Slow Cooker Greek Lamb

As promised (albiet a little while ago), here's something yummy and easy peasy for the slow cooker - and coming into Spring, it's actually pretty perfect. Last weekend, we were pretty lucky to have a beautiful sunny weekend here in Wellington, so it's starting to feel like winter might finally be over. Which also means I probably won't be using my slow cooker quite as much any more, so best to get in a few final meals. I put this on last Sunday morning, before heading out to a baby shower and to visit some other friends, and it was lovely to come home to the house smelling like a good roast - with hardly any effort.

Sometimes I struggle to find interesting things, beyond the standard stews and the like, to make in the slow cooker - if you know any good links, please let me know. This recipe is courtesy of www.kidspot.co.nz, a good website for kid-friendly recipes but also if you're not very experienced in the kitchen. I've found a few good, simple recipes on there - even one or two my partner was willing to have a go at!


3 tablespoons olive oil
1kg rolled lamb loin - I actually used a bone-in roast, because it was about half the price of a rolled and stuffed lamb loin, so this is ok too. Mine was about 1.2kgs.
1kg potatoes
1 bunch rosemary
1 head garlic
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup lemon juice


Peel and cut the potatoes into eighths. Place these at the bottom of the slow cooker and put 2 sprigs of rosemary on top. Peel 6 cloves of garlic and slice. I had some large home grown bulbs a friend gave me which have a really strong flavour, so I used 4. Poke holes in the skin of the lamb with the point of a knife and push the garlic into the holes. Heat the oil in a pan on the stove and brown the lamb all over. Place the lamb on top of the potatoes in the slow cooker and push sprigs of rosemary into the holes you put the garlic into earlier. I had some leftover sliced garlic so I put that into the slow cooker too. You can also put your squeezed lemons in there as well. Pour over the wine and lemon juice and cook on low for 6 hours or high for 3 hours - a little less if you like your meat rarer.

The meat was lovely and tender and the potatoes were really soft. I took them out of the slow cooker and fried them, to make them a wee bit crispy.I didn't need to use any extra oil either, as they had some of the fat from the meat on them. Be warned though - the potatoes can have a little bit of a tart flavour from the lemon and wine, which didn't bother me but my partner thought the flavour was a bit too strong. If you didn't want to fry them, you could always roughly mash them with some feta cheese, fresh parsley and cracked pepper. I served the lamb with mint sauce but there was leftover liquid in the bottom of the slow cooker that could've made a nice gravy if I hadn't been feeling so lazy (or hungry). And there's always leftovers for sandwiches - which I'm sure everyone agrees is pretty much the best part about a Sunday roast.

Macaroni Cheese

This recipe is the BOMB. If you need some winter comfort food, look no further than this creamy, cheesy, carby bad boy. For my birthday I was given two cookbooks, one of which was The Great New Zealand Cookbook. Having a flick through, I came across this recipe for macaroni cheese. This is something I've never actually made before and hadn't eaten in ages, so I thought I'd give it a try. This recipe is by Laurent Loudeac of Hippopotamus,one of the fanciest restaurants in Wellington. It made 5-6 portions for us, although the recipe says 4 but it's definitely quite rich - there's a lot of cheese in there - so smaller portions were fine for us on this particular evening.

250g macaroni

100g butter

100g plain flour

500ml milk

100g blue cheese, crumbled

100g ham, chopped - this is optional and you could easily leave it out and make it vegetarian. I used chorizo sausage, as I had some handy.

50-100g spinach

1/4 cauliflower - this wasn't in the recipe, but I had some leftover from the veggie curry

75g cheese (cheddar or Gruyere), grated - the recipe actually says 200g but I found 75g was just fine.

Pre-heat the oven to 180 degrees celsius. Cook the macaroni in a large pot of salted boiling water until al dente - usually about 6 minutes. While the pasta is cooking, melt the butter in a small pot and add the flour, stirring until you get a paste (roux). Add the milk slowly, whisking as you go to break up any lumps. Cook until you have a nice thick white sauce (bechamel). This took me a little while and a lot of stirring to get the sauce to thicken, but without it sticking to the bottom of the pot. Season to taste and then add the blue cheese, ham - or in this case, chorizo - and spinach. I also added the cauliflower at this point. I love to add extra veggies to dishes where I can, and spinach is a good one, so I always use extra. It adds a nice bit of colour to this dish too. Drain the pasta and pour the sauce over it, in the large pot. Stir well to combine and poor into either a large oven proof dish, or small individual dishes. Sprinkle the grated cheese over the top and bake for 25-30 minutes or until it's golden and crispy on top - I put the grill on for the last few minutes of cooking, just to get a really nice crust. Serve with a salad on the side - which I didn't this time, but I'd recommend it just to cut through the richness of all that cheese. Yum!

