Tuesday 4 December 2007

Auntie Jean's bounty!!


Godd bless Auntie Jean and her ilk. Most families have got one, you know, the Auntie in her mid eighties that still treats you like you are 12, but in a good way. Last weekend, Furry caught up with Auntie Jean and despite being on a pension, you NEVER leave Auntie Jean's house without some scones, or some fruit, or a sponge. We've had to pat each other down, leaving her house before, as the odd twenty dollar bill sometimes find its way into your handbag or back pocket.

The kids, all 5 of them, get a Hallmark card with a twenty in it each birthday, and we get a hundred in the Xmas card to buy then all something at Silly Season.

So, it wasn't unusual to see Furry stumbling up the drive way with a huge porto-cooler bag last Sunday.

In it was simply, the BEST lamb I've ever tasted.

Auntie Jean gets her lamb delivered to her door, from Rutherglen Lamb, and with all this talk of SOLE food, it fits the bill perfectly. You get a minimum weight of 12kgs delivered for $205. And this can be cut in various ways, the Roast Pack, the Cook's Choice... that sort of thing.

Each pack contains a whole lamb fully boned and each product is vacuum packed and labelled for your convenience. It can be frozen to extend shelf life.

The property of origin of each lamb is identified in your carton. Specially trained butchers at the Finer Food Pantry in Wangaratta and our carefully selected contractors carry out all processing and delivery in strict accordance with State and Federal food handling requirements


They also provide milk-fed lamb for the restaurant trade, Darren Daley (Sud), Sean Duggan (All Saint's) and Nicky Reimer (Bottega) being fans.


The first thing I noticed was the lack of lamb "smell", and after the Great Curly Tailed Chop Vom of Pregnancy No. 2, this is a VERY good thing, and one of the main reasons we don't eat a lot of lamb.

I marinated the cutlets in olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and some tandoori spice mix and pan fried them for about 2 mins a side and served them on a salad of cos, tommies, cukes and raita.

And sat back and watched our brand spanking new copy of "Long Way Down"

Heaven!!

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

G'dat PG. Bless the Aunties the world over I say!
This is my all time fave way of doing lamb:
get a leg bone it.
Take a head of garlic, a bunch of rosemary, two lemons, coarse sea salt & black pepper. Rough chop the lot before placing a bowl with just enough olive oil to thr top. Use a high sided bowl or even a pot. Dont bother even peeling the garlic or the skin from the lemons, its rustic!
Using a bamix, 'blend' the mix to a thick paste. Pour over the lanb to marinate overnight.
next day place the lot in a tight fitting casserole dish. pour all the marinade over the lamb & add a splash of water for good measure.
Cover tightly with a lid or better yet some alfoil.
Slow rosat in the pre-heated oven for 2.5 to 3 hours at 160'C.(fan forced) Check the lamb half way, see if there still, enough liquid) then re-cover thoroughly.
The lamb should 'fall off the bone' by this time. Then rip the foil off & give it a blast with the temp up to 'crisp up' the surface.
I serve with roasted nut cous cous, labna & a fiery harissa but it goes with anything esp roast vege.

Anonymous said...

Sorry, its meant to say 'get a leg, bone IN!" Dufus!

purple goddess said...

gobby,

I am thinking of ordering a whole milk-fed lamb carcass to cook whole in the pizza oven, over the Silly Season.

This would be FABO done as a whole beast.

Will get on to this ASAP!!

thanh7580 said...

Mmmmm whole lamb, I'm so hungry now just thinking about it.

stickyfingers said...

Once you've had the good stuff, there's no going back. Now Gobbler that's a great recipe.

We are forsaking the 20 odd kilos of free range Weber smoked turkeys this Christmas in favour of a whole lamb on a spit, naturally with lashings of Murray River Salt, lemon, garlic, fresh oregano and rosemary.

We get our wonderful Leicester rare breed from Ethel Stephenson, another sprightly octagenarian, who farms in Gippsland. Her meat is hung for 2 weeks and has a wonderful flavour. It's really filling too - not like that fast grown, smelly commrcial grade stuff...that induces vom in the best of us.

purple goddess said...

I'm thinking a couple of anchovies added to gobblers recipe....

**insert Homer drooling noise**

stickyfingers said...

Anchovies - noice, un-ewe-sual, diff-rent...how about a splash of Marsanne instead of water?

purple goddess said...

or verjuice??

stickyfingers said...

Yeah! Ever thought of putting a suckling pig in there like the Spanish do? Rub the inside with a mix of garlic, salt, pimento and five spice powder, smother lovingly with Olive oil. Mmm....crisp crackling!

purple goddess said...

My goal is to do a kid goat in the oven...

Wanna come and play at THAT dinner party??

;)

grocer said...

so far away, doesn't anyone stay in one place any more?
it would be so nice to see your face at my door.....
boo hoo. a bit of carole king to let you know how left out i feel.

my aunty jean (great aunt actually) wasn't that kind of aunty (her sister Joyce was tho'). Nope. Jean was as mad as a hatter and we only found out when she died and we had to excavate everything that had ever entered the house back out!

stickyfingers said...

I'd definitely be into that - we finally have a weekend free too!

Ms Grocer - you need some kindred spirits in Steak and Kidney too don't you? Have you looked around at who's in the Australian food Bloggers Ring?Surely there's a couple of good sorts up there too? ;)

grocer said...

yeah. i'm desperately in love with jules clancy but i think that would be punching above my weight!

purple goddess said...

Grocer, my love, my sweet...

I will post in the NY about another blogger get together, this time, a weekend at Dromana.

Will give everyone plenty of notice, to organise transport and accommodation, so prepare ye for a foodie love-in early in Feb.

Sticki.. which weekend do you have fwee??

Thanh is coming to Chez Fur the weekend of the 15th (next weekend)

Are you available to party, hearty??