Tonight I had several people from church over for dinner. Three had been for dinner here before, but three had not - in fact it was the first social thing with those three, I think. After finding out the dietary requirements for one guest (lactose intolerant, not a fan of seafood, allergic to prawns, Nando's mild sauce is too spicy) I decided to do a roast. Thank goodness there were no vegetarians!
I worked out this afternoon that the last (and first) time I used my roasting tray was 4 years ago. Needless to say, I'm not a big roaster. I think I could get into the habit a bit more though. It's so simple, so comforting, relatively healthy, so aromatic. Being not in the habit, though, meant I was a tad nervous looking for a bit of meat to stick in the oven for a few hours and still be big enough to feed 7 people. Lamb was the best option available. It looks like I'll be having lamb for a little while - I remember seeing a recipe for rogan josh using leftover roast lamb so that might be Sunday...
Jamie Oliver promised to hold my hand through the whole process, which was lovely - except he didn't warn me about bursts of steam (which looks like smoke) escaping from the oven every now and then. Maybe I need to have the seals checked, but this caused a few panicked temperature changes. Eventually, the lamb was cooked and the roast vegetables roasted. The gravy stayed quite runny - we were at the stage where everything else was good to go so I didn't hang about with too much cornflour. Being a lamb roast, though, mint sauce was suggested. I have a healthy mint plant at the courtyard door - how easy can it get? Now that I think of it though, I don't recall actually eating any... I hope it tasted ok. I'll have some leftovers, no doubt. (Speaking of leftovers, a couple provided dessert... drool... just polished off the leftovers while writing this. So I can wash up sooner, of course. Raspberry and white chocolate croissant pudding. Just in case you're wondering. Recipe is on its way...). Meanwhile, mint sauce is really unattractive and un-photogenic. My apologies.
Dinner was wonderful. For starters, it prompted me to do something with my holiday. Well, for a day at least. I'm still in the post-goal-achievement lull and feeling a bit down, so having people over was a great incentive to clean. And these are great people, just having them around is good for the soul - great company, interesting conversation (I wish I could have videoed the evening - it felt rude to put quotes into my phone all night), and the sort of people around whom I can be Me. I discovered we are all coffee drinkers - not that this is a surprise, but this was the first confirmation of fact. My coffee machine has not had so much work before! Yes, that is a Pride and Prejudice mug. Given to me by a niece and nephew for Christmas, last week I posted a photo to Facebook of it, with coffee of course, in front of the tv with the menu screen for the BBC 6-episode series. So many people liked it, and one of them got to use it tonight. We're thinking of having a Pride and Prejudice evening...
Today's photo:
Separating the bulbs of garlic for roasting, I noticed the pinkness in the skin looks like veins. After a bit of peeling, they look so delicate and fragile.
