Me, You & lamb

 I was driving through the Winchester countryside and was listening to the local radio station who were talking about Christmas and the mass consumption of calorie rich foods. It made me think, as a bachelor I want to be able to cook something quickly, easily and memorable. My brain was ticking endlessly and then something peculiar happened, a farmer was crossing the road with his herd of lambs...and bingo! It was though i was struck by lightening and it lit my brain cells to work like a intel processor. Lamb was the chosen red meat - easily available, cookable and digestable.

Now was the hard part, how to prepare and cook it? A friend of mine was coming around to join me for dinner that evening and I thought I would use the opportunity to test run my virgin lamb cooking skills. So I dashed into the superstore and bought a kilo of the finest shoulder of Lamb - the butcher asked me, whole or chopped? I hesitated, and said chopped and later thought thats one way of making life difficult! It later occurred to me an unchopped lamb could've just been whacked in to the oven. On my way back home, I bought some potatoes, green beans and a tub of mixed herbs and decided to give a new herb called 'dil' a try - which I heard tasted good with the lamb.

So I gathered the ingredients on the, now, familiar work top beside the cooker and I began the whole process of chopping, peeling and cleaning of the potatoes, onions, garlic, ginger and rinsed the green beans. Next step was marinating the lamb - my university flat buddy was from spain and he always said to keep it simple. So, guess what? That's exactly what I did. I mixed the lamb in black pepper, sea salt and added some pesto sauce to the mix and a tea spoon of corriander and chilli powder. I added a 1oz of water to the mix and a dash of olive oil and then with both hands marinated the lamb.

Then I heated some oil in a pan and added the onions and garlic.....waited for them to crystalise and then added the lamb. After this, its a game of patience and timing. Water needs to be added to the pan to level with the lamb in the pan and this process needs to happen on a regular basis until the lamb is soft inside. Once its soft, it's ready to be served and eaten.
The potatoes and beans were steamed and served with the lamb.... and cooking time was about an hour. But the pan and plates were clean with no left overs which suggested to me a simple lamb dish, and a friend is a winning combination.