Slow-Roast Lamb With Garlic, Rosemary & Thyme

When the nights start drawing in and the wind carries the chilly promise of winter, is there anything nicer than battening down the hatches and reading the Sunday papers on the sofa whilst a delicious dinner bubbles away in your handy slow cooker?  No?  I thought not.  

B and I picked up a shoulder of lamb at the supermarket (B wanted me to lie and say we bought it at The Ginger Pig, but we didn't.  A shoulder of lamb at that place may well be organically and ethically produced, but it also costs a gazillion pounds.  Sometimes choices must be made) and we literally couldn't wait to get home to cook it. 

We made a rub from several cloves of garlic, an onion, and lots of fresh rosemary and thyme, which we blitzed in the food processor with plenty of olive oil until they formed a delectable paste.  We covered the meat on all sides, then lowered it into the slow cooker with a cupful of red wine. 

We let the lamb cook for about four hours on a medium setting, while we lounged around watching West Wing repeats and loosening our waistbands in preparation for the evening meal.

About forty minutes before we wanted to eat, we took the lid off the slow cooker (so that the pot liquid could cook down into a rich, thick gravy) and prepared the vegetables.  We didn't want anything too fancy, since the lamb was the star of the show, so I simply sliced a handful of carrots thinly and drizzled them with honey and some chopped thyme, and let them roast until sticky and golden.  Some broccoli added a bit of colour variety.

Best.Meal.Ever.  Because it had been cooked long and slow, the lamb was super-tender and the ingredients in the rub lent it a delicious, delicate flavour.  We could have quite happily eaten the meat all by itself, but since we had to have vegetables, they were delicious too.

(Sorry for the massive box of Kleenex making a sneaky appearance in the photo above.  We have Man Flu in the house.) 

Lamb & Cucumber Burgers

Readers, I have a confession to make.  I think I'm in love.  With a supermarket.  Waitrose, to be precise.  Last week I found myself fabricating a flimsy excuse to go to the Wharf (something about overdue library books, I don't even remember it myself) just so that I could spend ten minutes wandering around its spacious aisles.  Sigh. 

I had a very happy time looking at Italian polenta and Japanese soba noodles and Chinese rice wine and imagining a parallel universe in which I actually knew what to do with these foods.   And then I found myself in the fresh meats aisle.  And then I saw a range of burgers designed by Heston Blumenthal.  And then I saw that the lamb and cucumber burgers had a 25% off sticker on them.

In my book, that's fate.

They were AMAZING.  Fresh-tasting and juicy, with the cucumber giving the meat a lovely clean aftertaste.  We griddled them for about 3 minutes on each side, so that they were still pinkish inside.  And then we inhaled them in ten seconds flat.  Oh yes we did. 

Our accompaniment to this delicious burger-fest?  Wine. 

Here is my glass enjoying the works of Charles Dickens.  How cultural!

We've got some time off work next week, and oh boy have we been looking forward to it.  We've been feverishly planning how many activities we could possibly cram into seven days, and have come up with a plan of action called The Week Of Fun Things.  I'll be posting updates as we go - I promise at least ten food-related Fun Things.  They'll probably all be either calorie-laden or alcohol-sodden.  Does that sound like a deal?

Lamb-Filled Flatbreads

We normally plan our meals around our Wednesday veg box delivery.  Are mushrooms included?  Then we might have this or this.  Lots of greens?  Then we'll probably be knocking together some stirfries.  But for one reason or another, we didn't get round to ordering a box this week, leaving us totally idea-less on what to cook.

"What would you like for dinner on Tuesday?" I asked B.  "You can have anything you like!"

"Er...." he said blankly.  "Um....."

After staring into space for a while, inspiration struck.  We simply asked ourselves:  What Did Nigel Do?

We have a much-loved and much-used copy of this book, where Nigel Slater writes about a year in his kitchen.  It's full of seasonal recipes and it's my favourite go-to for simple, delicious, fuss-free meals.  We checked out the July and August chapters, and discovered Nigel's description of lamb-filled flatbreads.  How could we resist?

We used rump steak rather than the fillet steak suggested, because we would have to re-mortgage the house to buy fillet at our local butchers.  The meat was rubbed with cumin and coriander, and then grilled until beautifully pink - so delicious.  Alongside, we had a bowlful of spinach, watercress and rocket leaves (straight out of a bag, of course).  Plus wholemeal pitta breads (the nearest to flatbreads that our local supermarket could manage), and tzatziki made with cucumber, mint, garlic and thick Greek yogurt.  We should have added a bit of salt to the yogurt, because it was on the bland side, but we'll know for next time.

We sprinkled smoked paprika over the stuffed-to-bursting pitta and dived right in.  The cat didn't even get a look in.

 

The Holiday Files Part Two - Home Cooking

We were lucky enough to be renting a small apartment for our holiday, which meant we had a kitchen at our disposal when we didn't want to go out to eat.  There was a fantastic food market in Palma and the local supermarket had all kinds of lovely local produce that we really wanted to try, so we jumped at the chance to cook a couple of meals for ourselves.

Oooh, pie.

For some reason, pie has become our go-to holiday food - we once found the chilled, ready-made and ready-shaped pastry on sale in France and since then it's become a bit of a tradition.   You don't need to do anything to the pastry at all, which is perfect when you don't want to faff about in the kitchen for too long.  We didn't have a proper pan, so B fashioned one from tin foil.  Intrepid, no?  The pastry case got filled with a combination of  mashed avocados, local goat's cheese, tomatoes, and olives, and then the whole thing went straight into the oven.  We fell asleep while it was cooking, so perhaps it was a little overdone, but let's call it caramelised. 

The spontaneous napping may or may not have been caused by some cheap and potent sangria.  I can neither confirm nor deny.  

Another night, we had sausages from the butcher's counter of the supermarket, which cost us all of 2 euros.   They were spicy with paprika and cooked in minutes.

We roasted some vegetables to have alongside - aubergines, courgettes, tomatoes and onions - and mopped up the juices with lots of chunky bread.

 For our last home-cooked meal, we chose some thin cuts of lamb (as it turned out - we only knew what it was when we took it home and I looked up the words on the label in our phrasebook.  Luckily we both love lamb!) and pan fried them with some chorizo, before deglazing the pan with a splash of wine to make a lovely gravy.  We had roast potatoes and salad alongside. 

Sneaky midnight feast....delicious, locally-made orange sorbet.

And possibly more wine.  Oh dear.