Quick Beef Lasagne

Serves 4 Prep Time 15 mins Cooking Time 15 mins

Ingredients

1 packet lasagne sheets, cooked and drained, and brushed with oil to prevent them from sticking

300g beef fillet or rump, sliced

2 tbsp light soy sauce

salt and pepper to taste

3 tbsp oil

1 large tomato, sliced

1 small red onion, sliced

1 small red and green capsicum each, sliced

1 bottle cheese sauce

Method

1 Marinate beef with soy sauce, 1 tsp salt and pepper. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or pan and fry beef over high heat until just done. Remove and set aside.

2 In the same pan, add 1 tbsp oil, and fry tomato, onion and capsicum for 3 minutes over high heat. Season to taste and remove from heat.

3 To assemble lasagne, alternate lasagne sheet with tomato, onion, capsicum and cheese sauce. Finish the top layer with remaining cheese sauce and brown under a grill or in an oven preheated to 200ºC for 3 minutes. Serve immediately.

Satay and Peanut Sauce

Ingredients
A) Satay:
1.5 kg chicken -deboned
1 stalk lemon grass
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp cummin
1 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp powdered cinnamon
2.5 cm piece fresh turmeric
8 shallots salt to taste

Instructions
A: Cube the chicken meat, drain and put aside. Grind coriander, cummin, tummeric, peanuts, salt and sugar. Mix this with the powdered cinnamon, diced shallots and 1 tbsp cooking oil, marinate the chicken with this mixture. Using special skewers, skewer 5 pieces of meat on one skewer, as in Kebabs. Gril over burning coal, constantly sprinkling cooking oil over the meat using crushed lemon grass. Turn over and continue grilling until the chicken is cooked Serve with peanut sauce.

B) Peanut Sauce:
1 cup sugar
1 bombay onion
1/2 cup tamarind juice
2 stalks lemon grass
2.5 cm piece ginger
3 tbsps pounded chilies
300 gms peanuts - roasted
A piece of galangal salt to taste

B: Grind the roasted peanuts. Put aside grind lemon grass, ginger and galangal until fine slice bombay onion and stir fry until soft add in ground chillies and the other ground ingredients add in tamarined juice and lastly peanuts, sugar and salt. Simmer until the gravy thickens.

To serve, arrange a few sticks of satay on a plate and serve with a bowl of peanut sauce, cucumber. Satay also goes very well with compressed rice (nasi impit).

Lamb with tomato salad and mint yogurt

Serving size: Serves 4

Cooking time: Less than 30 minutes

INGREDIENTS
600g lamb backstraps, trimmed

½ medium (85g) red onion, sliced thinly

4 small (240g) egg tomatoes, sliced thinly

1 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves

1 cup fresh small mint leaves

2 teaspoons ground sumac

8 pitta bread

Mint yogurt

1 cup (280g) low-fat natural yogurt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped finely

1 tablespoon lemon juice

salt and pepper, to taste

METHOD
For the mint yogurt, combine all ingredients in a bowl; cover, refrigerate until needed.

Cook the lamb on a heated, oiled grill plate for about 10 minutes or until cooked as desired. Transfer to a warmed plate; cover to keep warm.

Meanwhile, combine the onion, tomato, herbs, sumac and salt and pepper to taste in a medium bowl; toss gently.

Serve sliced lamb with salad, pitta and mint yogurt sprinkled with a little extra mint, if desired.