December and January will definitely be very busy months for me.  Not that I will be working much but I will also be on a holiday.  Weeehhh!  I will write as much recipes as I can and schedule postings in the coming weeks – every Friday until the end of January.  I have posted quite a number of easy yet Christmassy dishes on my FB page that I haven’t shared yet in this blog and this is just the perfect time. Hopefully these may be useful to you this coming Christmas holidays.

Let’s start with roast lamb shoulder and broccoli with flavorful red wine sauce.  My boys love the roast crisp broccoli matched with succulent medium rare lamb.  And what can I say?  We are blessed that the best lamb comes from this part of the world.

Ingredients:
Approx. 500g boneless lamb shoulder roll
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Herbs like thyme, rosemary and garlic (optional)
Broccoli florets
Olive Oil

For the red wine sauce:
2 tbsp butter
1 small onion, diced
1 cup red wine
Parsley flakes (or any fresh herb like thyme and rosemary)
1 cup beef broth
Salt
Freshly ground pepper

Dry lamb roll with paper towels. Brush olive oil all over then rub with salt, pepper and herbs. Set aside for at least 2 hours.

When ready, preheat oven to 170 deg C.

Prepare broccoli florets. Combine with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.

Transfer lamb roll on a grill and arrange over baking tray. Bake for about 40 minutes at 170 deg C. Remove the tray from the oven and arrange broccoli florets around the lamb. Put it back into the oven and bake for another 20 minutes. Use this time to cook the red wine sauce.

Melt a tbsp of butter in a saucepan. Add onion and saute until soft. Add wine and herbs. Bring to boil then simmer until syrup-ish. Add beef broth and bring to boil. Simmer until reduced by half.

Back to the oven, turn the setting to fan-grill for another 5 minutes.  Remove the baking tray from the oven and allow lamb to rest for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

Arrange lamb in a serving platter (or individual plates) with the roasted broccoli florets.

By this time, the red wine sauce has already reduced by half. Stir in a tbsp of butter and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Remove from heat.

Drain to a small bowl to remove onion.

Pour red wine sauce over lamb and crisp broccoli florets. Enjoy!

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.