Sunday Lunch yum yum

I love sundays. In the summer its nice to go for a picnic with friends, but my fave is cooking a traditional sunday lunch at home for my chop-chop.

Today Im cooking roast lamb with all the trimmings.

Roast Lamb (for two)

Leg of Lamb

olive oil

salt and pepper

1 lemon

4 large Potatoes

2 parsnips

half a swede

4 carrots

1 onion

half a cabbage

1 knob of butter

packet of stuffing (i just dont like homemade im such a chav lol)

Plain Flour

half a pint of milk

Put lamb in a oven tray, drizzle on about 1 tablespoon of olive oil, squeeze the lemon over, sprinkle with salt and pepper and roast in the oven. Times depend on size and liking (rare, medium, well done). We like lamb slightly pink, so with a small leg for 2 people I roast at 200 degrees for an hour and a half. Checking after an hour and a quarter by stabbing with a sharp knife to check the colour of the fluid. Red its still rare, pinkish is ideal for us, clear and its well done.

Peel potaotes and cut into 4 peices. Put in a pan and boil at top heat for 10 minutes. Drain and put back in saucepan, sprinkle in 1 tablespoon of flour and a good pinch of salt. Put lid on and roughly shake. Throw into an oven pan pre-heated with olive oil. Make sure the spuds are all coated by tossing around and bang it back in the oven. These take about an hour. I turn them half way thru. On the half way turn, i put in the peeled parsnips which ive cut into 4, straight down length ways then once across.

Boil the carrots and swede, peeled and diced together, these take longer than potatoes and your knife should slip in easy. Mash them with a knob of butter and salt and pepper. If these are done early no problem, put them in a bowl then zap warm with the microwave just before serving them.

Peel and slice your cabbage and boil for about 20 minutes, drain and put in another knob of butter, shake about and its done.

Slice your onion and put in a saucepan with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a good spinkle of salt, cook while stirring for about 10 minutes until soft. In another pan add a knob of butter until its sizzling, throw in a tablespoon of plain flower and stir quite fast until its slightly brown, chuck in half a pint of milk and stir it until its smooth but quite thick, if its too thick add more milk. Throw in the onions and take it off the heat. Let it sit for at least 15 minutes so the mixture absorbes the oniony taste, then reheat either in the pan or transfer to a dish and heat in the microwave just before you put the dinner on the table.

For the gravy, when you take the meat out of the pan and leave to rest (about 10 minutes and i cover with a clean tea-towel to stop it getting too cold). Pop the pan back on a medium heat until sizzling, add 2 teaspoons of plain flour and mix with a wooden spoon. Be careful at this stage it burns quite easy and can get thick and cloggy. Then add a quarter of a glass of white wine and mugs of hot water from the cabbage. Mix thoroughly and transfer to a saucepan, let it bubble away to burn the alcohol off and ...........perfect gravy.

We dont have a starter or a pudding. But we usually have something sweet and yummy at tea time. :)

The swede and carrot mash, the cabbage, the gravy and the onion sauce can all be re-heated so your not running around with everything timed to finish at the same time lol this is a recipe for caos (if your me). Do all this while the lamb is cooking, time your meal for the lamb finishing.

Place it all on a plate and serve the onion sauce in a jug or a bowl with a spoon for people to lash over their lamb as they wish.

There is loads of lamb left and we dont like it cold, I find it goes quite hard so I usually make a spicy lamb dish of my own concoction for mondays dinner. Or make it and freeze it.

I will add my spicy lamb dish incase you want to try it. :)