Lamb Steak and Kidney Pie with Savoy Cabbage and Onion

Although steak and kidney pie is a very popular dish in the UK, the most common steak and kidney included in the pie are of the beef variety. Traditional steak and kidney pie is one of my all time favourite dishes but in this instance I decided to experiment a little and see how the recipe turned out with leg of lamb steak and lamb kidney. I was delighted with the results.

The following recipe is designed for two people:

Ingredients

1/2lb leg of lamb steak (chopped)
3 lamb kidneys, cleaned and chopped (see instructions below)
1 pint fresh lamb or chicken stock
6oz puff pastry
1/4 large Savoy cabbage (de-cored and sliced)
1 small onion (thinly sliced)
1 clove of garlic (crushed)
1 tbsp sunflower oil
Salt and pepper

Method

The lamb steak and kidney should be rapidly browned in a large, dry pot and the heated stock added once this has been achieved. The stock should be brought back to the boil and then the heat turned down until a gentle simmer is achieved, for around half an hour. The meat can thereafter be used immediately to make the pie or allowed to cool.

The puff pastry should be rolled out to a sze where it is capable of covering a 10" by 5" ashet pie dish. The meat and stock should then be added to the dish, the edges lightly greased with a little butter and the pastry placed on top, firming it down around the greased rim. The top of the pie should be glazed with a little milk or egg wash and a "+" made in the centre to allow steam to escape during the cooking process.

The pie should be placed in the oven, pre-heated to 400F/200C/Gas Mark 6 for thirty minutes.

Approximately ten minutes before the pie is due to be ready, the sunflower oil should be added to a large pot and brought up to a medium heat. The cabbage, onion and garlic should then be added, stirred thoroughly and again at frequent intervals for ten minutes. Please note that no water or any other liquid is required.

This delicious meal is then ready to be served.

How to Clean and Prepare Kidneys

The easiest option is of course to have your butcher clean and prepare the kidneys for you, or to simply buy them pre-packed in this way from the supermarket. It is not difficult, however, to clean and prepare kidneys, provided one knows what to do.

The first step is simply to cut each kidney in half, down through the centre length-wise. It will then be possible to clearly see the white, fatty substance in the centre of the kidney which should carefully be cut out and discarded. The remaining meat can then be chopped to size as desired.

Relevant Associated Links for your Further Information

Healthy Lamb Recipes

New Zealand Lamb Recipes

Simple Healthy Recipes (Lamb)

Low Fat Lamb Recipes

Lamb Recipe's on Australia's Cuisine.com

Food Tip of the Day - December 2009: Great Christmas Gift Ideas for Foodies!

This Friday, December 4th, 2009, we find ourselves precisely three weeks away from Christmas. Are you in the position of having to consider great Christmas gift ideas for the foodie in your life? If so, over the course of the next couple of weeks, I will use this blog to provide not only some excellent Christmas gift ideas for foodies but where possible, Christmas gift ideas which do not break the bank. The year 2009 has been a hard year for many in a financial sense and Christmas gifts this year may necessarily be a little less elaborate than normal. Keep up to date therefore with what I will try to ensure are daily posts, providing you with a whole host of quality but budget Christmas gift ideas.

So what constitutes great Christmas gift ideas for foodies? The obvious answers are such as cookbooks, kitchen appliances which the particular foodie is in need of or has always desired, or even cooking utensils which the foodie can put to good use.

There is another alternative, however, which you may wish to consider. Why not purchase an Amazon Gift Card for your special foodie? This will allow them to take advantage of Amazon's magnificent array of food related merchandise after Christmas and ensure that they truly get something which they most desire. Amazon Gift Cards can also be redeemed against any product available on the Amazon site and this means that where the particular foodie desires something else this year, their choice is unlimited.

Click on the relevant panel below for details of the Gift Cards available from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk and solve your Christmas gift dilemmas today!

Good night, another bad morning.

Hello everybody! Weekend's here, and I'm so exited because tomorrow morning, Laia and I will be very early at Las Ramblas for the Sonia Rykiel's release at H&M!! Yaw, girl, less than a day!

On the other hand, this week is gonna be funny, indeed. On saturday, dinner and Razz. On Sunday, Virus (a gothic party). On monday, relax... (yea, I'll need it) and on tuesday... Editors! Yes, finally, we're going to see them! And after that... my birthday! God, I can't believe it... just another year? *gasp*

Anyway, I would like to thank you all your lovely comments in this blog, but specially in my last entry about Kate Moss. I'm glad about sharing my opinion with yours; please, keep on expressing and sharing them with me (about Kate or anything), I love reading them.