Baked Lamb Meatballs with Pasta

I went to Auckland for work the other week, just for the night. My flight arrived at about 6pm the night before I had to attend the work thing, so of course I'd already researched where I wanted to get dinner from before I even got there. There was a well-recommended Japanese restaurant, Kushi, near my hotel so I ordered some takeaway - so I could eat it in my fluffy hotel  robe, in my giant hotel bed of course- and sat down to wait. I was reading an old Mindfood magazine, and came across this recipe. I was so hungry and this looked so delicious, I copied it straight down onto my boarding pass (so old school - my phone was flat, ok).

A friend was coming for dinner last week, and to watch a couple of the latest Game of Thrones episodes, and the weather was pretty crappy so I thought this would be a nice warming dish.

Baked Lamb Meatballs with Pasta

800g lamb mince
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 tablespoons flour
1 tablespoon olive oil and extra to drizzle
800g chopped tomatoes in juice
3 tablespoons fresh oregano leaves - I used dried
1 lemon, rind finely zested
1 1/2 cups black olives - I used pitted kalamata olives, chopped up
200g feta cheese, sliced lengthways
300g dried orzo pasta
oregano leaves, fried, to garnish - I omitted these

Preheat the over to 180 degrees. Mix the lamb, garlic and onion together - using your hands is best - and season. Oil a deep baking dish with the olive oil and put the flour onto a plate. Make meatballs from the mixture and roll them in the flour, before putting them into the baking dish and toss them around in the oil a bit. Cook for 15-20 minutes until browned. Add tomatoes, oregano, lemon zest and olives to the baking dish. Top with the feta slices and drizzle with a little olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until feta is golden. I used reduced fat feta, so it didn't really brown - or perhaps I was just too hungry and impatient!

Once the meatballs are about 20 minutes in, cook the orzo in a large pot of salted boiling water for 11 minutes or until al dente. Drain, divide between plates and top with the baked meatballs and fried oregano leaves, if using.

This was pretty yummy, but I felt like it needed something else. Maybe some more veggies, or a bit of spice. When I make it again, I'll add in some chilli or harissa and some spinach. I meant to top it with some fresh parsley in the absence of the fried oregano too, but I forgot. Excellent on a cold night though, and pretty quick. I've never used orzo before, and it's a nice alternative to your regular sorts of pasta as it has the same texture as rice - I'd like to experiment with it a bit more. And you really can't go past something topped with slices of cheese. Next time, I'll throw caution to the wind and go full fat feta. Yummo!

Smokey BBQ Pulled Pork

Woo hoo, my very first recipe blog. And what better way to start than with MEAT!

Why did I make it? I made pulled pork a while back in the slow cooker, and it turned out...ok. It wasn't quite as flavoursome as I'd hoped, but that was probably because it was a 'healthy' recipe. I also had everything I needed to make it from this recipe, except the bbq sauce and pork (so yeah, the main ingredients). Also, pulled pork is just awesome and this recipe is nice and simple.
Where did this recipe come from? From one of those free recipe cards you get at the supermarket - so housewifey
What's it good for? Feeding lots of people or just at the weekend when you've got some time to wait for dinner to cook.
How many people can eat it? This recipe made 6 serves (a dinner and two lunches for two people)
What do I serve it with? I made a coleslaw with red and green cabbage, spring onions, coriander (super quick in the food processor) and chipotle aioli, and put it into some nice fresh bread rolls.

What do I need?

3/4 cup BBQ sauce. I used Wattie's Bit on the Side Smokey BBQ sauce because the people who wrote the recipe card get paid to put that in the recipe I guess, but I reckon you could use any sauce, but in my opinion, make sure it's a smokey one
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp mustard. I used wholegrain
1 tsp dried thyme. I used fresh as I had some in my garden
1.2 kg boneless pork shoulder, rind removed and fat trimmed. y piece was just over 2 kgs and it had a bone, but it was all good - I just adjusted the cooking time.
1 onion chopped (I used a red onion, just because I pretty much always do.
4 cloves of garlic crushed. I used already-crushed-in-a-jar garlic because my garlic disintegrated into a cloud of dust when I went to crush it.

How do I make it?

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees celsius. Mix the bbq sauce, cider vinegar, worcestershire sauce, mustard and thyme in a bowl. Put the onion, garlic and pork in a casserole dish. Pour over the sauce, cover and out in the over for 2 1/2 hours or until the pork is really tender. I cooked it for 3 hours, as it was a bit bigger and had a bone in it. I turned the pork once half way through cooking and poured some of the sauce back over it.

Once cooked, take it out and shred it with two forks. Put it back in the casserole dish with the sauce and stir it up. Serve it with coleslaw in bread rolls. Nom nom nom!

Tip: If you're making coleslaw, make it as you need it, or make it without the aioli and add that as you need it.