The weather is slightly better but even as I write the forecast is cooler and wetter weather in the days ahead. But while the sun shines we turn to lighter things to eat around the communal table.
The best thing I have eaten this year is the sous-vide leg of lamb made by Junior One last night. Remove the bone from a whole leg of lamb, butterfly the leg, season with ground cumin, chopped herbs, salt and pepper. Vacuum pack then sous vide the meat at 60 C (although he specified 59 C) for 5 – 6 hours. When the meat is ready, remove from the packaging, drain off the meat juices, sear the lamb over high heat on a griddle. To serve, slice thinly and place in a pile on a plate. I am not sure when the halved cherry tomatoes or rosemary were added but with lamb so tender and pink, only minimal enhancement is necessary.
I was put in charge of the accompaniments so I made rice and vegetables. Photos below with links to recipes where possible.
Basmati rice with saffron, barberries and dill. Wash 3 cups of rice until the water runs clear. In a small bowl place a large pinch of saffron in some hot water and leave for around 5 minutes. Place the rice and saffron water in a rice pot and top up with enough water to the right level. Start the machine and set a timer for when the rice will finish cooking. At that point, fluff up the rice, add 50 g barberries, 35 g salted butter and 20 g chopped dill. Serve with some chopped pistachios if you like.
Grilled broccoli and roasted asparagus with what I call ‘that impossibly crunchy addictive topping’. Blanch a head of broccoli (florets) then refresh in cold water. Pat dry and griddle in olive oil over a high heat. Place on a plate. Separately roast the asparagus spears in some olive oil, for around 15 minutes at 160 C fan/ 180 C. Serve together with the topping. The topping is very simple: heat some chilli oil and chilli crisps (I use Lee Kum Kee’s Chiu Chow chilli oil) in a hot pan, add some panko breadcrumbs and chopped cashew nuts. Everything becomes crispy in under a minute and you will have the most versatile of toppings to add crunch to any dish.
Beluga lentil and artichoke salad
I also made Spring Onion Milk Bread Rolls and Granola Cookies for eating (when holding a baby in one arm) the next day. I am trying to rework my current recipe for the granola cookies and will post the update when it is ready.
It was a very sociable dinner. We discussed the origins of the Jewish Passover festival and what the 10 plagues* were that God sent upon Pharaoh and Egypt when Pharaoh would not ‘let my people go’.
When Junior One was in Primary School he was very concerned at the killing of the first born of every family in the Exodus narrative. He said to me: don’t you think it is a terrible story? Imagine it happening today. I am the first born you know!
So I had to do a lot of thinking on account of that question and the answer came a long time after that. The answer is yes, it is a terrible story but terrible stories often have a basis and a solution.
The killing of the firstborn was God’s final punishment (referred to as a plague) on Pharaoh for mistreating his people. The mistreatment started when Pharaoh ordered the killing of every Hebrew male in the land, in order that the race did not continue. Against all odds Moses survived. So imagine if you were Moses and you survived and were not killed, and God gives you the job of leading his people out of Egypt, the land where they are an enslaved people.
The instructions to avoid having the firstborn in your family killed during the final plague were very specific. A young perfect animal had to be killed, and some of its blood put on the sides and tops of the door frames of the houses where the animal would also be eaten. That night when God came to punish those in the wrong, he would pass over any household that had the blood on the door frames. The lamb that died in effect took on the punishment for the firstborn of the family. It was a substitute.
Putting the blood on the door frame was then literally a matter of life and death.
Put in that situation, I would have followed the instructions to the letter, in order to avoid having my firstborn being killed. It’s all very dramatic and easy to see. But fast forward a few thousand years we have lost sight, at least in the Western world, of the Christian message that Jesus is the substitute ‘lamb of God’, sent to die in our place so we can live instead.
Helping someone see this truth is the work of a lifetime. I am encouraged that Moses was 80 years old when God directed him to lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the Promised Land. It’s never too late to start any big project if God is behind the enterprise.
*The 10 plagues of Egypt are described in the book of Exodus (in the Old Testament section of the Bible). These were divine punishments sent by God to compel Pharaoh to free the Israelites from slavery. The plagues were blood, frogs, gnats, flies, livestock pestilence, boils, hail, locusts, darkness and finally the death of the firstborn.