Although I no longer go to work, my days are so very busy. I mind my toddler grandson 3 days a week, which is incredibly fulfilling but wipes out the whole day. Fitting in socialising and hobbies, walking the dog and days out, I don’t know how I ever found time to go to work. Yes, I’ve turned into that annoying chirpy retiree that will tell everyone it’s the best thing I ever did. Which is true.
As a result of all this busyness, Sundays are an essential chill-out day. We try not to make commitments if possible, but instead simply relax. Once a month on average, we trek out on the train to one of our favourite towns for a pootle around the shops, a very leisurely Sunday roast in a superb restaurant followed by a drink in our preferred watering hole before trotting back home. On the Sundays we don’t treat ourselves with a day out, we will have a slow day and a hot main meal for lunch and spend the day pottering in the garden, binging TV shows and basically doing not very much.
Sometimes I don’t want to cook a full Sunday lunch with a roasting joint.
Roasting meat joints have become so ridiculously expensive – and you don’t want the more affordable chicken every single Sunday. When we eat out, I tend to go for a beef roast as, whilst expensive, it’s not all that much more these days than buying the joint and vegetables and cooking it myself. We rarely have lamb because the price has risen so much – just for the two of us a small leg of lamb would be over £12. But I really fancied it for today.
Instead of a joint, I bought a couple of fairly chunky lamb steaks, selecting a pack with the smallest amount of fat as lamb can be pretty fatty.
I do like mint sauce, and the sweeter mint jelly too, but one of my favourite flavours with lamb is rosemary. Today’s menu of lamb steaks with fried potatoes, seared courgettes, broccoli and root vegetable mash took less than half an hour from prep to table – most of that time spent boiling the potatoes.
Recipes –
Fried potatoes.
- 2 baking potatoes (or 3 medium sized potatoes), peeled and cut into chunks
- Garlic infused oil *
- Dried rosemary
Boil the potatoes until cooked. In a large frying pan, drizzle some of the oil and sprinkle in a small handful of the dried rosemary. Once the potatoes are cooked, drain them and fry over a medium heat for a good 10 minutes or so, turning regularly. You want the potatoes to be browned and crispy but not burned.
*you can buy ready to use infused oil, but it’s easy to make at home. Simply place a peeled clove or two into a small bottle of standard vegetable cooking oil. The longer this infuses for, the greater the garlic flavour.
Lamb steaks.
- 2 lamb steaks
- Garlic infused oil
- One garlic clove, finely chopped (or pressed), alternatively 1 teaspoon of ‘easy garlic’
- 2 teaspoons of dried rosemary
- 1 teaspoon of Cranberry or redcurrant jelly
Brush the lamb steaks with the garlic oil, just lightly, on each side. In a bowl, mix the chopped garlic, rosemary and cranberry jelly and stir until combined. Spoon the mixture over one side of the lamb steaks and spread to cover them evenly.
Once the potatoes are put into the frying pan, pop the lamb steaks in a tray under a medium grill. Although it feels counter intuitive, start grilling with the topped side upwards. After about 3 minutes, turn them over – the sauce mix will have mostly melted into the steaks. After another 3 minutes, turn them back and continue grilling until cooked to your preference – for medium rare reduce these times by a minute each side. Approximately 9-10 minutes in total should result in a medium cooked lamb steak. Once cooked, set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes.
This meal is flavoursome but not overpowering and gives you that ‘Sunday roast’ feeling without even putting the oven on. And it’s a good excuse to open that decent bottle of wine.
I hope you all enjoy your Sunday and find time to relax and recoup before Monday raises its head again tomorrow.
Love
Maggie x