Utterly unpretentious, and a standby for all American moms, the mac and che’ is immense pleasure in a pot.
For me I boil up some macaroni, then when it’s nearly cooked chuck in broccoli florets and chopped hot dogs for a couple of minutes, so they are all tender at the same time.
Whilst this bubbles away I knock together a roux-based white sauce. That’s butter and flour smooshed together and allowed to form a paste, then when pale add milk until smooth. A bay leaf, a spoonful of English mustard and salt and pepper are added to give some flavour, then cheese grated in until it tastes right.
Then I chuck it all in a pot and bake in an oven until bubbly and brown. Not very spring-like, but pure comfort food.
…Or it might be jambalaya. I’m not sure what the criteria is. It’s rice ‘n’ stuff in one pan, anyway.
My old chum chorizo makes a special guest appearance, but it’s the vegetables that do the work in this one. I fried the chorizo a bit to char the edges and encourage their spicy-sweet juices to leak out, then put them to one side. Then in go the veg: red onion, celery, carrot. After they’ve tenderised a bit, in go a courgette, some garlic and a pepper. After a couple of minutes I added some basmati rice and tossed that around to get up to heat. I wanted an alcoholic flavour so I added some Cinzano of all things at this point – slightly bitter, slightly sweet.
Then the chorizo went back, along with a pint of veg stock, some saffron and some paprika. Lid on, and left it for 20 mins or so. I came back to find a pan full of sticky rice and tender veg. Garnished with a little fresh parsley and shovelled away heaped spoonfuls at a time. Dinners in one pan rock!
Thanks to yesterday’s roast, I had a heap of leftovers. A few additions later and dinner’s ready.
I started by baking some potatoes until they were, well, jacket potatoes. I’m a big fan of mash done in this way. Meanwhile I took the cold, yummy, gummy lamb and chopped it into bits. I also had some leftover carrots and chopped those up too. I fried these bits in a pan until warmed up, then added some lamb stock and frozen peas. When the juice had reduced down a bit, I chucked them in a dish and topped with fresh mash, carved from the flesh of the baked potatoes mixed with a few leftover roast potatoes. I couldn’t resist a little cheese on top and left it in the oven for a few minutes until golden and bubbly. Lovely.
Spring is surely here when lamb is on the menu. Wonderful, succulent, English lamb. I used a shoulder; just as interesting and tasty as a leg, but half the price. A trickier carve I’ll grant you but I can suffer that for luscious tender meat.
With the benefit of ample time on a Sunday, I fancied a slow roast on this occasion. I turned to two inspirations, food pornographer Nigel Slater and laid-back New Zealander Peter Gordon. If Kiwis know how to cook something, it’s lamb. I started by slashing the meat all over with deep grooves, reaady for flavours. I arrived at a baste of juicy garlic, aromatic garden-picked rosemary, prickly mustard seeds and of course s&p. I mashed all this together and smeared it into a paste with olive oil, then eagerly rubbed all over the meat. I put this in an oven of 150c, over some onions, carrots and celery, covered with foil.
As pungent garlicky smells filled the air, I basted the meat every half hour or so then removed the foil after about four hours. A further twenty minutes just to brown a little more of the surface, and left it to rest for an hour. The meat came off with no effort at all, and made piles of juicy lamb. I served with roast potatoes (natch), carrots, yorkshire puddings (it’s not beef, so sue me) and broccoli cheese. The meat was filled with savoury, tender juice and had a wonderful flavour. It’s a crappy old ad slogan, but there’s never a better time to “Slam in the Lamb”.
This British Sunday classic is easy to do but just needs time.
Course Main Course
Cuisine British
Keyword lamb, meat
Servings 8
Author Gary @ BigSpud
Ingredients
1.5kglamb shoulder
1bulbgarlic
1tablespoonrosemarychopped
1teaspoonmustard seeds
1onionroughly chopped
1carrotroughly chopped
1stickceleryroughly chopped
Instructions
Preheat the oven to 150C.
Bash together the rosemary, mustard seeds and half the garlic in a pestle and mortar. Add salt and pepper and stir through a tablespoon or so of olive oil. Massage this all over the lamb.
Put the rest of the garlic, the onion, celery and carrot in the base of a deep roasting tray. Put the lamb on top with a mugful of water and cover with foil. Roast in the oven for 4 hours.
Remove the foil for the last 20 minutes of cooking. Make sure you leave to rest for about an hour before carving.
