My thanks go to Clodagh MC Sharry from Ireland for sharing this recipe and letting me use her picture!

Lamb Pilaff
Serves 4

Remove stalks and seeds from pepper and chop finely.

Season the cornflour and toss the diced lamb in it.

Heat the oil and lightly brown the meat on all sides.

Remove and keep warm.
Lightly fry the onions and chopped pepper in the remaining oil, add the tomatoes, stock cube, raisins, lemon juice and 450ml (3/4 pint) boiling water.

Stir in the rice, transfer to an oven-proof casserole. Season to taste.

Place meat on top of the rice, cover and cook in a moderate oven for 30-40 minutes or until rice has absorbed all the liquid. Turn on to a warm plate and serve immediately.

Preparation time - 10 minutes, cooking time 30-40 minutes, oven setting 180°C / 350°F/ Gas Mark 4

You will need...

1 small sweet red or green pepper
15g (1/2 oz) cornflour
Salt and pepper to taste
450g (1 lb) stewing lamb, boned and diced
3 tablespoons olive oil or corn oil
3 onions, peeled and sliced
3 tomatoes, peeled and sliced
1 chicken stock cube
25g (1 oz) seedless raisins
1 tablespoon lemon juice
175g (6 oz) long grain rice

We will be visiting my sister during our autumn holidays in Winnenden, near Stuttgart this month. Aside from lovely walks through vineyards and apple orchards full of grapes and other goodies there is also delicious wine and onion flan! Here is her recipe - tried and approved by the Lake family! Really tasty and very easy and quickly done. Tastes just as good the next day - cold or warmed up - if there is any left!


Onion flan - Ingredients for a 10\" springform pan.



For the pastry:

60 g lard / margarine
200 g wheat flour
1 Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
100 ml milk or water
 

For the filling:

1 Kg cut onions, sliced into rings
60 g smoked bacon, diced
30 g butter or margarine
60 g flour
250 ml sour cream
2-4 Eggs, separated
Salt to taste
 

For the pastry whisk margarine until creamy (or use microwave), gradually stir in remaining ingredients and refridgerate for about 1 hour.

For the filling sauté onions and bacon in butter until onions are soft but not browned and let the mix cool. Separate the eggs and whisk the whites to a firm meringue. Stir flour and sour cream until smooth and mix with the egg yolks, salt and the cooled onions. Carefully fold the meringue into the mixture.

Roll out pastry, place in a greased springform pan and form an edge. Evenly spread the filling onto the dough and place pats of butter on it as desired.

Bake in a preheated oven at 200-225°C for about 40 minutes..
 

To make your own Butjenter Wumken just take a sprig of sea wormwood, which fits into a liquor bottle, and top with clear hard liquor of 38% (Vodka or the German variety made from wheat). Add rock candy or other sugar to taste and leave for at least 4 weeks (preferably longer). After a period of 2 months to 2 years the wormwood is leached out and the schnapps has a light, pleasant wooden aroma. The slightly brownish color of this homemade variety has no influence on the taste. If you want it to be clear you have to distill it and place the sea wormwood into a suitable net or container. As a gift, this homemade bottle of schnapps with the gray-green branch still inside is both pleasing to the eye AND the palate!.

Beach wormwood grows here in the salt marshes and islands and is silver in colour.

Experience more about our Wumken at www.butjenter-wumken.de

By the way ... if you can\'t get to this local delicacy and try or buy it for yourself here in Butjadingen - Butjenter Wumken is now being offered for sale on the Internet!