It's a recipe handed down to me from my last partner believe it or not! Personally, I think he cooked it better than I ever could, but I keep trying.
Every time I cook it, it turns out different to the last time.
He used to call it Mongolian Lamb, however, there is nothing 'mongolian' about it.
It's layers of browned lamb barbecue chops, tinned tomatoes, leeks and rice, all covered with stock and then cooked in the oven for 2 hours. Really simple, and really tasty.
I've got a pot of it in the oven right now ... but I've tried something different this time.
When I cleaned out the fridge earlier today, there were some old vegetables that I knew wouldn't last much longer and I didn't think I'd use them in the next couple of days, so I threw them all in a saucepan with some filtered water, some herbs from the garden and some himalayan salt and cracked pepper and made some vegetable stock.
I had a small amount of home made chicken stock left in the freezer, so I added that when it was finished and used the whole lot as my stock for the lamb dish (I usually use two containers of bought liquid chicken stock + the juice from the tinned tomatoes).
The other change I made, was using fresh tomatoes.
Everybody has an abundance of tomatoes in their gardens at the moment, and because ours aren't quite ripe yet, our friends have been sharing theirs with us.
All types. Egg, cherry, grape, ox heart, beef steak, gross lisse, mini roma etc etc.
So I chopped a good lot of them up into big chunks and I also threw a good lot of them in the blender and pureed them.
I didn't add anything to them, because when I tasted them, the flavour was so delicious and strong, I didn't think they needed anything else.
I used all of this as the tomato base for my lamb dish (I usually use 3 tins of whole tomatoes and one tin of diced tomatoes).
I won't finalise this post until after dinner tonight so that I can tell you if it was a success or not.
While I've been creative in the kitchen, Adoring Husband has been creative in the shed.
He made this to house our often-used shoes in the garage.
and he made this nesting box for OB and SEB.
One of them laid an egg last week and we found it smashed on the cage floor.
It is Spring, so I guess the birds and the bees get restless at this time of year!
Anyway, the only thing that this has confirmed, is that one of them is a female! We figure, if the other is a male, perhaps we should accommodate the possibility of little OBs and SEBs in the future.
So it's been a very creative day for both of us. This was our lunch ...
Today I'm grateful to live in this very lucky country. I feel so lucky to have been born here and that I've never had to suffer the injustices, the cruelty, the torture, the poverty, the starvation, the violence, the fear, the sickness, the trauma of war or any of the hardships that so many others in so many countries have endured. Australians have so much to be grateful for and we should never take this lifestyle for granted.
Nite all.
PS Dinner had so much more flavour than usual - Adoring Husband had two helpings!
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