Lamb with pepper and onion pilaf

I thought this would be enough for three people, but in the end it could have fed nearer six.

You'll need:

leg of lamb (ours was butterflied, which made things a lot easier - it was about 600g)
a lemon
some olive oil
lots of black pepper

Slice up the lemon into chunks, and then sit the lamb on top. Rub a bit of olive oil into the skin, and then season with black pepper. You could bash some mint into the olive oil, and maybe add some toasted cumin seeds if you're in a Moroccan frame of mind (slash the skin, and then push the smashed up mint/oil into the slits). It depends really on whether you intend to eat it all that day or not, and if not, what you're going to reuse the lamb in - I'm not sure a Middle Eastern feel would really suit a Lancashire hotpot...

Stick in the oven on 200 degrees C for 45 minutes to an hour, depending on how pink you like your lamb. Give it a prod after 40 minutes or so, and check how it's doing.

In the meantime, you need to make a pepper and onion pilaf. For that, you'll need:

rice - about a mugful is more than enough for three
an onion, chopped up small
a pepper (red or green) chopped up small
slivers of almonds to scatter on top
a little flat leaf parsley

Fry the onion in some olive oil until its translucent. Add the pepper, and cook until its softened. Stick the rice in a pan, and add double the amount of water - cook until it's soft, but not sticky. Mix the onion/pepper into the rice, and serve with some almonds/flat leaf parsley scattered on top.

Chicken pilaf

Mainly because (a) we had a roast chicken yesterday, so there's still some left and (b) we're inundated with parsley - last year's seeds have lodged in the cracks in the paving in the front garden, and have turned into a forest.

You'll need:

cooked chicken (a little per person)
rice - about a mugful for three people
an onion
raisins
flaked almonds
a handful of flat leaf parsley, chopped

Put the rice in a pan with double the amount of water (ie 2 mugs). Bring to the boil, and simmer (don't let it stick to the bottom of the pan). It should be ready when all the water has been absorbed - if it's still a little chewy add a bit more.

In the meantime, chop up your onion reasonably finely, and fry in a pan with some olive oil until it becomes translucent.

Once the rice is cooked, add to the onion. Stir in the cooked chicken, chopped parsley and a handful of raisins. Decant onto some plates, and scatter a few flaked almonds on top.

It's nice with some green salad, or maybe cucumber and yoghurt. We ate this on the balcony today, although it threatened to rain any minute, and I had to make a run for it to get the washing in.