Coat and skirt - Green Coast

Sweater - Pimkie

Tights - Calzedonia

Bag - Vintage

Shoes - Sonia Rykiel <3

Hat - Claire's

Clock necklace - handmade

Yesterday I had lunch with Esther, Maka and Eva; and after that, we went to Tamar's shop and had a nice coffee with her. I love those kind of days with friends, it's quite funny (and we're always joking about everything; yesterday, for example, it was about a doll called "Goldie"). But the point about yesterday is that Maka gave me two things:

A lovely Christmas card (thank you, dear! I love you :D)

And my dreaming skirt from Baby, the Stars Shine Bright!!

I bought it about two weeks ago and now it's at home, yaw! I've been dreaming with this skirt for so long, you know? It's a Halloween theme, but looks so lovely...

I bought this lovely eyeshadows' palette, and the lollipop is a present from my friend Vane, thanks to you too! And looking so pink... it reminds me... I own you a game, Sher!!

A few days ago, lovely Sher tagged me in a very funny way. She choose a color, and I must look after things in that color at my bedroom. The color she choose was pink ... so here are some pink things around my bedroom!

 

My pink H&M boots, a little notepad with a lovely Miss Bunny, my mouse and my sleeping mask!

I don't have much pink in my decoration, but I've got some cute things in my wardrobe!

Now, I must choose a color and tagg some people... so I choose BLACK and I tagg:

Maka
Nasty
and
Maria

It's your time, girls!

As today I'm feeling again like...

I want to talk you about one of my fashion muses... that belongs to the music world. Yes, I know I've talk about her before (and no, it's not Florence...). She's Alison Mosshart.

Isn't she beautiful?

I love Alison from the first moment I heard her voice. I had not seenher before, but the sound of ther voice through the speakers of my radio was great, and I was captivated from the start. Then I could see her in photos and video clips, and all of this just seemed to me an adjective to it: perfect.

Not only do I find her as a beautiful woman with a particular style of dress; but also I think she's very charismatic and gives a special touch of glamor to anything she touches.

Her voice is soft, yet has a hidden strength that only lets out a glimpse when the feline beast within her. She forms a perfect match with Jamie Hince, her companion of adventures in the wonderful project that is The Kills; has inspired Brian Molko of Placebo and she's currently engaged in a paralel project from The Kills along with Jack White, The Dead Weather.

I think the world of fashion, certainly, drinks flowing all around, creating a kind of reciprocal circle that inspires some and within which draws inspiration from others. Of course, any art theme is touched by fashion and music is no exception. Madonna, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, David Bowie ... We can think of a thousand examples of influential people in the world of fashion, and that both are inspired by it. But honestly, I think that there are two groups: one, with those stars who are led by the world of fashion and what designers say, coolhunters and stylists; and another for those that are the objective of coolhunters, inspiration for designers and the creative dream of every good stylist. Of course, not just in the world of celebrities, also in day to day and from the people around us, but perhaps it is in the glamorous world where this is most evident.

For me, Alison is within the second category. Her personal style, character, her aura of mystery, makes her a juicy prey for coolhunters (and therefore, for me) because she's not led by the canons in extreme fashion, making her a unique person...

So, dear Alison ...Never change!

And to you all, thanks for reading!
(and remember, I'm not here to please you)

Hoy os voy a hablar de una de mis musas (y no, no es Florence): Alison Mosshart.

Alison me enamoró desde el primer momento en el que escuché su voz. No la había visto antes, pero me daba igual... el sonido que emitía su voz a través de los altavoces de mi radio era maravilloso, y me cautivó desde el inicio. Luego pude verla en fotos y videoclips, y tan sólo se me antojó un adjetivo para ella: perfecta.
No sólo me resulta una mujer hermosa y con un particular estilo a la hora de vestir; sino que además creo que es muy carismática y le imprime un especial toque de glamour a cualquier cosa que toca.

Su voz es suave, pero a la vez posee una fuerza escondida que sólo deja entrever cuando deja escapar a la fiera felina que lleva dentro. Forma un equipo perfecto con Jaime Hince, su compañero de aventuras en ese maravilloso proyecto que es The Kills; ha inspirado a Brian Molko de Placebo actualmente está embarcada en un proyecto paralalelo a The Kills junto a Jack White; The Dead Weather.

