Slow-roast shoulder of lamb with cumin and paprika; roast aubergines with lemon and garlic; roast carrots with butter and cumin; spiced onion yogurt sauce; rocket salad with lemon dressing; homemade flatbreads

Haven't updated this blog for ages! There have been countless amazing meals, but I've just not been bothered to blog about them. Last night's roast lamb, however, simply couldn't go unreported. I'd been intending to get lamb chops and do them in Thomasina Miers' Eastern spiced butter (from her awesome book Cook!), but this being Germany, to buy lamb chops for 4 people would have cost me 83 Euros. That's right, 83 Euros. I couldn't hide my shock when the butcher quoted that price, which set him all a-huffing, so when I asked for a shoulder instead he tried to save face by warning me 'You can't fast-roast that, you know! You can only cook it slowly in a stew!' Well, I wasn't going to be taken in by that when my allies Hugh and Thomasina had already assured me that shoulder of lamb is perfectly suitable for roasting, if perhaps on a slightly slower, cooler roast than you'd use for leg.

So I bought the shoulder (not exactly a snip either at 23 Euros), and, once home, covered it in a slather of ground cumin seeds, hot Spanish paprika and lemon zest, with melted butter as the marinade vehicle. Later on, I roasted it for 4 and a half hours on what my very strong fan oven calls 130 degrees (probably actually a good deal hotter). As accompaniments, I roasted carrots in butter and cumin, and aubergines with whole garlic cloves and lemon. Meanwhile I fried some onion rings and chopped garlic on the stove's lowest setting for ages (about an hour and a half) with cumin, coriander and cardamom, then poured in a pot of yogurt at the end to make a delicious sauce (this is from Nigel Slater's book Real Cooking). I made a simple rocket salad on the side to mop up all those delicious juices, and tried out making my own bread for the first time, using the recipe for 'Quick flatbread' from Casa Moro which promises that it's easier to bake your own than to go down the corner shop and buy some pitta (not that that's a possibility in this neck of the woods anyway). And sure enough, it was easy, quick and delicious. For dessert, fresh lychees.