Britians got Culinary talent contestant number 1 ....Me mate Steve.

I worked for a company a few years ago that provided the food service for the Newcastle Library. The chap who was the chef their was called Steve and his cooking experience was limited but he had got talent and a flair for food and cooking. Anyway one day Mark who ran the company asked me to pop over and give Steve a bit of support and give him some advice. I wandered over their for 7.00 am to help set up for breakfast and lunch with Steve and impart some of my Culinary Buddhist zenistry his way !!!
Steve unfortunately had been at a family celebration the day before and as we Chefs say was feeling a little poorly ! so he went home and I had to stay and do breakfast and lunch service myself ! MUG ! ha ha !
I have stayed in touch with Steve via Facebook ever since and he has been kind enough to read my blog and the other day he indicated that he would love to do a recipe for the blog so below is Steve's most excellent Lamb recipe for you to have a go at. Steve left the Library a while ago and is training to be a Food Technology teacher where I am sure he will be brilliant at passing on his Culinary Buddhist Zenistry to his pupils ! Enjoy !




British Spring Lamb, Potato and Feta Galette, Greek(ish) Salad.

So I thought that I’d take up Kev’s kind offer to put one of my recipes onto his very fine blog! Now I’m not a fancy chef-type a la Chevis, I’m a lowly self-taught cook training to be a Food Tech Teacher so don’t let the ‘Galette’ fool you, it just sounds better than ‘Cake’! Nor am I an ex-photographer as the out of focus, poorly lit, mobile phone pics will confirm, but hopefully they’ll be good enough to give you an idea!
My approach to cooking is to buy good quality ingredients whenever possible and then do my best not to ruin them! I like simple flavours and meals I can cook with little fuss as my 21-month old son scampers around my feet (more on him later)! So I think this is a good one to brighten up a Monday night when Spring had sprung and then decided to do one! Hope you like it……
Potato and Feta Galette
Thinly slice potatoes, add to a bowl with melted butter, chopped garlic and rosemary. Season and mix well.

Melt a little extra butter in an oven proof pan and arrange potatoes in concentric cirlces.

At this point I should also have been adding the Feta Cheese. However, I was distracted by the little whirlwind that is Samuel! So I just ended up adding the cheese on top!

Start this off on the hob over a high heat until the butter is sizzling and the bottom layer of Potatoes are starting to colour. Then transfer to the oven and bake until potatoes are fork tender, around 30 mins. If you’re doing a lot of potatoes it might be an idea to cover the pan with foil to prevent the top burning before all of the potatoes have softened. Turn out onto a plate.

Spring Lamb

Season, then colour the Lamb in an ovenproof pan with garlic and rosemary (I used the fillet end from a leg of lamb from the local Butcher’s, £13 odd)
Colour is flavour so get the pan nice and hot, transfer to oven (200 degrees C ish) for around 30 mins. I use a meat thermometer, I like my Lamb cooked to 63 degrees, which is around Medium. Remove from Oven, cover with foil and allow to rest. Those lovely pan juices can be used to drizzle over your potatoes or to dress your salad leaves. That’s that, onto the Salad….Greek(ish) Salad

I borrowed Kev’s cowboy hat for this part! Maybe it should have been called a ‘Morrison’s’ Salad!

No instructions necessary for this bit, you could also add olives but they’re not too popular in my household!

Enjoy! (With plenty of wine….we had Oxford Landing Cabernet Rose 2007, £6.99 from the boutique wine shop ‘Boozebusters’! Although Sam preferred a 2012 vintage Apple Juice!)