Roast Lamb Shoulder

Last night I cooked another roast dinner, this time a lamb shoulder. This is quite a cheap cut, but cooked for a long time it tastes fantastic.

As it's on the bone, the meat stays juicy - cooked for four hours, the meat falls off the bone easily. The recipe for this is in the Jamie at Home cookbook, however it's very easy.

Slash the fat side of the joint with a sharp knife, cutting through to the meat. Rub the shoulder with olive oil, salt and pepper, getting it in the slash marks too.Get a load of garlic cloves and rosemary and put half of it in the bottom of the baking tray. Put the joint in and then put the rest of the garlic and rosemary on top of it. Cover it tightly with foil - this is important to keep the joint protected from the strong heat of the oven.

Leave it for four hours. Seriously, don't touch it.

Then get it out of the oven, keep the foil on and put a tea towel over it, let it rest for 10 minutes. Put it on a big plate and let everyone  - or just you and your dining partner - rip into it.

Mr Oliver suggests serving it with smashed up veggies, but just have whatever you fancy or whatever is in season. My one recommendation having now made this twice is to get the joint from your local butcher. It is more expensive but far superior to the joint I bought in Tesco yesterday (even if The Scouser and I gobbled it up!)

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Weekend Eating

Last weekend I finally got to cook my little socks off. Thought I'd do a little run down of last weekend's eating.

Friday night: One-Pot Wonder of Chicken Thighs, Potatoes & Cherry Tomatoes - from the Jamie at Home cookbook. Now I'm not a massive fan of this cookbook, it's lovely to look at and I love to flick through it, but the food is a little tricky for an after-work meal. This recipe is a good 'un though - very easy and cheap. You have to use chicken thighs, it says fillets, but I used boned as fillets are tricky to find and more expensive so it doesn't make any difference. The red wine vinegar and juice from tomatoes make a sweet yet thin sauce and the chicken is succulent as thighs normally are (well mine are anyway...!).

Saturday night: Spicy Sausage & Fennel Pasta - another Jamie Oliver special! From his second book, this recipe is one of The Scouser's big faves. You need a bulb of fennel which can be expensive but luckily I'm close to a veg market where it's always available and not extortionate. I use chorizo in 'sausage' form, which is more economical as you get much more value for money than buying slices in a pack. It's easy to make  - throw everything in a pan and cook it down. The dried chilli adds a nice kick without burning your mouth off.

Sunday night: Good old Roast Chicken - as the nights are drawing in and it's getting chilly, I'm so happy to be able to have roasts again! I rub mine in a mixture of butter, garlic and whatever other random ingredients are at hand - fennel seeds, dried chilli, sundried tomatoes, smoked paprika... Smear it all over the bits with skin and even under the skin on the breast as it then flavours the meat too. Save a bit for the potatoes too, the butter makes them nice and crispy.

So definitely not a weekend of watching the calories. It never is for us!

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Cheesecake for Macmillan Coffee Morning

I made a cheesecake last week for our office coffee morning in aid of Macmillan - we did raise nearly £300 but I didn't win. Perhaps too lemon-y?

Anyway I have now got over the pain of losing, and can bring myself to blog about it. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe (aaah, a pattern is emerging) from the Ministry of Food book. This book is great - there are some things that seem quite simple in there, but it's great for ideas. In fact, my brother text me about the Chilli Con Carne over the weekend - "it's amazing! Just make sure you've got a massive saucepan".

So the cheesecake. It's not baked, but very easy. The recipe isn't online, but if you want it, leave a comment below. It says to use 1 lemon, 1 orange and some vanilla essence, but I love lemon cheesecake so I went with three lemons. I would recommend including the vanilla as it tastes better I think. I would also say that it could have more of the filling - it doesn't look that deep, but that would make it a lot richer.

Back to the drawing board with this one...

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