To go with the slow cooked lamb...

Spinach with Pine Nuts

In the lightest smear of oil (in a small saucepan!) brown a dessertspoonful of pine nuts. Taste one first to make sure that it isn't rancid. I add nutmeg and a little coarsely ground black pepper at this stage. Set aside till almost ready to serve.

In a large pan, heat a dessertspoonful (err towards less not more) of olive oil, but it mustn't get to the mother-in-law stage (thats spitting and smoking to you!). Off the heat, put in half a packet of spinach, preferably baby leaf. Turn it and mix it quickly (a wooden fork is good for this, and a useful thing to have); as soon as it just starts to wilt and reduce, add the other half. Keep stirring and turning it over. Add the nuts and spice. Mix well. Ready to serve.

If not using it elsewhere, I sometimes put a big pinch of dried chilli flakes in with the nuts at the end of the browning stage, but up to you. Better, is to accompany the spinach with.....

Jane Grigson's Red Hot Cauliflower

Which you will find in the recipes for other people, posted in February 2008. If you dont want it very spicy, put the chopped and deseeded chilli with some salt into a teacup, pour boiling water over it and let it soak for two or three minutes, then strain. Leave out the sweet red pepper if you are doing the roast peppers as below. You can use quite a lot of chilli, say two of the long (3 or 4" south east asian ones) but watch it - they vary enormously in oomph!

Mixed Rice and Lentils

Seems to me to be an altogether better accompanying carbohydrate for the lamb than potatoes.

In a big pan of boiling salted water, cook a good handful of wild rice - that's the 1/2" long black grains. They take ages, so they go into the pot a quarter of an hour before you add - a couple of tablespoons of brown or red rice. After another 15 minutes, add the same amount of Puy lentils. If you are using white rice (prettier, maybe, but won't taste as good, or be as good for you), leave the wild rice to cook for half an hour, and add rice and lentils together. They will need about 20 minutes, but vary so you will need to keep checking to see if they are ready. Meanwhile, chop a red onion (size is up to you) into very neat dice.

When you deem the rice/lentil mix to be cooked, drain it, rinse with boiling water and put it into an ovenproof serving dish with the chopped onion ans a tablespoon of olive (or I suppose you might try walnut) oil. Keep it warm for about ten minutes or so to let the onion soften a little in the heat of the rice.


Yoghurt with Mint and Cucumber

...is just what it sounds! Finely shredded mint leaves and neatly cubed, deseeded but unpeeled cucumber, mixed with youghurt and put into the fridge an hour before serving to let the flavours mingle. Taste it - you might want to add a bit of salt.


Roasted Red Peppers

...are also as they say they are. Remove the seeds from a couple of ripe red peppers (do not be tempted to substitute green - an altogether different taste and too bitter for this). Cut them into strips lengthways and half a finger wide. Toss in oil and cook in a hot oven for about 20 - 30 minutes until just blackening around the edges a tiny bit.



The point of all this are all the contrasts. You will have the hot lamb against the cold minty yoghurt, the dark green of the soft spinach and crisp nuts, against the sweet bright red of the peppers and the white cauliflower sprinkled with the little strips of red chilli. Very pretty and, believe me, utterly scrummy.



Enjoy!!
PS - it's worth having a bit of a plan, as the timing of each dish is very different, though they are all quite tolerant about being kept warm in an oven with the door ajar.