Reversed cooked tandoori lamb shoulder

 We've been using this technique for a while now on rib eye and lamb leg/shoulder and similar.

It works best on large cuts of meat. We salt the meat, put in in a low oven of about 55deg and let it cook slowly for a few hours until it reaches around 53 or so degrees.  Turning it over half way through, salting it again.  This way the meat is seasoned throughout, the slow cooking process means the salty juices season the inside.  We turn the oven off and let it sit until we're ready to give it a smokey low bbq.  The result is outstanding.  Meltingly tender meat, sweet smokey flavour, beautifully seasoned and absolutely sensational.  For this one, during the bbqing we initially brushed it with a spiced oil to help with the smoke and give more flavour, then once it had a nice smokey crust we brushed it with tandoori paste mix.

Our bbq.  Andy uses different heights and covers to get different results depending on what we're cooking.

Andy doing some watering after dinner

I'm proud of the lawns because I've been mowing them!

The garden

 This year there's been so much rain.  It's unlike any summer we've experienced here before.  We even have to mow the lawns every week when usually from May to the end of August, early September there's no need because it's dry and crunchy.  The lavenders haven't loved the rain at all, neither has the rose but the hydrangeas on the other hand adore it and have grown as tall as trees.  We'll have to give them a good chop back.

I love the view of Montot but that's an aside!

Sourdough for the neighbours

 Freshly baked this morning.  I'll pop it in on the way to our walk.

Pig hearts

 I dunno why but I'd never tried pigs hearts before but I hadn't.  I saw them at the supermarket and read up on them.  So you either cook them long and slow or flash cook them.  I decided to cook them whole, long and slow by braising them, then we finished them off on a smokey bbq with spiced oil.  I injected them with soy sauce after the initial braise which is a great technique.

Yum!  They look like large bullocks but they really are delicious.  Not a hint of offal flavour, just a rich sweet deliciousness.  Sort of a cross between beef and pork I guess.  

And they're so damn cheap!  I'm surprised here actually that they're so cheap because the French love stuff like this.  For example ox tongue is expensive.  I mean really really expensive.

Served with a spiced lentil salad, raita, fresh herb chutney and spiced apricot chutney, lettuce from Dominiques garden and flatbreads.  Scrum.

A few more from NZ that Joey took (hence why she's not in them!)

Preparing some of the delicious Jerusalem artichokes from the garden 

Juanitz, Katya and Soph

The sofas at Joey and dad's place in Whitianga are SOOOO comfy!

 

New Zealand

A few more pics of my trip downunder.  I loved every second of it.  I didn't take many photos unfortunately.  I was very slack which is annoying.  I didn't even take photos of Juanita's amazing beach pad in Kouatounu.

We mainly hung around their lovely home.  Their place is beautiful as is their garden.  We did lots of cooking which is always my favourite thing to do anyway but doing it with them takes on a new type of awesomeness. 

Dad's so cute in the kitchen

He was cooking from a very young age with my nana (as did I)

Joey's a wee iphone girl.  Actually dad is too.  Well he not a girl so much.

Dad's an exceptional natural cook.  Everything he makes is utterly delicious

Dad decided to make a wee extra for dinns.

Joey's a little baker these days.  She bakes all sorts of slices and cakes and pops 
them in the freezer for lucky unexpected visitors

The key to dad's success in the kitchen is the attention he pays and his on point seasoning.

Dave loved hanging out with Dogbones