Moroccan Lamb & Couscous Salad - Julie Goodwin

Please excuse the crappy photo, my Samsung phone camera used to be fantastic, 

but since the Jellybean update it is now rubbish.

Shame on you, Android! My next phone will be an iPhone!

I haven't cooked lamb backstraps before so buying them from my butcher was a new experience for me. I'm not sure if this is universal with all butchers, buy mine told me when you buy backstraps you get the 'backstrap' and a piece of 'fillet'. I didn't know what to expect, in fact I had never seen a backstrap before so when my butcher showed me the 'fillet' I laughed. The fillet was about 10cm long and 2cm wide. My first thought was 'what am I supposed to do with that?' So I served it up along with the backstrap XD

The backstraps are not cheap, in fact it was the most expensive piece of meat I had bought before - $29.99 per kilo but this meal only requires 400g. I can see why backstraps are expensive though - they are the most succulent cut of meat from the lamb. It is the trimmed part of the middle of lamb's loin and is free from any bone, gristle and fat so it is extremely lean.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup currants
• 1 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup couscous
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 brown onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and grated
• 2 oranges, zest finely grated, flesh reserved
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground allspice
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 400g lamb backstraps

Method:

1. Place currants in a small bowl and cover with boiling water. Soak for 5-10mins, until plump. I left them for about 30mins
2. Bring the stock to the boil in a pan over a high heat. Remove from heat and add couscous. Stir, then cover and leave for 5 minutes. The liquid will absorb into the couscous. Add the butter and fluff with a fork. Cover again
3. Heat half the oil in a non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring for 2-3 minutes or until soft. Add the garlic, ginger and orange zest and cook for a further minute. Stir through the brown sugar
4. Add the onion mixture to the couscous. Roughly chop the flesh of the oranges (discarding the membrane and pith) and stir through the couscous along with the drained currants and the orange juice. Season to taste with salt & pepper if required
5. Wipe out the frying pan and heat the remaining oil over a high heat. Combine the spices and salt in a large pres-seal bag and place the lamb inside. Seal and shake the bag to coat the lamb. Brown the lamb in the frying pan then cook for a further few minutes, until done to your liking. This will vary depending on the thickness of the fillets. When the lamb has about the same resistance to it as a palm of your hand, it's about medium. Let the lamb rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving over the top of the couscous. D-E-L-icious XD

$120 Food Challenge : Week 1

This is the first week of this challenge. 'Challenge' is the most suitable word for it, because I seriously cannot see how I will be able to feed my family meat and veg for under $120.

Before shopping
Before I left the house I took the book's advice and did a stock take on my fridge, freezer and pantry and worked out what else I needed to buy to feed us. The only meat I needed to buy was some chicken because I already had meat in the freezer. I also intend to use up the crumbed fish and packaged pies that were in there, along with the eggs in the fridge - they will go into a quiche. Below is my shopping list. You will see I have a list for Woolies and a separate one for Aldi with the meals list on the right.

The bill
Below is a photo of my shopping bill. I don't like everything Aldi sells, so I still insist on buying certain items at Woolies even though they are more expensive. I don't buy from the butcher usually, so decided I wouldn't start doing that until I had shopped 'normally' and set a benchmark so I could gauge the challenge. I have refused to believe meat is cheaper at the butcher, so I will be monitoring this very closely as the challenge progresses. I had to rule out the non-food items like toilettries, cleaning products, pet food, etc so the figures on the sticky note are separated. As you can see I spent more than $120 this week...and the only meat I bought was chicken!!!

The meat
The only meat I needed this week was chicken. I prefer the breast and always buy it at Aldi. Today it cost me $15.30 and weighs about 1 and 3/4kg. I didn't look at the kilo price until I got home - it was $9.49 per kg. I just happened to notice that the butcher I pass every shopping day had chicken breast for $6.99 per kg. So as of next week I will buy it there.

Lunches
I usually buy ham for the kids sandwiches, but today the silverside was cheapest, so I bought that instead...I hope they like it. Bread this week cost $5.00 for 2 loaves of wholemeal. I bought it from the bakery section of Woolies - not the branded loaves. I also bought an 8 pack of flat bread for wraps. I will grate carrot and cheese for fillings when the sandwich meat runs out.

5 things I learned this week

• chicken breast is cheaper at the butcher
• buy the sandwich meat which is on special 
• non-food items really add to your weekly shopping bill
• make home made snacks for the kids lunch boxes instead of buying expensive processed snacks
• buy generic brands when you can...they are often cheaper

XD

See the Introduction to the Food Challenge.