slow dinner fast dinner

A month or so ago I went to a Judith Cullen cooking class down in Dunedin. The main dish made that night was this slow cooked lamb, served with a barley, lentil and chickpea pilaf, red cabbage and apple salad and a smoky mayonnaise. This is a lovely wintery dinner but not in that overly heavy wintery kind of way. There is a great combination of flavours and textures - the tender lamb, crunchy cabbage and the slightly chewy barley.

The lamb (boneless shoulder) is marinated overnight with olive oil, white wine, garlic, fresh thyme, chopped onion and carrot. I cooked it the next day in the slow cooker, but it can be done in the oven for a few hours instead. The lamb is shredded up while still warm, and served with the pilaf below, a salad of shredded red cabbage, julienned green apple and celery, chopped Italian parsley with toasted walnuts and a whisked dressing made using 1/4 cider vinegar, 1/4 c apple juice, 1/2 c oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice.

A smoky mayonnaise made with 2 egg yolks, 1 tsp dijon mustard, 1 tsp lemon juice, 1 clove crushed garlic and 1/2 tsp smoked paprika (with 150ml of rice bran oil drizzled in) pulls all the different flavours together and is essential to make this meal work so well. This sauce is served separately but drizzled over everything at the table. Very good!!

Barley, chickpea and lentil pilaf

1/4 c rice bran oil
2 red onions, chopped finely
300g pearl barley
1 litre vege or chicken stock
150g brown lentils, cooked
150g chickpeas, cooked
2 c diced butternut pumpkin, roasted
1/2 c parsley, chopped
1/4 c lemon juice

In a pan that can be used for baking heat the oil and saute the onion and garlic. Add the barley and coat with the oil. Pour in the hot stock, cover with foil and bake for 30-40 minutes at 180c until the barley is tender. Remove from oven and sir through remaining ingredients, seasoning to taste.


A favourite super quick dinner at the moment is san choy bau, or a bastardised version of. Heat a little sesame oil in a heavy pan and add about 300g pork mince, a diced red or yellow capsicum, crushed ginger, a tablespoon each of soy sauce, fish sauce and sweet chilli sauce.

Continue to cook until the liquid evaporates and the pork is well cooked. Add a couple of tablespoons of oyster sauce, and any combination of the following that you like the sound of - mung bean sprouts, chopped water chestnuts, shredded red cabbage, roughly chopped coriander, crispy fried shallots, dry roasted chopped peanuts, toasted sesame seeds, diced fresh pineapple......for more bulk toss through some vermicelli noodles.

Serve at the table with a plate of crisp iceberg lettuce leaves for rolling the pork up in. Very fresh.