Polenta and lamb and yoghurt dressing (& my personal fave – heaps of garlic)

It’s a fact!  Nigella has enslaved that dishes fairy – how can we possibly believe that after all that fun she has mucking around in the kitchen with chocolate, that she gets in and does those bloody dishes???  I, for one, don’t believe it.  And that’s what I always knew about kitchens when I was a young gel.  You venture in, you end up doing dishes.  

It’s like when you own dogs.  You drive past the vet – it costs you $100.  (You didn’t even slow down!)

So tonight, in my little foray into the kitchen where dog drool doesn’t clean dishes, I attempted a nice little lamb dish to bring back some of my Turkish memories – you’ll recall, gentle Reader, that I lived and loved and worked there over a period of 8 years in the 90s.  (Yes, I missed the whole of Paul Keating as a result.  And most of Bob Hawke. As I recall myself, I think I voted for Bob and then I got on the plane.  I could be wrong?)

In fact, I made 2 or 3 dishes if you count the dressing as a dish. 

I made the marinated lamb dish – see pic. 

Now, I’m one of those “Cooking with Floyd” types who starts any good cooking bash with a nice glass of anything.  Since it was lamb, a red was the go.  The marinade consisted of thyme, parsley, oregano, garlic and lemon zest but I went the whole Simon & Garfunkel just in case. 

The yoghurt dressing was yoghurt, garlic, lemon juice & salt & pepper –

Now because I’d forgotten the chick peas for the cp salad, there wasn’t any.  So no pic.

BUT – major discovery – what goes very nicely with our lamb is half a packet of Polenta & mixed cheeses.  You’ll recall that I vowed to refrain from over-shopping and to use up those staples you buy and then never use in your pantry/cupboard.  Well, I got out the polenta and thought – why not read the instructions?  It indicated the need for Gorgonzola cheese!

You cook the polenta as described on the packet

Then melt some G cheese and maybe some marscapone or parmesan cheese into a bit of milk on the stove et voila! – mix that into the polenta.  It’s like a substitute for mashed potato.  Very nice.   Just top it with grated parmesan or whatever cheese as well (& I’ll add lashings of s&p). 

The recipe for the lamb was from the Neil Perry Weekender 22/4/12, SMH.  I nearly also made the Chocolate & Ricotta Cake that was on the same page but I couldn’t be bothered going around the aisles for all the ingredients – did my hips a load of good!

For more Polenta dishes click this link http://www.bellalimento.com/2010/03/28/polenta-cakes/ - I never knew polenta was corn meal – I’ve now got both in my pantry!  Who knew? 

In friendship,

Nancy