The Cookbook Challenge - Week 7 - Soft - Lamb Shanks, Perfect Pannacotta and a Giveaway!

Sorry I'm late with my cookbook challenge this week. I lost my camera cable and couldn't post without pics. It was "tidied" and I've only just re-located it.

This week's challenge recipes are fresh from the first dinner with the in-laws in our new house. The meal received rave reviews, and both recipes are definitely going on the repeat recipe rotation. Australian Women's Weekly, what would we do without you?

I've been wanting to make Lamb Shanks in five-spice, tamarind and ginger from AWW 501 Low Carb Recipes for ages - it was the reason I bought the book in the first place, but 6 months later I still hadn't done it. The Cookbook Challenge's Soft theme is the perfect week for melt in your mouth, falling off the bone, slow cooked lamb shanks. It takes a while in the oven, but is really simple.

I also needed to produce a dessert that was light and fresh, and able to tone down the chilli flavours from the lamb, while still holding it's own in flavour. You may remember that Martin from Bondi Chai sent me some of their product to have a play with (and giveaway, so make sure you read to the end!), and I thought the Vanilla Honey Chai would be a perfect pannacotta flavouring, so I combined it with this week's Soft theme, pulling out 1000 Best Ever Recipes from AWW which was a much appreciated Christmas gift.

I'll post these recipes in the order I served them, rather than the order I made them.

Asparagus wrapped in proscuitto

Self explanatory really. Steam your asparagus sparingly - no more than 5 minutes.

Lamb shanks in five-spice, tamarind and ginger

2 tsp five-spice powder

1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes

1 cinnamon stick

2 star anise

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/2 cup Chinese rice wine (I couldn't get any, and used dry sherry)

2 tbsp tamarind puree

2 tbsp brown sugar

40g grated ginger (I was desperate to use my new microplane that I got for Christmas, but the supermarket was out of fresh ginger, so I used the tube stuff)

2 cloves garlic coarsely chopped

1 1/4 cups water

8 (1.6kg) french trimmed lamb shanks (AWW says this serves 4, but take into account who you're serving - I served 6 shanks to 2 gentlemen and 2 ladies and it was perfect)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees.

Combine soy sauce, rice wine, tamarind, sugar, ginger, garlic and water in a medium jug.

Dry-fry five-spice, chilli, cinnamon and star anise, stirring constantly until fragrant.

Add spices to the jug of liquids, and whisk to combine.

Place shanks in a large shallow baking dish (preferably with a lid) in a single layer and pour the spice mixture on.

Cover and bake for 2 hours, turning occasionally (I did it every 1/2 hour).

Once cooked, remove shanks from dish and cover to keep warm. Strain remaining sauce into a small saucepan and boil, then pour over lamb and vegetables of your choice.

I served mine with mashed potato (not in the spirit of the low-carb recipe) and steamed choy sum and broccolini.

Vanilla Honey Chai Pannacotta

300ml thickened cream

250ml milk

1 vanilla bean (I substituted this for 8 teaspoons of Bondi Chai Vanilla Honey Creamy Tea Latte Powder)

1/4 cup caster sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons gelatine powder

1 strip lemon rind (trust me, it's better with 2!)

Stir all the ingredients in a pan over low heat until warm.

Stand until cool.

Strain mixture through a fine strainer into medium jug, and pour into 4 1/2 cup moulds, or martini glasses. Cover, and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Turn pannacotta from moulds onto serving plates, or leave in glasses.

I served mine with a rosewater strawberry syrup, made by boiling 1/4 cup caster sugar with 1/2 punnet chopped strawberries, 1/4 cup water and a few drops of rosewater essence.

And I promised a giveaway!

While my pannacotta was absolutely delicious, and was eaten even by the person who at first responded to it with cries of "why isn't this chocolate mousse?!?" I haven't been overly creative with my use of the Bondi Chai powder.  I bet you can do better! I have 1 Club Cinnamon Bondi Chai, and 1 Vanilla Honey Bondi Chai to give away courtesy of Martin from Bondi Chai.

