Lamb Pilaff

As my time at home rapidly approaches an end, I appreciate more than ever quite how scrumptious home cooking can be and, when one is elbow deep in daily tasks and getting things done, how incredible the interruption of a proper, home-cooked lunch can be. The world of working away from home will be a strange thing when I go back to it, I tell you. Sandwiches? Eh, wot? Pret a Manger?!? Nah, guv, not fer me thanks. I've got my hot, straight-from-the-cooker Lamb Pilaff. And that, girls and boys, is what I am going to talk to you about today.

It's going to be a bit of a 'cobbled together' recipe, as is my way - as it was all a bit handful of this, dash of that, etc etc. But 'twas too scrumptious not to share.

Ingredients

1 clove garlic, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1-2 small sticks celery, finely diced
2 cupfuls long-grain rice
1 lamb stock cube
spices: cinnamon, 2-3 cloves
handful each of almonds or cashew nuts, sultanas/raisins, chopped apricots
1/2 small onion, sliced thinly
2-3 handfuls of roughly chopped leftover lamb (from a Sunday lunch)

Method
1. Sweat garlic, onions and celery in a pan with some butter and olive oil, when golden add the rice and stir, covering the rice grains.
2. Crumble in the lamb stock, and add enough water to just cover the rice grains. Stir, and continue to stir until most liquid is absorbed. The rice should be a dark yellow colour (as a result of the lamb stock).
3. Add in the spices, dried fruit and nuts and chopped cooked lamb, stirring in, and allowing most of the remaining liquid to cook off.
4. Serve with chopped parsley scattered.

Really good warming lunch, mmm, making my tum rumble as I write in fact.

Frugal Fare Challenge Day 2: Sunday

Sunday was an unashamed 'let's use leftovers' day. My challenge continued.

Breakfast (storecupboard): a little muesli; scrambled eggs on toast with roast tomatoes.
Item from weekly shop: 2 eggs

Lunch: Sausages with Bubble & Squeak and Beetroot
I cooked up some sausages I'd bought - not too kooky - and then I remembered that I had some leftover mash potato in the fridge. Out it came, to be made into a curiously successful take on Bubble & Squeak, but rather than using cabbage I used...cauliflower. Today I may well have entered into the realms of using-up-food-and-creating-dishes-that-only-I-would-eat, but only others can judge that...! I served it with the last remaining beetroot to polish it off.
Item from weekly shop: sausages; Fridge/Storecupboard: all other

To make Bubble & Squeak - both my own rather eccentric version and the usual with cabbage:

A small bowlful of cold, leftover mashed potato
A dollop of butter
Salt & Pepper
a handful of either chopped, sliced cabbage or several florets of cauliflower
Seasoned flour
Oil to fry

Plunge the cabbage/cauliflower into boiling water and boil for 6-8 minutes until tender. Drain and leave to cool slightly.
In a bowl, beat up the potato with the butter, and season generously. Tip the cab/caul into the potato mixture, and stir in. Take a generous handful of potato mixture out of the bowl and with your hands form it into a patty shape, dipping the patty into your seasoned flour mixture.
Heat some oil in a small frying pan and when hot drop your potato patty into the mixture. Cook on both sides (about 3-4 minutes) until golden. Very World War II.

I'd love to say I took a glorious photo of the above, but sadly twas not meant to be and my camera just wouldn't do it justice. I think it might take better photography skills than mine to render sausages appetising looking...so you'll just have to imagine a colourful, vibrant dish!

Dinner: A different version of yesterday's Chicken Pilaff
I softened half a leek gently for about ten minutes before adding in the remains of my pilaff from yesterday, and chopping another generous handful of parsley to pack it full of iron. Delicious, economic and lots of my daily dose of vegetables. A success in my book!