Roast Lamb

Until this year, I hardly ever cooked meat for myself at university. In my first two years I lived in nominally kosher places and therefore could only buy and cook kosher meat, which is both expensive and hard to get hold of. Most of the meat I ate was part of leftovers brought up from home. And then after that, meat was still expensive, and I like vegetarian food. And a lot of my leftovers from home were still meat. But this year things have changed. And the key to that change is the boyfriend. We eat together a lot of the time, and he likes meat. So, I eat more meat. There is also the fact that I have a smaller freezer, and can rely less on mum's cooking!

This weekend, Marks and Spencers were doing a £15 deal - a meal for four involving meat, a side dish, a dessert and wine. There were 5 of us for dinner - including 3 hungry boys (well men, I guess) - so we opted to get two. We bought two shoulders of lamb, with roast potatoes, mixed veg, chocolate pudding and an apple and pear tart. And wine, obviously. I actually thought that, whilst most of it was good value, the side dishes were a bit lacking - we needed more vegetables. But anyway, it was a lovely meal - and all of my housemates were in for the first time which was particularly nice. And we definitely got through more than those 2 bottles of wine!

We had a decent sized piece of lamb left over, and I decided to use that up last night. I had some mashed roast butternut squash as well, left over from home, so thought I'd so some kind of vaguely Moroccan style curry.

Chopped leftover lamb - apologies, photo is from my iphone

First I chopped and fried an onion, some garlic and some ginger paste.
I added some cumin seeds.
Then I added mushrooms (a handful) and the squash.
Then tomato puree (two tablespoons) and some water
Then I added spices: ground corriander, paprika, salt and pepper, ras-al-hanout, cinnamon and some honey.
I cooked that for a few minutes before adding the lamb, because I didn't want the lamb to be over cooked - I like it quite rare.
It was really good, but needed some more squash I think.

Hooray for cooking time

Sadly I can't make my camera talk to my computer at the moment, but I'm working on that...

Anyway, tonight was designated cooking night. It was very satisfying to be in the kitchen again, and to sit and eat a nice meal. However, I spent most of the day completely uninspired as to what I wanted to cook. I literally had no idea, but I knew it needed to involve vegetables. Eventually, I just went to Sainsbury's (now my nearest supermarket - I prefer Tescos) and hoped to be inspired there....

First stop, reduced to clear veg. I found leeks and mushrooms, two of my favourites. My immediate thought was miso soup, but an intensive search of the supermarket proved miso-less. New plan....

Looked for reduced fish. Nothing...

Went to meat. Bingo! I found four huge chicken legs for 1.25 pounds (I still cant find a pound symbol on my mac!). The plan was formulated: honey mustard chicken with mushrooms, butternut squash mash and creamed leeks.

So, my first step was to roast the squash. I don't bother attempting to cut it while it's raw, I just stab it all over with a sharp knife, drizzle with olive oil and stick it on a baking tray in the oven. It always takes ages! As soon as it's soft enough, cut it in half so it cooks quicker. And when it's very soft, remove and discard the seeds, then scoop the flesh out of the skin and mash. No need to add anything, it's soft enough already. (And the crispy skin tastes pretty good too!).

Meanwhile - the chicken. First I made the sauce in a pan: I combined honey, grainy mustard, and some spices - normally I use curry powder but we didn't have any so I settled for paprika and ground cumin. Heat until it bubbles. I then chopped an onion and some mushrooms and put them in a large oven-proof dish, and laid the chicken on top, before covering with the sauce. It just goes in the oven for about 45 minutes - check the chicken is cooked.

Lastly, leeks. Very simple. Chop, and saute in butter in a pan, When cooked, season and add a tablespoon or two of mayo.

I made far too much tonight so have at least two meals left over. I may even produce a photo eventually!

Another creamy pasta dish

I'm still experimenting with creme fraiche in pasta dishes. I think I really want to make something amazing, but everything just comes out ok. This week, I added lots of lemon, which gave it a bit of a kick.

This dish also used filled pasta. That's another thing I always want to taste better than it does. I think it's because I buy the Tesco own brand one, not something fancier. I also think that the best thing in filled pasta is squash or pumpkin, and they were out of those when I went shopping.

Anyway, this was pretty good, so I'm blogging about it anyway!


I started by chopping an onion, some garlic half a leek and some mushrooms. I'd used a white onion, not a red one, so it looked fairly white!

I added some broccoli too, so slightly better!

I cooked it all in a pan for a bit, before adding lemon juice, zest, seasoning and creme fraiche


And it was pretty good... Just not my favourite thing ever.

Speedy Pasta

Oxford life is incredibly manic. Most of the time I seem to be running all over the place, with 10 000 things to do.

This was a quick pasta which followed one of my more manic days: up by 07.30 to do some reading and finish an essay in time for my 11-1 class. Quick lunch with my class mates, followed by a brief meeting for a tutor to sign a form (he wasn't there!). Then from 2.30-4.00 we were looking at houses for next year. 4.30 I had a meeting on the other side of town for a play, then another straight after, for the same play. That meeting turned into a rehearsal, which went from 6-9, although I left in the middle for a physio appointment.

So, by the time I got home I was tired and hungry. Pasta was the obvious solution:



Luckily, I had mushrooms and leeks in the fridge, which I sauted, then added some creme fraiche, seasoning, mustard and parmesan. If only it was a prettier colour!

I'm submitting it to this week's Presto Pasta Nights, hosted by Patsy of Family, Friends and Food.