view!

Availability

You can buy Tum Tum products both on-line and in many John Lewis stores –  check out the Tum Tum Tots stockists page for more information.
 
Price
 
Prices range from £4.00 for an individual place mat and £14.00 for a two-piece dining set. The products do seem to be made of excellent quality material and they are strong and sturdy with the added benefit of thoughtful design and product features. I’m quite certain they will last well. We’ve washed them in the dishwasher a couple of times already and there were no problems at all.
 
Gift Idea
Some of the sets, such as the Tum Tum Trainee Egg Set with integrated egg cup, room for toast soldiers and special egg spoon at £12.00 would make an ideal gift too.  

Thank you to Tum Tum Tots for introducing me to their range and for sending me the well-received product samples.

Photos courtesy of Tum Tum Tots, too.

Tomato and Garlic Pasta

Last week I posted an interview with Vanessa Kimbell and hosted a competition to win a copy of her new book, Prepped!

As mentioned in the post, Vanessa gave up her job in order to pursue her dream of writing a cookery book, documenting the process through her blog Writing a Cookery Book giving us all a fascinating glimpse into the world of food writing and publishing. Her book offers time-saving recipes and introduces a concept called ‘linked cooking’ as well as double-cooking, incorporating flavoured sugars and syrups that can be made-ahead and ‘mixed and matched’ according to what you have to hand.

Thank you to everyone for entering and telling me which one of the chapters in Vanessa’s book would be your favourite from the inspiring selection on offer including Elderflower, Rhubarb, Lavender, Lemon, Vanilla, Tomato, Plum, Caraway, Chocolate, Cardamom or Orange & Clove.  

I’m very pleased to announce that the winner, chosen by a randomiser, is Sally from My Custard Pie who I am sure will love Vanessa’s book and make excellent use of it!

I have to say I am truly torn. Having tested recipes for the book from both the Chocolate and Vanilla chapters I am certainly won over by the ease of Vanessa’s recipes.

I’m also both intrigued and inspired  by some of the more unusual flavour combinations in Prepped! – the Victoria Sponge with Cardamom Rose Cream and Rhubarb along with the Chocolate Beef are next on my hit list. However, my favourite recipe so far (and one that, I confess, I am slightly addicted too at the moment) can actually be found in the Tomato chapter, so I’m probably with Sally on her winning choice.

Vanessa’s Tomato & Garlic Pasta, also known as “Garlic Yum Yum” pasta is possibly one the the quickest and simplest recipes in the book. It also happens to be a ‘linked’ recipe, meaning that you can make double the quantity and use it as the base for the Tomato Pizza. 

Vanessa has kindly given me permission to share the recipe with you below – I urge you to try it – it is so simple but really delicious and my kids love it too.  

Last week also marked the official launch Prepped!   It was lovely to be able able to chat and mingle in a very leisurely fashion at Rococo Chocolates with Vanessa, other food writers, bloggers and members of the ‘Prepparati’ including Helen from Fuss Free Flavours, Katie from Feeding Boys and a Firefighter, Jayne from Jaynerly and Becky from Rebecca Bakes Cakes. We also sampled some of our favourite treats and recipes from the book, including Chocolate Chilli Cupcakes, Pink Meringues with Elderflower Cream, Victoria Sponge with Cardamom Rose Cream & Rhubarb, Chocolate Cookies, a Chocolate & Raspberry Cake, the Chocolate, Vanilla & Black Pepper Cupcakes as well as the obligatory taste of some Rococo Chocolates too.

What a clever idea to host a party in a chocolate shop and not just any chocolate shop, Rococo’s was a truly luxurious experience and we all left hideously high on chocolate!

Thank you so much to Vanessa’s good friend Chantal Cody and to all her lovely staff who looked after us so well and of course, to the bright and bubbly Vanessa Kimbell for the kind invitation for us to take part as recipe testers for Prepped! and to the launch. 

Prepped! is available on Amazon, currently at £10.48 or at many branches of Waterstones (RRP £20.00) and is published by Spring Hill 

Tomato & Garlic Pasta
Posted with the kind permission of Vanessa Kimbell

 

(Serves 4)

 

Ingredients:

1 whole medium garlic bulb
500g spaghetti
1 x 200g tube tomato purée (I used a can)
80ml extra-virgin olive oil
120g fresh Parmesan, grated, for serving
Salt
Method:

 

1. Peel and finely chop all the garlic cloves (I put them in a mini blender but you can just finely chop). Put a pan of boiling water on for the pasta and add a teaspoon of salt to the water before cooking. Cook the pasta according to the instructions on the packet.
2. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan for 1-2 minutes then add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes (do not burn!) You are not looking to brown the garlic at all, so you must keep the heat at a medium temperature.
3. Stir in the tomato purée and turn the heat down to a slightly lower temperature. Keep stirring. As the tomato cooks it incorporates most of the oil and turns from a fresh red into a deeper, darker red. After 5-7 minutes the sauce is cooked. The pasta will be ready too.
4. Drain your pasta and add it to the tomato sauce, stirring well. Serve immediately with fresh parmesan.
There won’t be any left as it is so delicious but you could make double the quantity of sauce, as Vanessa suggests, and use it as a base for Vanessa’s Tomato Pizza and Oregano Bread