Low GI & Omega 3 Rich Recipes

The best part of this recipe is the delicious garlic confit. This recipe is taken from Damien Pignolet’s book “French” (consider buying it through this Amazon link to support lowgicooking.com) however I have altered the way it is cooked slightly, excluding lavender from the herbs, using less parsley, and rather than spending the hours it takes to slow cook, cooking at a higher temperature for a shorter amount of time.

If you don’t want to cook as much meat as you are only cooking for 1 or 2, or if you want a lower fat version, use lamb backstraps instead of lamb shoulder for individual rolls, or for a light lunch, split one between two people with a salad and some bread. Serve with a simple green salad like our “Pea, pear, basil and mint garden salad”.

Roast potatoes are higher GI than boiled potatoes. By keeping the potatoes covered with stock, the water content is higher, the starch less available and the GI lower. Keeping the serving size of potatoes small, but having lots of other vegetables and a big salad with this along with the addition of the white beans help to keep the Glycaemic Load (GL) down.

Ingredients

• Lamb Shoulder (ask butcher to take bones out for you but leave unrolled, and to remove as much fat as possible. If you are cooking the same day of purchase, he can remove the outside fat, but if you are going to refrigerate or freeze the meat, ask him to leave the outside layer of fat so it does not dry out and trim it yourself on the day of preparation.) If you would like a quicker cooking version, use 1 lamb backstrap per person.
• 1 cup parsley
• 1 – 2 whole garlic i.e: around 10-15 cloves (we recommend ordering some Australian-grown organic garlic online. The taste difference is out of this world and despite the cost, you will keep coming back for more).
• Fresh oregano (a few sprigs)
• Fresh lemon thyme (a few sprigs)
• 1 bay leaf
• 500mL chicken stock
• 1 cup dry white wine
• jute twine
• 1 cup olive oil (don’t be alarmed, much of this is set aside but its used for the confit garlic)
• 3 – 4 small new potatoes per person (lowest GI of all potatoes)
• Wedge of pumpkin
• 1/2 parsnip per person
• 1 can white beans such as butter beans

Directions

• Place the garlic cloves (separated but skin left on) in a small crockery bowl and cover completely with olive oil.
• Fill a fry pan with water and place the bowl in it (the water should come about half way up the sides of the bowl)
• Boil the water and the garlic will cook slowly
• Damien Pignolet recommends keeping the temperature at 70 °C. We used a thermometer to check the oil using this technique, and it kept the temperature between 60-70 °C reliably while the water was boiling.
• Cook using this method for 45 minutes. Check intermittently to ensure you do not run out of water in the fry pan, topping up the level from time to time
• In a separate saucepan, boil some well salted water.
• Add the parsley to the boiling water and cook for 3-4 mins, then remove, rinse under cold water to stop the cooking, and chop.
• Spread the garlic, parsley, and finely chopped herbs & bay leaf over the lamb, add salt and pepper and roll up. Tie firmly, easier with an extra set of hands to help hold it together.
• Next, heat a fry pan to a hot temperature, add some of the garlic infused oil and fry the lamb till brown on all sides. This seals in the moisture. You can achieve a similar result by putting the oven up to 220 °C and cooking for 20 minutes then lowering the heat. Once browned, add 500mL stock and a glass of dry white wine to the roasting pan.
• Roast at 180 °C. The cooking time will vary depending on the size of the roast. We recommend using a cooking thermometer to ensure it is cooked to perfection. For the backstraps, roasting time is approximately 35 minutes, for a shoulder, 1.5 hours at 180 °C (after the initial browning stage) should be enough. About half hour into the cooking time, add the vegetables to the stock and wine and return to the oven. 15 minutes before the end of roasting time stir in the drained, rinsed white beans to the vegetables.
• Remove the string, carve, and serve!