Roasts | Finding Feasts

Potato & Caramelised Fennel Gratin

Finding Feasts - Potato Fennel Gratin — Click image fro recipe

Potato & Caramelised Fennel Gratin – This is a really simple dish that has so much flavour from just a few ingredients. It’s a side dish that can effortlessly outshine your hero ingredient. Comfort food made with love.

As my favourite part of the gratin is the golden, crunchy edges and top, so for this, I like to use a large dish, which means there is more surface area. This way everyone gets a perfect piece.

If you are rushed for time then a fantastic tip is to place the sliced potatoes into a saucepan and cover with seasoned milk. Bring up to a gentle simmer and cook till tender, about 15 minutes. While they are cooking, caramalise the fennel. Alternate pouring some potatoes and scattering on some fennel and grated cheese into a prepared baking dish till all the components are in the baking dish. Season well, top with the remainder of the cheese and place under a grill till the top is golden and bubbly. What normally takes about an hour to cook will take a quarter of the time. This method is also great if you don’t want to use too much cheese. Just top the gratin with a light covering. The end result is still amazing.

Happy eating! – Blondie

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Asian Slow Cooker Boneless Leg of Lamb

Asian Slow Cooker Boneless Leg of Lamb – This is a 6 hour on high or 8-10 hour on low slow cooker recipe for a simply stunning lamb recipe, which you will be able to use throughout the week in various meals, like a Lamb Rice Bowl, Lamb Tacos, Lamb Ramen Noodle Soup…endless possibilities.

This really is a no effort type of meal with amazing results that will give you melt in your mouth tender meat and a sauce that has a slight heat with sweet and sour flavours. Once the lamb is cooked and you are reducing the liquid you can add fresher flavours like coriander root, more chilli and some lime juice.

Genuinely mouth wateringly good. Blondie 🙂

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Crispy Skin Salt & Pepper Roast Chicken

Finding Feasts - Salt and Pepper Roast Chicken — Click image for the best roast chicken recipe ever.

Roast chickens are one of the most delicious and easy to make meals there are. I will generally make one on a Friday or Saturday so the family has cold chicken meat to eat with sandwiches if I’m out on a job on that weekend.

This recipe is called Crispy Skin Salt & Pepper Roast Chicken for a reason so don’t be scared by the amount of salt in this recipe as the end result is not salty. What you will be left with is crispy skin brimming with flavour and juice that can be used on it’s own, drizzled over the sliced chicken or made into a gravy.

In regards to style of cooking, this is not a ‘leave and forget’ recipe, this is a hands on, cook while your preparing the vegetables or salad for your dinner type recipe. You will be turning it over several times during it’s cooking process so in essence it’s a rotisserie style but in your oven.

Lip smacking goodness – Blondie 🙂

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Preserved Lemon, Fennel & Cumin Marinade

Preserved Lemon, Fennel & Cumin Marinade, is one of those workhorse recipes that can be used with anything from red meats to chicken, even brushed over vegetables for an extra flavour boost when grilling. But for me, it is when it’s partnered with pork that it really shines.

There really is nothing more to say as it really does stand on it’s own and will most definitely be one that you will return to over again.

Enjoy, Blondie 🙂

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Beef & Mushroom Meatloaf w/ Roasted Garlic

Beef & Mushroom Meatloaf w/ Roasted Garlic is a super simple recipe that is just as delicious served piping hot, straight from the oven as it is eaten in the following days on your sandwiches with lashings of tomato chutney and mustard.

I’ve made this with a roasted garlic on the side, but please go ahead and make as much roasted garlic as you choose to as the soft, sweet, caramelised garlic lends it’s self to being used in so many different dishes. Just squeeze the cloves out of their paper casings and cover them with olive oil. This will store well in the fridge for about a week.

To use the roasted garlic for this recipe, simply squeeze out the soft flesh and spread over the meatloaf for added flavour. Even though the roasting of the garlic changes it’s chemical makeup to be more easily digested, you will still have garlic breath – I don’t care what anyone says, it is definitely there! So this is to benefit the people who would like to avoid leaching out garlic smell through out their places of work or school.

Old fashioned homeliness – Blondie 🙂

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Mum’s Divine Lamb Roast Marinade

Finding feasts-Mums Roast Lamb-Marinade — Click image for recipe

I can’t believe I hadn’t put this recipe up yet, so here it is, short and sweet… This is my mum’s marinade for leg of lamb; it’s sweet with a slight hit of mustard heat and makes the most delicious gravy afterwards.

I was raised on this and whenever I make it myself I get a nostalgic whiff of childhood. The aroma that hits you when you walk in the door is divine, hence the title, Mum’s Divine Lamb Roast Marinade 🙂

Get yourself a large leg of lamb so you can enjoy several meals out of it with your family.

Food memories… Blondie

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Pork Sticks w/ Spicy Cumin Salt aka Pork Scratchings

Pork Scratchings w Spicy Cumin Salt — Click image for recipe

Pork Sticks w/ Spicy Cumin Salt aka Pork Scratchings are an incredibly moreish drinking snack that will have everyone wanting more. It really is impossible to walk pass a bowl of these crunchy, crispy pork sticks, especially when lightly dusted with the Spicy Cumin Salt.

These are a great starter to have with drinks, even a great snack to make for the movies as it stores well in sealed containers. If you just can’t wait till christmas for a pork crackling hit then here is your salvation.

Just remember that the pork skin does shrink alot from it’s original size, so when you are buying it buy what you think will be enough, then double it; trust me.

Happy crunching! Blondie

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