Sunday 15 March 2015

Mothering Sunday

Today is Mother's Day and next Tuesday is St. Patrick's Day. What better way to spend the day cooking up a feast to celebrate both? My idea of heaven, especially as I really haven't had any time lately to just potter in my kitchen.

Lamb shanks in porter, creamy mash and purple sprouting broccoli


Lamb Shank in Porter

2 lamb shanks
250ml Kenmare Porter
2 red onions
half a bulb of fennel
2 cloves of garlic
1 stick of celery
a good sprig of rosemary
Salt and pepper

Seal the shanks on a hot pan. Put them in a slow cooker. Slice the onion, fennel, crush the garlic and chop the celery.  Fry on the pan until softened and add them in with the shanks. Pour over the porter. Season and turn cooker on for 3 hours at high or 5 hours on low.

Pre-heat your oven to 200 deg C and lift the shanks out of the cooker. Place them on a baking tray lined with tin foil and brown them in the oven for 30-40 minutes. Meanwhile, transfer the cooking liquid to a pan and reduce by half.

Serve with creamy mashed potatoes, some seasonal vegetables and pour the reduced gravy over.





Chocolate Porter Cake with a Twist

I followed Nigella Lawson's recipe for the chocolate porter cake but halved the quantity. Recipe here.
I then made a basic Victoria sponge recipe for the green.

125g butter
125g sugar
1 egg
100g plain flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon of green food colouring
1 tablespoon of milk

The Victoria mix needs to be slighly sloppy so add more milk if necessary as the chocolate porter cake is a batter and it is difficult to mix them otherwise. Cool the chocolate mix and it will thicken.

Line a deep round cake tin. Dot some of the green cake mixture around the tin and pour the batter around. Finish off with the rest of the green mix. Place in a pre-heated oven at 180 deg C for 10 minutes. Open the oven carefully and with a skewer give the whole thing a swirl to get the colours to mix.

Continue to bake for another 50-55 minutes until risen and springs back to a gentle touch.

Cool in tin and then place on a wire rack until completely cold.

Marscapone topping

1 250g Marscapone
50g icing sugar

Whisk together and spread over your cake.

Happy Mothering Sunday and St. Patrick's Day.

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