hello? Is it me you're looking for?

The cooking dry spell continued, making me more grateful than ever for other people's home dishes. Jimmy's classic ham, rice and salad; an Ottolenghi-salad lunch crafted by Mel; Alex's barley and black pudding risotto.

And then, after two days alone in the burnt ochre palette of English autumn countryside, I noticed my cooking mojo sitting next to me.  He looked like this:

I had picked courgette, tomatoes, rosemary and thyme from Rosie & Alex's garden. So I made ratatouille and chipolata sausages for supper, and also a lamb stew for school nights this week.

Mojo Lamb

Brown the cheapest of stewing lamb in Alex's nice, deep pot, then remove to a dish. 

In the lamby pan, add more oil, then in it sweat sliced onion and cumin seeds.  

Add diced celery and cook a bit more, keeping the heat low. 

Return the lamb to the pan, cover with water, then add in rosemary, diced carrot and a few odds of courgette that had gone mushy at one end, but you wanted to rescue the edible bits.  

Leave on low for a couple of hours, happy in the knowledge it will taste even better when re-heated after work.

Pour a glass of wine and let the aromatic rosemary smells sharpen your appetite. 

Lambgate

Melly Bo and Phil ventured all the way to south London, for a First Day of The End Of The Summer lamb roast. I chose a lamb shoulder - my resolute favourite cut - and made a lamb roast which started life as Hugh's weeping whatsit and has since morphed, as all dishes do, to suit my natural leanings. Despite this, still bluddy yums.  The company was even more delicious than the lamb, and the food warmed our souls and made autumn seem a cosy prospect. 

The next night I was out at my local community choir, which was such fun I am tempted to ramble on about that instead of food. Even the bit where, on the walk home I made a voice memo of a song, accidentally pressing the 'start' button only when complete, then recorded 18 minutes and 26 seconds of the inside of my pocket. Technical dunce!

I finally arrived home at 9.30, ravenous: what to eat?

Out came the brown dish and in went all the left over roast veggies, new potatoes and the fattiest chunks of lamb.  After15 mins in an un-pre-heated oven optimistically set to 200 degrees, with wine and 'Girls' on the go, I could bear it no longer and tucked in.  But not without a photo for posterity: you know me. 

The flavours had become more intense, and this was even more wonderful than the original roast.  How I love left-overs!