Lamb

The other weekend we went and bought some lamb. D. had this idea of getting some Wagyu beef, for tataki, and she found a butcher over the bridge that supplies it. When we got there, all the beef was gone, so we bought other things, like pork sausages (big fat English-style sausages), a leg of lamb, some lamb shanks and a rack of lamb. Oh, and we had a quick snack of Laksa and Roti before leaving the shopping centre (and almost left without paying), but that's another story.

The lamb shanks were fine. Slowly braised in the Le Creuset. The roast lamb was sensational. The night before I stabbed it repeatedly and stuffed its wounds with whole cloves of garlic and sprigs of rosemary. I then rubbed it down with olive oil, seasoned with sea salt and ground black pepper, and left in the baking dish in the fridge overnight. After work the following day I added sweet potato and small onions, then chucked in the oven until it looked done. The fat was crispy and delicious, and the meat pink and tender. We finished off a bottle of white wine with it.

I salvaged a plateful of meat which D. used in noodles the next day (of all things... we just pretended it was a traditional northern Chinese dish). I then boiled up the remaining meat on the bone for soup stock. I started the boiling just before bed, so (my mum will blanch at this) I turned off the gas and left it on the cooktop overnight (pot's too big for the fridge) and re-boiled before work the next morning to keep it healthy.

You get a really thick, fatty stock with lamb, so I strained it through paper towels. This gets rid of all the tiny impurities and the fat, leaving a clear, fat-free stock. I boiled this up with pearl barley and green beans to make a sensational soup (even better with a splash of the old wooster).

I also twisted D.'s arm to get her to agree to banger's and mash, something our old pal Cathy always loved. Haven't cooked it in ages. This time I made potato and celeriac mash with butter and cream, green beans with truffle oil, gravy with beef stock, caramelised onions, french mustard, black pepper and corn starch to thicken, and big fat pork sausages fried in the pan and then kept hot in the oven. I surprised even myself with this one... and D. gave me several compliments, so I think this dish might become a winter regular.

The leftover cream went into this morning's scrambled eggs, along with some truffle oil. They were light and fluffy. Along with a virgin mary, a strong coffee and a crumpet with honey, they started a lazy Sunday of reading in bed followed by a walk around town to do a bit of shopping. It's nice to de-stress after a milestone, let me tell ya.