Andrew's Sunday Steak Sanga

There is nothing more fun that catching up with your old mates especially over a beer and a good ol' steak sanga (translation: steak sandwich). After a walk and frolic at Bronte beach we all mosied on back to Andrew and Renee's house for a spot of lunch. The weather was beautiful so we sat out the back and had some cold beer and wine. Andrew cooked up some scotch fillet steaks on the barbie which he'd flattened so they were more tender and sandwich friendly. At the same time he fried up some balsamic onions which is exactly what it says on the tin - diced onion and balsamic vinegar. We toasted some turkish bread, Renee chopped up some slices of tomato, washed some spinach and laid out the most important ingredient - the sauces: BBQ, Tomato and Mayo. A piece of turkish, topped with tender steak, sweet onion, fresh tomato, spinach and a combo of mayo and BBQ sauce. Bite into it...delicious! A sip of wine, a steak sanga and old friends..the perfect Sunday.

A slow-cooked lamb shank

We went over to Dan and Chantal's and they cooked up such a beautiful dinner. I was especially touched as they've recently had a baby, so life is extra hectic! That's where the slow cooker came in handy. Dan plonked all the ingredients for these Moroccan lamb shanks in the slow cooker in the morning and by the time he got home it was done. A relaxing glass of wine with the gang, make the cous cous in a flash, sit down and serve. The lamb was so soft it fell of the bone and the sauce was  thick and sweet from the sweet potato and the prunes. This combination os sweet, savoury and spice was just earthy and delicious! Lucky we had plenty of cous cous to mop it all up! Here is the recipe - divine. http://www.bestrecipes.com.au/recipe/Slow-Cooker-Moroccan-Lamb-Shanks-L2841.html

My boyfriend the cook

My boyfriend has always claimed he is no cook. He'd rather leave it to me. But he got a 'gastropub' cookbook for his birthday and, somewhat reluctantly, decided to give it a go for a casual Friday night dinner with 2 of our friends. Whilst I can't say he enjoyed the process (some people actually find cooking stressful if you can believe it) I think he was quite chuffed with the end result. The simple but special menu?

Oysters Kilpatrick
Lamb cutlets with rosemary and anchovy butter
A side of perfectly roasted potatoes
Rocket, pear and Parmesan salad with caramelised balsamic dressing (bought on a recent trip to Mudgee)
Strawberries Romanoff with vanilla cream
Cheese
Loads of wine

I helped by heading to the fish market Friday morning. It was so lovely and peaceful being there at 8am and having the market to myself. I bought a dozen Pacific and a dozen Sydney Rock oysters and got some lovely cheeses from the lovely cheese man.

For the Oysters Kilpatrick Carl cut 2 pieces of bacon into strips, crisped them in the pan then added some balsamic vinegar. He then add a dash of Worcestershire sauce and spooned this mixture over the oysters..into a hot grill for about 5 minutes and there you go. You could still taste the oyster but it has has the smokiness of the bacon and the sauce.

The lamb cutlets were simply cooked on the BBQ along with the rosemary but what made them really special was the anchovy butter:

125g of softened unsalted butter
2 anchovies
1 tbsp of parsley
1 tomato skinned and de-seeded
1 clove of crushed garlic

We mixed this all together, placed in the centre of some Gladwrap, rolled and put into the fridge to set. Once the lamb was done we simply sliced a piece of the butter and put it on top of the lamb to melt..amazing.. to mop up with the lamb and the roast spuds. Plus with the leftover butter is now in the freezer for us to use on fish, with chicken, stirred through pasta on to make a garlic bread - very handy indeed.

The strawberries were quartered, sprinkled with sugar and then covered with half a cup of freshly squeezed orange, 60ml of Cointreau and then put in the fridge to soak. The result was sweet syrupy strawberries which tasted so good with the vanilla double cream.

So for someone who doesn't cook this 3 course meal was was simple yet delicious. So delicious in fact there are no photo's...