Thursday, April 4, 2013
Stevie Parle's warming spring lamb recipes
The late winter/early spring period – or the ''hungry gap''– is the worst time for a cook. Even now it is still too early to find many British-grown spring ingredients, so I'm relying on tiny sweet peas and fresh broad beans from Italy and Spain.
Easter is early this year, and winter still seems to have us in its claws. But if you follow my advice you can work round the dearth of ingredients, and cock a snook at the bitter weather at the same time. My recipes will lend a fresh twist to the turbocharged Sunday roast that most of us have on Easter Day.
I've taken ideas from some of my favourite food cultures. This Mexican lamb shoulder recipe is a bit like a classic American pulled pork, but with lamb – it works really well and it's worth adding the chillies (coolchile.co.uk), though paprika also works well.
The lamb stew is delicious, too – the first of the peas (or frozen of course), slow-cooked with the lamb. Don't worry when they lose their colour, they'll taste all the better for it.
Lamb raan is a perfect Indian-style roast. I cook mine a bit less than is traditional, so that the delicate spring lamb is still a little pink. The cauliflower salad is far from traditional, but it makes the whole thing sing – you only need to open some lime pickle and cook up some rice and it's a real feast.
Or, for a more traditional approach, try my rack of lamb with potatoes dauphinoise. The anchovies might sound strange if you haven't used them like this before, but they are a classic combination with lamb and bring a wonderful savoury depth to the dish.
None of these recipes are much harder than a normal roast, so it's worth giving them a go – you'll still be able to spend time doing what is important, sitting and eating with friends and family.
Easter is early this year, and winter still seems to have us in its claws. But if you follow my advice you can work round the dearth of ingredients, and cock a snook at the bitter weather at the same time. My recipes will lend a fresh twist to the turbocharged Sunday roast that most of us have on Easter Day.
I've taken ideas from some of my favourite food cultures. This Mexican lamb shoulder recipe is a bit like a classic American pulled pork, but with lamb – it works really well and it's worth adding the chillies (coolchile.co.uk), though paprika also works well.
The lamb stew is delicious, too – the first of the peas (or frozen of course), slow-cooked with the lamb. Don't worry when they lose their colour, they'll taste all the better for it.
Lamb raan is a perfect Indian-style roast. I cook mine a bit less than is traditional, so that the delicate spring lamb is still a little pink. The cauliflower salad is far from traditional, but it makes the whole thing sing – you only need to open some lime pickle and cook up some rice and it's a real feast.
Or, for a more traditional approach, try my rack of lamb with potatoes dauphinoise. The anchovies might sound strange if you haven't used them like this before, but they are a classic combination with lamb and bring a wonderful savoury depth to the dish.
None of these recipes are much harder than a normal roast, so it's worth giving them a go – you'll still be able to spend time doing what is important, sitting and eating with friends and family.
Easter 2013: the best wines to drink with chocolate
Chocolate and wine? Never been sure about this. There are some wines that actually taste of chocolate; super-rich, oaked cabernet francs from Argentina, for instance, can be reminiscent of milk chocolate, and there is a bitter cocoa nib note in some of the carmenère and cabernet sauvignon that comes out of Chile.
Putting these two important food groups (which is how I think of them) together, I sometimes fear it is too much of two good things. A direct route to a migraine? A distraction?
Yes, well. Very many people seem to crave both at once. And it is Easter. There are chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs to be nibbled (or melted down and turned into desserts). So all right – off we go.
First of all, with sweet food of any kind, look for sweet wines. Many claim that dry red is good with chocolate. In reality it's not just that dry with sweet can feel uncomfortable (the sweet element makes the other seem withered and fatigued); the tannins in the wine emphasise those in the plain chocolate. The result is violent: the oral equivalent of an emergency stop in the outside lane of the motorway at 90mph.
"Tannin in chocolate plus tannin in wine is vile," says the wine and chocolate expert Sarah Jane Evans (yes, I know, and before anyone gets ideas, that job's taken). "But the disaster can be mitigated if you choose a bar or a chocolate that has texture, i.e. nuts, possibly sea salt or a very fine layer of fruit jelly.
Putting these two important food groups (which is how I think of them) together, I sometimes fear it is too much of two good things. A direct route to a migraine? A distraction?