Creo que el mundo de la moda, indudablemente, bebe de todo lo que fluye a su alrededor, creando una especie de círculo recíproco que inspira a unos y dentro del cual, recibe inspiración de otros. Por supuesto, cualquier temática artística se ve tocada por la moda, y la música no es una excepción. Madonna, Lady Gaga, The Strokes, David Bowie... podemos pensar en mil ejemplos de personas influyentes en el mundo de la moda, y que a la vez son inspirados por la misma. Pero sinceramente, yo considero que hay dos grupos: Uno, el de aquellas estrellas que se dejan llevar por el mundo de la moda y lo que dicen los diseñadores, coolhunters y estilistas; y otro, el de aquellas con personalidad propia que son objetivo de los coolhunters, inspiración para los diseñadores y el sueño creativo de todo buen estilista. Por supuesto, no sólo pasa en el mundo de los famosos; también en el día a día y entre las personas que nos rodean; pero tal vez es en el mundo del glamour donde ésto se hace más evidente.

Para mí, Alison está dentro de la segunda categoría. Su estilo personal, su carácter, su aura de misterio la convierten en una presa jugosa para los coolhunters (y por ende, para mí), ya que ella no se deja llevar en extremo por los cánones de la moda, convirtiéndola en un ser único...

Por eso, querida Alison... ¡nunca cambies!

Y a vosotros, gracias por leer!!

(All Alison's pictures are from weheartit)

Molecular Gastronomy - New Site and Freebies

At some point in the not too distant future I will be helping the good folks at Cream Supplies, purveyors of the finest molecular gastronomy goodies, to launch a new interactive cooking site.

The focus will be on making molecular gastronomy accessible to us mere mortals.

We will be de-mystifying the processes, equipment, ingredients and techniques used by many of the world’s finest chefs and showing you how to achieve those same results at home.



But before we can get down to the serious business of playing with our food, we need to know what you want to know.

What would you like to learn?

Perhaps you want to know how to make lighter than air foams? Or those neat little caviar pearls for cocktails? Maybe you want to make spaghetti from strawberries, vegetarian panna cotta or little spheres that burst in the mouth.

Whatever your question, we’ve got the answers. Please either email me or leave your question as a comment below.

To sweeten the deal we have five awesome kits to give away to the best questions:



What’s more, one lucky so-and-so will be sent one of these to get you started on the road to molecular greatness:



You’ll be making airs, foams, spheres and edible pearls before you can say ‘Ferran Adria’.

Recipe

To give you a little flavour of the sort of thing we’ll be getting up to, here is a lavender rice pudding with black olive caramel and a black olive foam.

Infuse 200ml of milk with a few lavender leaves and sweeten by dissolving in two tablespoons of sugar. Toast some risotto rice over a high heat and add a nob of butter and 25ml of sweet vermouth. Pour over the warmed milk, cook for 20 minutes, or until the rice is tender, stirring occasionally.

Rinse and finely chop 50g black olives. Add half the olives to 200ml milk and blend using a stick blender. Heat gently and stir in 1g soya lecithin. Blend again and allow to cool. Pass through a fine meshed sieve and leave until ready to serve.

Heat two tablespoons of caster sugar until it starts to brown. Add the remaining black olives and allow to cook for thirty seconds. Pour onto a silicon or heatproof mat and leave to cool. Break into small pieces.



Use a stick blender to agitate the olive, milk and lecithin mixture until it begins to create a foam.

Spoon the rice pudding into a warm bowl and garnish with a few lavender flowers, the black olive caramel. Spoon the olive foam over the top and serve immediately.

Notes
Lecithin is an emulsifier found in eggs and soya beans that allows you to create foams and airs from a huge range of ingredients.

mama gempakkk

u can be my sweet dreammm~~~

or a beautiful nightmare~~~

(hp ku bernyanyi rianggg....)

me ; hello. ye ma, nape?

mama ; akak. mama dah dpt result periksa. hahahaha...

me ; ha. dpt bape ma?!

mama ; hahahaha.... semua A dgn A-

me ; so... pointer?

mama ; hahahahaha... 3.80!

me ; maaaaa??? what daaaaaa???

mama ; hahahahahahaha...

mama ; lawanlah mama kalau hebat... hahahaha

i was like. theeee.

1st sem of Master in Account.

**sumpah sikittt pun xminat account**

3.80??? termsk lect yg x skeee mama tuh?

T____T

in study thingy,

u r the opposite of me, mama.

u're realllyyyyy hardworking.

and i'm, the laziestttt girl.

btw. i am so damn proud of u mama.

go mama go!

mama. cepatlah balik.

anak mama rindu. sudah. poket pun. kering sudah.

tp yg penting rindu mama. huhu.

muahhhh3 mama.