Lamb with Butternut Squash, Garlic and things.

Veg Box!

Ok, so the veg box arrived from River Ford this afternoon - excellent as ever, amongst other things it contained wet garlic and butternut squash.

One thing lead to another and since it's a reasonably hot spring evening and barbeques were very much in evidence, quick as you like we nipped up to Morrisons (beggers can't be choosers) to get the biggest available lamb steaks on offer and some other things.

So, the butternut squash gets cut into chips and covered in smoked paprica from mmm newcastle which I do recommend. The carrots get covered in cumin. These get in the baking tray with a little oil (there may also have been ras al hanout, there usually is) and stuck in an oven at 220 degrees turned down to 170 straight away to soften and cook for an hour or so while I get the lamb sorted. Most of what I do with lamb comes one way or another from Nigel Slater's very excellent book: Appetite.

Marinade!

• Slice up the wet garlic. Wet garlic looks like a big spring onion, and is the foody find of the day.
• Chop up two or three anchovies. 
• Finely slice two or three twigs of rosemary.
• Sea salt and some smashed up pepper corns. Probably not too much salt as the anchovies will do that.

Smash all of that together in a pestle and mortar as best you can, then pour on some olive oil and squeeze quite a bit of lemon in there too.

Smear this all over your lamb steaks and leave them for as long as you can. In my case this was about ten minutes, but you know, this should really be measured in hours.

Lamb!

Get a griddle pan good and hot. A barbeque would be the ideal, but I don't have a garden. Once it's proper hot, chuck the lamb steaks on there with any marinade that's stuck to them. Any marinade that's left can be poured onto the butternut squash. The anchovies will more or less dissolve and add a saltyness to everything: this is good, but go canny on any additional salt.

Start warming up some plates. If you have steak knives they should be deployed now.

Three minutes on one side, pressed down, then a minute or so held with any fat against the pan, then onto its other side: squeeze any remaining lemon and pour any remaining marinade over it then three or four minutes on that side.

Put it on the Plate!

The lamb could use a couple of minutes to rest after its ordeal, so when you slice it it's pink but not bleeding. Sort out the butternut squash and carrots while the lamb is resting: get it all on a plate, and do not for one moment consider taking a photograph for a blog post. Do not worry about mixing tense or third/first person. Eat. Yes. 

A box of Veg

Just after Christmas Paul and I were offered a free veg box from River Ford by a friend, never being the sort to turn down free food I jumped on the chance. Not only was this a bit of a novelty, the idea of someone growing organic fruit and vegetables and delivering them to our door, it was also something we'd been thinking about for a few months now. It wasn't long before the first box arrived and we got to know our local veg delivery folk, who are very accommodating and helpful when it comes to setting up your orders and settling into a regular routine, lovely folk.

Above is a photo of our most recent fruit & veg box, this included the best grapes I have ever had, ever. They were better than most sweets I've had. As there's only two of us we opted for the mini boxes on a fortnightly basis, one fortnight just veg, the next fruit and veg. This allows us to top up with veg for specific meals around the side or eat out without worrying about wasting all that food. You're pretty much guaranteed to get carrots, potatoes and onions but that's fine by me, they are the basis of many different kinds of meals and they are always really good quality.

A major highlight of the fruit and veg box for Paul was getting tomatoes. Tomatoes can be quite watery, boring even, when bought from a supermarket, a disappointment, specially if you've had good tomatoes while away, probably in Spain. The veg box tomatoes were sweet, ripe, fresh and even had a fantastic tang to them that is so often missing from the supermarket tomatoes. The result was the best cheese and tomato sandwich we've ever had, followed by several salads.

Another highlight, of similar nature was receiving our first cucumber this week. Cucumber is another fruit that has lost it's way and gained a reputation as simply being a thing that tastes of water in the supermarkets. I can tell you that this cucumber was crisp, full of flavour and did something I've never seen a cucumber do before. When it was left cut open in the fridge a few droplets formed on the exposed white area, these were sugary, syrup like even. A cucumber so bursting with flavour it was fighting to get out.

Even the cabbage is a welcome addition to our plates now, specially when cooked up with some pepper, lemon and pancetta cubes. Served with pasta. Yum. Or in a pork based stir fry.

I've never encountered a veg I wouldn't eat, but occasionally a bit of inspiration is in order to figure out exactly what to do with the more unusual additions to the box. That's when recipes come in handy, every time you get a box you also get a recipe card with a few seasonal recipes on it. If that isn't enough for you there's also a whole section of their website just for recipes, cooking and preparation tips.

I'm quite looking forward to an excuse to try the meat boxes, could be great for the run up to Christmas, or for a BBQ if the summer weather behaves itself.