| Get into the kitchen by about 10.30am. Light the oven and peel potatoes (Maris Piper preferred!!), sweet potato, parsnips. Place a 3lb shank-end leg of lamb in a large roasting tin with a splash of vegetable oil or duck fat (I sometimes add a few sprigs of rosemary for the lamb to rest on) and place on the top shelf at Gas Mark 6. Parboil the potatoes, sweet potatoes and parsnips (5 mins max). Meanwhile, prepare a shallow dish with a lump of butter and another with a little oil, and place in oven to heat up. As soon as the root vegetables have parboiled, add the potatoes to the roasting tin and the parsnips to the oiled tin, turning to coat. Add the sweet potatoes to the buttered dish, tossing gently and then sprinkling with two teaspoons of demerara sugar. Return the dishes to the oven, second shelf down. Have a drink!! Around 11.30am, prepare new potatoes, carrots, sprouts and plunge into cold water. Add minimal salt and cook till tender, strain, reserving liquid from carrots and sprouts for gravy. Meanwhile, prepare the plum crumble as follows: - quarter and stone a pound of plums or other fruit and place in a pan with water and sugar to taste. Add spices if liked. Place in oven to start warming through while mixing together jumbo oats, crushed cornflakes, a little flour and a pinch of salt. Add melted butter, plus warmed golden syrup and mix thoroughly. Spread over fruit and return to anywhere in the oven where there's space, to cook. Will be ready to eat with cream or ice cream after the first course .... and if you want custard ... get someone else to make it ... I'm on strike !! At 12 noon .... uncork the really nice red wine and leave to breathe ... tasting first of course to check it's okay ! 12.30 - 12.45 pm ... the roast should be ready and out of the oven, resting, and the roast potatoes moved to a serving dish, in the bottom of the oven to keep warm, along with the parsnips ... the sweet potatoes taking a little longer to complete. Pour prepared yorkshire pudding batter into a deep baking tin and place on the top shelf of the oven, turning gas up to mark 7, and start preparing the gravy .... take two tblspns fat from meat tin and mix with 2 dsstspns plain flour in a small pan, heating gently to cook the flour. Now add the reserved vegetable liquids slowly and stirring. Pour into meat tin to get all the goodies out of there .. and return, through a sieve, to the pan. Continue heating gently while adding a glass of red wine. I use Bisto (sorry!) as a thickening agent. Meanwhile, get someone else to carve the joint, check all vegetables are heated, lay the table, and I'll have another drink while stirring the gravy! All gets dished up by 1pm .. yummmmmmmmmm and exhaustion splat !!! Spend the afternoon dozing and leave someone else to make the tea .... don't wanna eat anyway !!! Okay...... now you're hopefully in the mood .... go add your favourite recipes to the page! Click on the link below:-
http://communities.msn.co.uk/TheAnglianConnection/recipes.msnw | 
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