Moroccan Lamb 'chilli'

This recipe is heaviliy inspred by Melissa Joulwan's Chocolate Chilli. I made it with half mince and half chunks of gravy beef and it was delicious. I wanted to make a variation and created this tagine inspired lamb chilli. 

I've used a commercial spice blend but I plan to work out a version with individual spices too. 

Moroccan Lamb Chilli

Serves 4-6

600g Diced Lamb

600g Lamb Mince

6ts Herbies Chermoula spice blend

1 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Ginger paste

1 tsp Garlic paste

1 tbsp Honey (optional)

Rind ½ lemon

1 Onion diced

2 tbsp tomato paste

1 tin tomatoes

250ml chicken stock

To serve

Avocado, diced

Cucumber, diced

Roasted pumpkin, diced

Tomato, diced

Brown lamb in a frypan in olive oil (or preferred cooking fat) on medium high heat, in batches if necessary. Place in to casserole dish or large saucepan. Brown mince in frypan until cooked through. Add to casserole dish/saucepan

Add more oil to the frypan, then brown diced onion on medium low heat for 10-15 minutes. Add garlic and ginger for the last minute or two.

While the onion is cooking, add remaining ingredients to the cooked meat. Add onion/garlic mix once soft and caramelized.

Bring to a gentle simmer and cook on low heat for 2-3 hours, until the meat is fall-apart tender Or cook in the oven (160C/320F) for 2-4 hours.

Serve topped with diced avocado, cucumber, tomato and roasted pumpkin.

Notes:

I use the cheapest cut of lamb available for the diced lamb. Usually I buy shoulder/forequarter chops (from the end with one main bone) and trim and dice myself.

If you leave out the honey, I believe this recipe would be suitable for a Whole30.

The Herbies Chermoula blend contains: Cumin, Paprika, Onion, Turmeric, Cayenne, Garlic, Parsley, Salt, Pepper, Coriander Leaves. If you want to mix your own blend you could try 
2 tsp Cumin
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp tumeric
1/2 tsp cayenne/chilli. 

Roasting coffee with a popcorn maker

Roasting coffee with a popcorn maker is unbelievably easy. And you can roast your own 'single origin' or espresso blends for a fraction of the cost that the specialty roasters charge.

Everthing I know about home-roasting I owe to Sweet Marias. They have a wealth of information on their site, but the main info is here on this page.

This is my popcorn maker - a Breville 'Crazy Popper' which I picked up at a tip shop for less than $5 AUD. 

I bought green beans from Tascaffe (a local roaster, based in Derwent Park, Hobart) for $12/kilo. I bought three varieties: Ethiopian (unknown region), Blue Batak (indonesian) and Nicaraguan.

I asked Nick from Tascaffe for a few blending tips and he suggested I mix the Ethiopian & Batak 50/50 to get a slight chocolatey flavour. 

My aim is to make a blend that is lively and flavoursome enough for me to drink as a straight espresso, but one that works well with milk for the rest of the family to drink. The Ethiopian on it's own is too acidic and dominant when used in a latte. 

I had previously test-roasted each batch of beans to first crack. They took almost the same amount of time so I decided to do something I hadn't done before when making a blend - I mixed the two varieties as green beans and roasted them together.

Here are the mixed beans ready to go in the popcorn maker. The machine comfortably takes just over half a cup. I can squash more in at the pre-roasting stage but then I just end up with overflowing beans at the end. 

I use the stopwatch on my phone to time the roast, but I also keep an eye on the colour and an ear on the sound. After about a minute and a half the coffee begins to colour. 

First crack started soon after 3 minutes. I turned the machine off after most of the pops had stopped (like you would do with popcorn) at just before the 5 minute mark. 

Then I quickly pour the hot beans out on to a metal tray covered with baking paper to start cooling. 

As the first batch is cooling. I reset my timer, and load up the popcorn maker and start the next batch of green coffee. About half way through the roasting time, I move the cooling roasted coffee from the tray in to a plastic container.

I usually wait until the following morning before putting the coffee through the grinder and then espresso machine. 

As a double-espresso shot the blend is lightly acidic and lemony, then creamy and rich with hints of vanilla and caramel. It finishes with a slight chocolate and spice flavour.

Bellissimo!

Good coffee in Hobart

One of my (many) foodie pleasures in life is a good coffee. 

Luckily there are many places in Hobart to get a decent doppio, long black (aka americano) or latte. 

I've listed a few of my favourite places below. Hobart city cafes dominate this list because that's where I work and buy most of my coffee. 

Villino Espresso (and Ecru)  
Criterion Street, Hobart

These guys are definitely at the top of the list! It's one of the places that I trust 100% to do a good doppio. They usually have at least two different beans currently available for coffee, one to have with milk and one without - usually the no-milk one is a 'single origin'. My favourite bean from here (and possibly ever) has been an Ethiopean as a doppio. 
The cafe is tiny and it's a very popular place so there isn't a huge amount of seating. This isn't so bad in summer when it's quite pleasant to sit outside, but inside can be a bit squashy in winter. 
The same team run Ecru coffee a few doors further down Criterion street. This is a take-away only but same great coffee and crew. Fantastic for a quick coffee on the run, or one where you only want to sit down for a few minutes.
I've had great espresso, long blacks and lattes here. They roast their own coffee and supply many other Hobart cafes. You can also purchase quite a few of their different varieties of beans to use at home.


