Jul 12

Cookbook 82: Tasty Mince Recipes

So the lovely Scott brought the Family Circle Tasty Mince Recipes with him when he moved in, because this is not a book I would have thought to buy on my own.  It’s not that I am against minced meat in any way, it’s just that I don’t need an entire recipe book dedicated to the subject.  For this meal there were only 3 of us for dinner, and no vegetarians (which is why I was cooking from this book), so I decided to only do one recipe, otherwise I would have ended up wasting food.  The instructions were straight forward and sensible, the recipe delicious and overall I give it 3 stars.

Lamb and Apricot Roast

Ingredients:

  • 2kg leg of lamb, boned
  • 2 tablespoons oil

Filling:

  • 200g lamb mince
  • 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs
  • 1/4 cup chopped dried apricots
  • 2 tablespoons fruit chutney
  • 1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, chopped

Sauce:

  • 1 1/2 tablespoons plain flour
  • 1 1/2 cup chicken stock
  • 2 teaspoons seeded mustard
  • 2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
  • 1/4 cup cream

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to moderately hot 210C.  Trim excess fat from leg of lam, lay out flat, fat side down.
  2. To make filling: Combine lamb mince with breadcrumbs, apricots, chutney and rosemary.  Press filling over lamb, fold lamb over to enclose filling.  Tie at intervals with string, to retain its shape, tucking in ends.
  3. Rub lamb all over with oil, place in a deep baking dish, bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes for a rare result, 1 hour 30 minutes for a medium result, and 1 hour 45 minutes for a well-done result.  Baste lamb occasionally with pan juices.  Remove from over, leave, covered with foil, in a warm place for 10 minutes while preparing the sauce.
  4. To make Sauce: Scoop fat from the surface of pan juices and discard.  Add flour to juices, stir until smooth, stir over medium heat 1 minute.  Add combined stock, mustard and Worcestershire sauce, stir over medium heat until sauce boils and thickens, reduce heat to a simmer, cook for 3 minutes.  Stir in cream.
  5. Remove string from lamb, slice lamb, serve with sauce.

Notes on this recipe:

  • The lamb and the gravy were amazing together.  Though I did find the apricot a little odd – I tend not to mix sweet and savoury together too often – it wasn’t so strange that I wouldn’t keep eating the lamb.  The gravy was amazing, and this might become my go-to gravy recipe – who needs Gravox when you have something like this.
  • I ended up with a lot of left over lamb, which I turned into a modified Moussaka a couple of days later. I’ll talk more about that recipe on this blog.