Cookbook 104: The Australian Women’s Weekly One Pot: Low-fuss food for busy people

One Pot: Low-fuss food for busy people was a birthday gift to myself, because AWW cookbooks are good, and one pot recipes in the colder months are the best invention ever.  Scott wanted to make a bourguignon recipe, and I remembered that this book had one with lamb shanks, so we went with that.  It was amazing.  The instructions were clear, the dish so incredibly tasty that we didn’t want to stop eating it, and it was really photogenic too (see below).

The dessert was less successful.  I thought a raspberry and chocolate bread and butter pudding would be good – the results were less than stellar.  Clearly the photo in the book is taken before the dish is put into the oven, because the raspberries carbonised, even though the oven was at a low temperature.  The pudding tasted nice, but it wasn’t as good as some other bread and butter puddings I have made.

Overall I’d give his book 4 out of 5 stars. I’d’ve ranked it higher if the dessert worked.

Lamb shanks bourguignon

Ingredients:

• 12 baby onions (300g)
• 8 french trimmed lamb shanks (2kgs)
• 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 20g butter
• 6 rindless bacon rashers (390g), chopped coarsely
• 300g mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1 cup (250ml) dry red wine
• 1 cup (250ml) beef stock
• 1 cup (250ml) water
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C, fan-forced
2. Peel onions, leaving root ends intact
3. Coat lamb in flour; shake off excess.  Heat oil in large flameproof casserole dish; cook lamb, in batches, until browned
4. Melt butter in same dish; cook onions, bacon, mushrooms and garlic, stirring, until vegetables are browned lightly.
5. Return lamb to dish with wine, stock, the water, paste, bay leaves and sugar.  Bring to the boil.  Cover dish; transfer to oven.  Cook 1 1/2 hours.  Uncover; cook about 30 minutes or until lamb is tender and sauce thickens slightly.
6. Divide lamb among serving bowls; drizzle with sauce.  Served with mashed potato.

Notes on this recipe:

• I’ve finally figured out how to french-trim lambshanks – go me.
• This recipe was so incredibly good, I didn’t want to stop eating it, we ended up freezing all the left overs so we could have them again, because it was so amazing.
• I will make this again.

Dark chocolate, raspberry and brioche pudding

Ingredients:

• 40g butter, softened
• 300g brioche, sliced thickly
• 1/4 cup raspberry jam
• 3/4 cup coarsely grated dark eating chocolate
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 cup caster sugar
• 2 1/2 cups milk, heated
• 1/2 cup frozen raspberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180C/160C fan-forced.  Grease shallow 2-litre (8 cup) ovenproof dish.
2. Butter one side of each brioche slice; spread unbuttered slide with jam, sprinkle with chocolate.
3. Arrange brioche, butter-side up, overlapping slightly, in dish
4. Whisk eggs, sugar and milk in a large jug; pour over brioche, sprinkle with raspberries and any remaining chocolate.
5. Place dish in large baking dish; add enough boiling water to come halfway up side of dish.
6. Bake about 55 minutes or until pudding sets.  Remove pudding from baking dish; stand 5 minutes before serving.

Notes on this recipe:

• It was ok, it wasn’t great.  If I made this again I’d bury the frozen raspberries under the bread so they don’t carbonise.