Pilgrim
Argyle Street Hobart

A close second to Villino, this cafe has way more seating. This is where I go when I want really good coffee, but I want to make sure I can get a table to sit at. I usually go there when I'm meeting a friend for coffee, so I tend to choose a long black (with milk on the side) or latte which I can sip slower than an espresso. 
They also do a great selection of teas and a few soft drinks too.



Jackman & McRoss
Victoria Street Hobart

Coffee at J&McR can be a bit hit and miss at their other two cafes in my experience but in the city it's always good. This is another place I go when I'm meeting a friend (they do an absolutely gorgeous croissant and jam) so usually I have a long black (with milk) or a latte. 
The cafe is also close to where I work so I often pop in for a lunch time coffee, which is usually served promptly.
J&McR is a local chain of bakeries and they have delicious breads and pastries, and the lunch offerings by the counter usually look pretty tasty too.
They use Tascaffe beans (more about Tascaffe below)

 
Fullers Bookshop cafe 
Collins Street Hobart

Very close to where I work so when I want a quick coffee at lunch time I pop in here. They have a lovely open light cafe in the back of the bookshop with a fab view of Mount Wellington (if you get the right seat). A fantastic place to sit and sip, especially in the winter.
They also do good food and I have had one of the most delicious sandwiches of my life here (house-made hummus, feta, sun-dried tomato & rocket) and some nice soup as well. The coffee isn't quite as good as the other 3 cafes I've mentioned (although I believe they use beans from Villino) but it's usually quick and reliable.


Tasmanian coffee roasters
Gregory Street Sandy Bay

I've only had coffee here two or three times, but I thought it was worth a mention because I had a memorable long black here once: They served the shot of espresso in a large cup, but then served the hot water in a jug on the side so I could decide for myself how much water to add. 
As the name suggests, they also roast coffee and sell it in a little room at the front.


Tascaffe
Gormanston Rd, Derwent Park 

Tascaffe isn't even a cafe, they are coffee roasters. They seem to supply quite a lot of the cafes in Hobart. 
They also sell roasted coffee direct to the public at nearly half the price of most other specialty roasters. Coffee I buy from here has usually been roasted within the last few days. They have 5 or 6 different roasted blends and also a decaf. I usually buy the 'Milan' blend. 
I've also bought small amounts of green coffee from here for home roasting (more on that in a future post)

I hope this information is useful. I'd love to hear other people's favourite coffee spots in Hobart.

Getting the ball rolling with Beef Rendang

I love Thai food. 

It started with just a liking and then developed in to a full-blown obsession when I worked around the corner from Chiang Mai Kitchen in Oxford UK. My husband and I would go there for lunch at least once a week. 

We would almost always have the same thing - Red Chicken Curry. But occasionally I would have something else and that would often be Beef Rendang. 

Recently I was buying red curry paste and the Rendang paste was right alongside it so I bought some of that too and thought I'd give it a go. I searched for some recipes, then sort of hybridized two and came up with the recipe below.

I cook with gravy beef (beef shin) a lot of the time because it's cheap but it has a lot of flavour. I enjoy the challenge of turning a cheap, tough cut of meat in to a delicious tender meal. 

Beef Rendang

4 lady serves (or 2-3 man serves)

600g stewing beef (shin, chuck etc)

2 ½ teaspoons Mae Ploy Rendang curry paste

1 teaspoon lazy ginger

4 cloves

½ cinnamon stick

2 star anise

2 lime leaves

240ml tin coconut milk (I used Woolworths Select because it doesn't separate)

2 level dessert spoons brown sugar

6 mushrooms (optional)

½ a red pepper (optional)

soy sauce, lemon juice and salt to taste

Brown beef in batches in oil in a frypan on medium to high heat. Put in to casserole dish/pot (I used a large cast-iron dutch oven, but it was almost too big for the small batch of curry)

Add more oil to pan, turn heat to low and put cloves, cinnamon and star anise in pan. Toast for a minute or so. Add ginger, curry paste and a small amount of coconut milk (enough to stop the curry paste spitting)

Gently cook the curry paste for a few minutes. Add more coconut milk if necessary.

Transfer paste/spice/coconut milk mix in to the pot with the beef. Add remaining coconut milk, brown sugar, lime leaves and a splash of soy sauce. Bring to a gentle boil then turn heat to low (barely bubbling). Cook for 1 ½ to 2 ½ hours, until beef is tender

 

Adjust seasonings as necessary to get the right balance of hot-sour-salt-sweet. Add another splash of soy and then more salt if needed (I tend to almost over-salt to compensate for plain rice). 

I also added more lemon juice to my batch. You may need to add chilli powder if your curry paste isn't very hot. 

Serve with stir-fried veg (snow peas, cauliflower, zuchini) if you want to make it paleo, rice if you don't.  

The curry at the beginning of cooking time

Apologies for the poor quality photos. I am just learning about photographing food!