Lamb for the Livers-Out

For those of us living out there’s often a toss up in the kitchen between going making enough for one or doing a ‘family meal’. There really is something very civilised about coming together for some good food around the table with the people you have actually chosen to live with…

Here is a simple but effective three-course menu that won’t break the bank but will taste bloody good. It’s not particularly challenging – even for the most abominable of student cooks…

To Start: Roasted Vegetable and Boursain tarts with Fresh Pesto.

Choose a variety of vegetables (I suggest from Robinson’s) and bung them in the oven with olive oil and a few garlic cloves for about 25 minutes. Meanwhile, grab a couple of sheets of ready made puff pasty (or make your own if you’ve got time) and lay out on a tray.

Pesto’s easy enough to make yourself – so do it. Pop basil, pine nuts, parmesan, olive oil (go easy here) in a blender until of pesto consistency. Toss the roasted vegetables onto the pastry and spread pesto and boursain gleefully across said veg. Pop into the oven for around twenty minutes and serve alongside a rocket salad with a dash of balsamic glaze.

The Main Event: Roast lamb, Dauphinoise potatoes & sautéed green beans

Piper’s butcher is the best to pick up some reasonably prices and well prepared lamb. Take a knife to the meat and make about thirty one-centimetre slits in it, fill each of these with a slither of garlic and about an inch of rosemary. Season generously with salt and pepper and whack into the oven for around 1 ½ hrs until pink, depending on personal taste.

Whilst this is cooking take a load of potatoes and cut them into a discs 1/3^rd of a centimetre. Put them on the hob to simmer for 15 minutes. Take an egg, half a pot of cream (how big is a pot? Go wild, decide for yourself), salt, pepper, parmesan cheese and whisk it all together. Strain the potatoes, pour this over and put in the oven for an hour. Save a little Cornish cruncher to add to the dish in the final 20 minutes of cooking, until golden-brown.

Take the lamb out and place to the side for around 10 minutes, covered in tin foil. Take the roasting tray to make an au jus by adding boiling water, a little flour and a stock cube if needed. Carve as you like and serve up with a bevvy of beans and a dollop of Dauphinoise.

If there’s still room:

Whisk an egg and half a pot of cream together, take 8 slices of bread, cut them in half and lather them in the mixture. Line them in a tray, add some demerera sugar and more of the creggmix (cream & egg mix) on to, add a couple of currants if you like, or chocolate if you’re wild like that, and put in the oven for 25 minutes. Take out and enjoy your bread and butter pudding.

Make sure someone else does the washing up and relish in the pleasure of brownie points from your housemates and the potential of a food baby to play with for a bit.