Recipes for the Easter Weekend – from S R Events

Louise Oliver
Managing Director

Louise always has a full household, especially over Easter and her family speciality is her Butterfly Lamb. Why not give it a try for your Easter Lunch, its sure to be a hit!

Louise’s Butterfly Lamb & Ratatouille

Ingredients
Butterfly Leg of Lamb (you can ask your local butcher to butter fly this for you)
3x garlic cloves
20g butter or olive oil if you prefer
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
Salt and pepper for seasoning
2 Full Tablespoons Mint sauce or Mint jelly

Ratatouille
Selection of courgettes, onions, mixed peppers, aubergine
2 tins of tomatoes
Tomato puree
Fresh mint
Mustard
Lee & Perrins
Garlic
Salt & Pepper to suit your taste

Method for Lamb
1. Peel and crush the garlic, add to a bowl with the mint sauce, butter and chopped rosemary. Mix until it’s a creamy paste. Season the paste with salt and pepper to taste.

2. Take the lamb and make several small incisions using and sharp knife. Louise suggests 40 incisions is best for a large lamb leg. Take the paste and cover the lamb, you can use a brush or your hands. Leave this in the fridge overnight.

3. Preheat your over to 150C. Take the lamb out of the fridge and place in a large baking tin, with a wire rack in. Pour an inch of water in the bottom of the tray Place the lamb on top of the rack and cover in foil. Place into the oven and cook for 40 mins. Remove from the oven and remove the foil. Check the meat and then return to the oven with the foil loosely attached for a further 40 minutes (or until it is cooked to your liking). Once cooked set aside to rest for about 15 minutes before serving.

Method for Ratatouille
Chop up the vegetables into large chunks and cook in a little oil in a large casserole dish. Add the tin tomatoes and the seasonings to taste leave on a simmer to cook for an hour. You can do this the night before and then reheat the next day.  Sprinkle mint on top and serve.

Butterfly lamb is best served with plenty of mint sauce or mint jelly.

This dish is quick and easy to prepare and very tasty, there’s no need for gravy ither the sauce from the Ratatouille is enough. Louise serves the lamb with Roast potatoes the kids love it! If you want to you can serve mixed leaf side salad or green steamed veg, and for the adults a glass or two of full-bodied red wine!! Enjoy!

Carol Clarke
Finance Manager

Carol is a keen baker and has tried several different recipes for her Banana Loaf. The recipe below is by far her favourite to use when making this delicious loaf.

Banana Loaf

Ingredients
140g butter (softened + extra for the tin)
140g caster sugar
140g self-raising flour
2 beaten large eggs
1 tsp baking powder
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
50g icing sugar (decoration)

Method
1. Heat your oven to 180C/160C Fan/ Gas 4

2. Butter a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and side with baking parchment.

3. Cream the softened butter and caster sugar until light and fluffy, then slowly add beaten eggs with a little bit of the flour.

4. Fold in the remaining flour, baking powder and mashed bananas.

5. Pour the mixture into the tin and bake for 30 mins. Check with a skewer or rounded edge knife comes out clean. (carol said that It could take up to 80 mins depending on your oven)

6. Once cooked leave to cool in the tin for 10 mins and then place on a cooling rack.

7. Mix the Icing sugar with 2-3 tsp of water to make a runny consistency.

8. Drizzle the icing across the top of the cake. You can decorate with dried banana slice if you wish. There you have it a delicious banana loaf. You can also freeze the loaf without the icing on.

Lina Caccavale
Senior Events Planner

Lina is a keen chef and loves to experiment with different recipes while trying to keep it healthy yet tasty for her gym goer fiancé. The below recipe is one of his favourites and with summer around the corner this is sure to be one of the meals they will have on a regular basis.

Speedy Paella
Serves 2

Ingredients
½ chicken stock cube
8 strands of saffron
½ tsp Turmeric
Olive oil
4 spring onions
3 peppers (1 Red, 1 Green & 1 Yellow)
1 pack of Chicken thighs or 2 chicken breasts
(cut into strips)
1 pack of frozen prawns (Lina uses King prawns)
1 mug of frozen peas
2 packets of microwave rice
Lemon juice

Method
1. Put the kettle on to boil. In a jug add turmeric, saffron and crumble the chicken stock cube. Once the kettle has boiled pour in 125ml of water and set aside to infuse.

2. In a frying pan add the olive oil and chicken. When all the chicken is white add the sliced peppers and stir fry for a few minutes. Then add the spring onions to the mix.

3. Crumble the rice into the pan and add the frozen peas and prawns to the mix. Stir fry for 2 mins and pour in the infused mixture. Bring to the boil and make sure there are no clumps of rice in the pan.

4. Once most of the liquid has been absorbed (this will take 5/7 mins) check if the chicken is fully cook and the prawns are warmed through. Take off the heat and serve. Once served add salt and lemon juice to your taste. And there you have it the prefect summer meal in 30 mins.

Amy Ornstien
Events Planner

When Amy started working out with her personal trainer she gave Amy the below recipe, which turned out to be one of her favourites. Not only is it healthy and calorie friendly, it’s a great family lunch for Easter! Even tastier with a slice of toasted ciabatta bread!

Spring Chicken & Citrus Stew
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 large chicken
4 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
1 leek
6 asparagus spears
1 handful of peas
1 handful of broad beans
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tbsp parsley
1 tbsp dill
1 tbsp tarragon
600ml chicken stock
1 tin of 400ml cannellini beans
2 lemons
2 eggs
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
Extra virgin olive oil
Parmesan cheese

Method
1. Joint the chicken into legs, thighs, breasts and wings. Put 3 tbsp olive oil in a large casserole dish over a medium heat. Season the chicken portions and add to the dish. Cook for 10 minutes, until browned on each side, turning regularly, then remove to a plate.

2. Peel and finely chop the garlic and onion. Slice the leek and snap the woody ends off the asparagus. Add the garlic, onion, leek, asparagus, fennel seeds and herbs to the dish with a splash of olive oil and cook until softened.

3. Place the chicken back into the pan, pour in the stock and season with black pepper. Cover with a lid and cook for around 45 minutes or until the chicken is tender and falling off the bone.

4. After 45 minutes stir in the peas, broad beans and cannellini beans.

5. Remove the chicken from the stew and use 2 forks to pull the meat off the bones. Discard the bones and return the meat to the dish, then season.

6. Beat the juice of 2 lemons and the eggs together well and slowly pour into the stew – don’t let it boil or the egg mix will scramble.

7. Take off the heat and stir in the natural yoghurt before ladling into bowls. Drizzle a little extra virgin olive oil over each bowl, grate over a little parmesan and enjoy!