Hello wonderful people, Ralfa here at the keyboard with another recipe of the week and a few more tips on Cretan cooking.
But first let me tell you that it has been a very busy week here at Villa Ralfa, HWMBO is busy arranging an ‘open day’, now I do not know quite what this means but I gather that it will involve visitors! This as far as I am concerned can only be a good thing as it means I get lots of tummy rubs, and possibly get given heaps of junk food like potato chips and peanuts.
As I am still a little unwell at times all of this will be good for me, especially lots of attention!
Now to the recipe, this week we are having meat, and as I have said before I am a great one for a nice piece of meat and I think it’s essential that a girl get a nice piece of hot meat into her on these chilly winter days and I just KNOW that HWMBO agrees with me!
But first a little tip, if a recipe calls for lemon juice you must use it ‘to taste’, very often there is nothing in the recipe to take the ‘edge’ of it, so unless you want to sit there with your face screwed up with the sourness do not use too much!
This weeks recipe is Lamb with Okra. (HWMBO says to tell you that in some places Okra is called ‘Ladies Fingers’ and that also you can use goat or mutton instead of lamb)
Method.
Wash the okra cutting off the stems, sprinkle with the vinegar (wine or balsamic works best) and leave to stand in a warm place for 2 or 3 hours.
Brown the meat in a heavy saucepan with the oil and onion. You can use pieces of lamb cut into even sized pieces, or you could use target (leg) chops.
Add the tomatoes to the pot along with a couple of cups of water, so the meat is just covered, and simmer gently.
Keep cooking the lamb until it is nearly cooked then put in the okra along with some pepper and a very little salt. (If people want more they can put it on themselves), and then simmer for another 40 minutes or so. Add more water if it needs it.
Simplicity itself!
Adjust the quantities of ingredients to suit you needs! Unless you are feeding a lot of people of course in which case go for it. This goes very nicely with the potatoes we did last week.
This is me, Ralfa. Aren't I just gorgeous?