Marinated lamb with tomatoes and mozzarella

I had no idea what to do with these lamb steaks for dinner - after lots of thought I decided to just improvise and make a simple marinade and then roast in the oven with mozzarella on top. It was lovely; I served it with the bacon and rosemary potato rosti (check this post!) and savoy cabbage - it was a deliciously satisfying meal! The lamb was full of flavour and it was very simple to do.

Ingredients:
- Lamb steaks
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 1 tsp very lazy garlic in white wine vinegar (or just garlic granules)
- handful of fresh or dried rosemary (I used dried)
- salt & pepper
- cherry tomatoes
- mozzarella, sliced

1. Pour the olive oil and balsamic into a dish, and spoon in the garlic.
2. Rub the lamb steaks in until they are covered with the oil and vinegar.
3. Sprinkle lots of rosemary and turn the steaks over until they are covered with the herbs.
4. Seasoned and cut up cherry tomatoes, placing them around the steaks. Cover with cling film and chill in the fridge until cooking.
5. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5 and bake in the oven covered with foil (not cling film!) for about 15-30 minutes depending on how rare you like your meat. Halfway through this cooking time, place the mozzarella slices on the lamb so it has time to melt.

Enjoy :)

Oven-baked rosemary & bacon potato rosti

As I was grating all the potatoes I thought to myself, is this really worth it!? For some reason, I had the expectation that this would be watery and bland (even though I seasoned etc.) Boy was I mistaken! This was one of the best potato dishes I've ever had, and definitely the best one I've ever made. I don't think I've ever even had a rosti before - if I have it wasn't memorable. So I was just going to make a traditional rosti and fry them individually, but then I decided to oven-bake one big one so the potato is cooked for about an hour, meaning the result is a soft, creamy inside, and a crisp outside, mmm. I served this with balsamic, rosemary and tomato marinated lamb which complimented it perfectly. I will post the recipe for the lamb over the next couple of days. Who would have thought grated potato would taste so satisfying...

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:

- 3 rashers streaky bacon

- 750g potatoes, peeled (waxy potatoes - I used Sainsburys taste the difference Vivaldi)

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1/2 onion

- butter, for greasing and topping

- dried or fresh rosemary, for sprinkling

- handful of parmesan, grated

1. Pre-heat the oven to 190 degrees/gas mark 5. Dry-fry the bacon in a pan until golden and crispy. Cut into pieces once cooled.
2. Boil the potatoes whole for about 5 minutes. Drain and place in cold water.
3. When cool enough to handle, grate the potatoes into a large bowl, occasionally adding olive oil.
4. Finely chop the onion and add to the grated potato along with the bacon.
5. Place a baking tray in the oven to heat. Grease a loose-bottomed cake tin with butter and scatter the potato mix into it. Do not pack it down with your hands. Sprinkle with rosemary and parmesan, and scatter butter over the top. (Picture below is at this stage)

6. Place on top of the baking tray in the oven and bake for 1 to 1 and a half hours - until the potatoes are cooked through and crisp on top.

Enjoy :)