Leave me a comment telling me how you would use Bondi Chai powder in your cooking, and the 2 most creative ways will win a packet to create their vision. Whilst I welcome comments from international visitors, I can only post these prizes within Australia, and I will make the final decision based on comments received before 18th January 2010.  You may want to check out the Bondi Chai website for some inspiration, or try their Facebook page.

There you go. That's something by Kate.

The Cookbook Challenge - Week 4 - Beans - Lamb & green bean salad with pesto dressing

Cheating again, with a magazine that I own but searched on Taste.com.au. 

I count my magazines as cookbooks, as I keep them all together in the bookshelves which are dedicated to cooking. My wonderful brother and his lovely wife give me a subscription to Australian Good Taste magazine for my birthday every year, and my very generous mother-in-law has had a subscription to Delicious magazine forever, but doesn't like to keep more than 2 years worth of magazines at a time, so the old ones get adopted and come to my house to live. Add to that the collection of 50 or so that I bought in bulk on eBay (Good Taste, Super Food Ideas, Delicious, Gourmet Traveller, Australian Table etc.) and the ones I randomly collect at the supermarket from time to time, they make up a large proportion of the recipes I have on hand to refer to. Inch for inch it's about 50/50 books to magazines, and there's over 10 feet of bookshelves dedicated to the cause.

Lamb and Green Bean Salad with Pesto Dressing is one I've made before, but had forgotten about, so not only is the Cookbook Challenge getting me to try new recipes, but revisiting the ghosts of meals past too! I wanted to make a bean salad as we had a Christmas picnic scheduled for work (Ladies, a plate), and I could kill two birds with one stone by catering for the picnic and preparing this week's Cookbook Challenge.  I had selected another recipe that I thought would scale up better than this, however due to threatening inclement weather this week the picnic was moved to the pub, so I decided to make the salad I liked better - and with the lamb this one is a complete meal, rather than a side - as much as I like to cook, I'm moving next week and the fewer things I have to do right now, the better. I'll make up for it once I'm living with my two ovens in the new house.

Ingredients

500g lamb backstraps
240g green beans
3 large ripe tomatoes, coarsely chopped
2 Lebanese cucumbers, halved lengthways, thinly sliced
1/2 bunch watercress, sprigs picked, washed (I couldn't find watercress, so used baby Mediterranean mixed salad leaves)
1 cup firmly packed fresh basil leaves
75g toasted pine nuts
1/3 cup shredded Parmesan
1 garlic clove, crushed (I never use the recommended amount of garlic, I always add at least 1 clove extra)
1/2 cup olive oil
1/3 cup lemon juice


Cook the lamb for 3-4 minutes each side for medium-rare, transfer to a plate and cover with foil and set aside for 5 minutes to rest. Thinly slice.

Meanwhile, cook beans in a saucepan of boiling water for 3-4 minutes or until bright green and tender crisp. Refresh under cold running water. Drain. I just steamed them.

To make the pesto dressing, place the basil, pine nuts, parmesan and garlic in the bowl of a food processor and process until coarsely chopped.

That looks coarse to me

With the motor running, gradually add the oil in a thin, steady stream until well combined. Add the lemon juice and process until smooth. I had to keep scraping down the sides, I guess my food processor bowl is too big - I definitely wouldn't recommend halving this recipe, unless you have a really small food processor.

Combine the beans, tomato, cucumber and watercress (salad leaves) in a bowl. Divide among serving plates and top with sliced lamb. Drizzle over pesto dressing and season with pepper to serve.

Just because I feel guilty for pretending my presentation skills are fabulous - check out the plate I prepared that I wasn't going to take a picture of:

What a mess! All just lumped on, with splatters of pesto dressing around the edge - who prepared that rubbish?