Yes, well. Very many people seem to crave both at once. And it is Easter. There are chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs to be nibbled (or melted down and turned into desserts). So all right – off we go.
First of all, with sweet food of any kind, look for sweet wines. Many claim that dry red is good with chocolate. In reality it's not just that dry with sweet can feel uncomfortable (the sweet element makes the other seem withered and fatigued); the tannins in the wine emphasise those in the plain chocolate. The result is violent: the oral equivalent of an emergency stop in the outside lane of the motorway at 90mph.
"Tannin in chocolate plus tannin in wine is vile," says the wine and chocolate expert Sarah Jane Evans (yes, I know, and before anyone gets ideas, that job's taken). "But the disaster can be mitigated if you choose a bar or a chocolate that has texture, i.e. nuts, possibly sea salt or a very fine layer of fruit jelly.
Blackberry posts surprise profit
BlackBerry returned to a profit last quarter due to a radical cost-cutting plan the once dominant smartphone maker is undertaking alongside the launch of a new deviceThe surprise fourth-quarter profit came as BlackBerry said it had sold 1m of its new Z10 phone, which went on sale in the UK shortly before the quarter finished on March 2.
While Wall Street has welcomed the retrenchment from a company that invented the multi-billion pound smartphone market in the late 1990s, it is the reception its new phone receives from consumers and businesses that will determine its future.
Thorsten Heins, the German who has run BlackBerry since January last year, insisted that the its new phone and operating system is the "most innovative mobile computing platform in the market.”
Given the phone only went on sale in major markets such as the US last week, analysts said it remains too early to judge whether the device will be enough to wrestle back share from Apple and manufacturers that use Google's Android software such as Samsung.
Blackberry said it had sold about 1 million of its new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in the fourth quarter.
The latest results did show that the $1bn (£660m) cost-cutting programme embarked on last year is polishing the company's margins.
The Canadian company posted a profit of $98m for the quarter compared with a loss of $125m in the same period a year ago. Analysts had forecast a loss. BlackBerry had cash of $2.9bn at the end of the quarter, little changed from a year earlier.
However, revenues dropped 2pc to $2.7bn for the quarter, trailing the $2.83bn that Wall Street has forecast. The mixed performance reflects the twin pressures on Mr Heins to both grow sales with a new phone while keeping a tight rein on costs.
While Wall Street has welcomed the retrenchment from a company that invented the multi-billion pound smartphone market in the late 1990s, it is the reception its new phone receives from consumers and businesses that will determine its future.
Thorsten Heins, the German who has run BlackBerry since January last year, insisted that the its new phone and operating system is the "most innovative mobile computing platform in the market.”
Given the phone only went on sale in major markets such as the US last week, analysts said it remains too early to judge whether the device will be enough to wrestle back share from Apple and manufacturers that use Google's Android software such as Samsung.
Blackberry said it had sold about 1 million of its new BlackBerry Z10 smartphone in the fourth quarter.
The latest results did show that the $1bn (£660m) cost-cutting programme embarked on last year is polishing the company's margins.
The Canadian company posted a profit of $98m for the quarter compared with a loss of $125m in the same period a year ago. Analysts had forecast a loss. BlackBerry had cash of $2.9bn at the end of the quarter, little changed from a year earlier.
However, revenues dropped 2pc to $2.7bn for the quarter, trailing the $2.83bn that Wall Street has forecast. The mixed performance reflects the twin pressures on Mr Heins to both grow sales with a new phone while keeping a tight rein on costs.
Mr Heins took the top job early last year after BlackBerry investors lost patience with the company's co-founders Mike Lazaridis and Jim Balsillie, who were joint chief executives.
BlackBerry, which changed its name from Research in Motion last month, said on Thursday that Mr Lazaridis is stepping down from the board in a move that severs any official connection with the company he co-founded in the Canadian town of Waterloo.
BlackBerry said it will spend 50pc more on advertising the Z10 phone – that will available with a touch-screen as well as a keyboard – in the current quarter as it tries to capitalise on an initial launch that impressed some analysts. Its results for this quarter should deliver a "break even" financial performance, BlackBerry said, without giving more detail.
Despite Mr Heins's confidence, the scale of the challenge facing BlackBerry was underlined by Thursday's results. They showed that over the last 12 months revenues collapsed 40pc to $11.1bn, as it swung to a loss of $628m for the financial year from a profit of $1.2bn the year before.
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