Gather:
Nice piece of lamb rump or 500g lamb straps.
Salt and pepper. A lemon. Oil. Thyme and rosemary. Balsamic vinegar and Parmesan cheese
Potatoes pumpkin beetroot onions turnips sweet potatoes, fennel etc. one per person of any root vegetables of your choice.
Also
Baby Broccoli with fresh ginger & slivered almonds. Pinenuts butter and red onions.

Method:

Roast or par boil prepared veggies cut into bite size pieces until firm but cooked enough. When ready to serve the carved lamb, pile the vegetables on a plate and then add the lamb pieces and douse with a spray of vinegar then parmesan shavings and salt and pepper.

Lamb can be baked or cooked on a BBQ after a good oiling then dusting with a good pinch of sea salt and cracked pepper and overlying herbs.

Large onion rings can be sliced dipped in milk and the flour then fried or put them in a bowl of made up packet batter and deep fry until crisp according to packet instructions.

Here is a very special iced Spanish contribution to our summer menus. Originating in Andalusia it is a much loved and most refreshing liquid snack made from lots of different seasonal cool vegetables so it serves dieters and purists, the time starved, blender lovers or fine taste fiends equally as well as the usual fridge pickers, the healthy and hungry Guacamole is another matter. Not to be confused with Gazpacho, Guacamole is a much simpler thicker modern Mexican version, an avocado dip made from ripe mashed avocadoes with a drop or two of best olive oil seasoned with onion and chili, lime or lemons, great served with crackers nachos chips or warm toast.

It can also become a great soup with a flash of white wine or chicken stock into the blending process. Both Gazpacho and Guacamole are delicious international classics, seasonally economical and universally enjoyed.

Both can be made up in the food processor or blender and left to sit covered in the fridge in a large jug or bowl until desired. The contents of Gazpacho can be tomatoes, olive oil, fresh garlic, cucumbers, black olives, soft avocados, green capsicums and/or red onions. It can be thickened by adding soft bread crumbs seasoned with aromatic fresh herbs. Try making a lovely entrée for this time of the year, best made up in the early morning before the heat becomes a turn off from most kitchens. Try it for a cold lunch a meal with breads an entrée or anywhere in between . So when shopping in markets or supermarkets or green grocers look for the best ripest vegetables in season right now because they are generously available peaking at their very ripest flavoursome best and cheapest plenty.

Gazpacho.
3 boiled eggs chopped. Four slices of any kind of soft bread, corn bread or sour dough is fine. If you love yoghurt add some at the end then scatter the above as garnish over your soup.
500gms ripe tomatoes. 1 big cucumber 2 cloves chopped garlic bunch of spring onions or 2 red onions 1 green capsicum 3 tbspns good olive oil 1 tbspn good vinegar sea salt black pepper and dash of cayenne pepper to taste. ½ cup of any fresh herbs, take your pick from chopped fresh basil mint parsley coriander or thyme sage or chives.

In the food processor make the bread crumbs and remove.
Chop the garlic in the processor then add the tomatoes and puree them. Now add the chopped cucumbers onions seeded olives green capsicum olive oil vinegar and herbs and blend well enough but not to a mulch . Put into the fridge to chill. Just before serving add the crumbs and chopped boiled eggs on the surface of each serving or place in a small bowl so people can help themselves as a garnish. You can hand this out in coffee mugs glasses or deep pasta bowls and if it gets too thick just add iced water or some ice blocks

Cooked in a cake tin or large pie dish. Serves 8 slices.

Ingredients.
4 large fresh eggs break into a bowl and beat them with a fork.
3 large brown onions peeled and roughly sliced.
500g sweet potato or pumpkin. Peeled and chopped
100g fetta cheese crumbled
1 large sheet of frozen puff pastry thawed to soft for pie topping .
Tablespoon of olive oil and herbs to decorate- parsley or rosemary thyme or sage.
Sesame seeds for topping the pastry.

Method.
Preheat oven to 180-200C.
Heat oil in frying pan and cook onions for about 15 minutes until gold and smelling good. Add garlic if you like it
Cook sweet pot or pumpkin boil steam or microwave.
Combine the vegetables fetta and eggs add chopped herbs and fill up pie dish.
Place puff pastry sheet over top of pie dish and allow a bit to hang over. Paint it with a little milk or egg yolk and shake the sesame seeds over sheet then bake for 45 minutes.

Ingredients.
4 ripe soft bananas
2 cups of buttermilk or ordinary milk
300g  sifted self raising flour
200g fresh ricotta cheese, mashed up
3 eggs
30g soft butter
Teaspoon baking powder
Garnish with Maple syrup or caramel sauce
Handful of crushed or halved walnuts. 

Method.
Beat eggs and soft butter together then add a pinch of salt the milk and baking powder, mixing them well together. Now shake in the flour folding it into ingredients and stir the ricotta cheese into it.  Let it sit for one hour.  Heat the frying pan non stick if possible, spray or grease with a touch of oil or butter and when hot enough add 1/2 cup or 2 tablespoons of batter to pan. Cook until you can see bubbles forming up to the surface. Turn over carefully and cook other side until it looks set. 

Remove and keep warm on a tea towel or paper ready to serve.  

Warm the walnuts in a frying pan until you can smell them roasting but do not burn!  Toss over cooked pancakes add the cream etc and serve. (Cream, ice cream or yoghurt are all good. Serve separately if you are dieting.) 

Many discussions are heard in winter about the new luxury fare, lambshanks. Boiled down the philosophy is this. Lamb shanks and osso bucco, casseroles and meatloaf all came from the poor old days when people had a lot more time than money, shared what they had, made the most of it and really enjoyed what they got. Today these long slow cooking methods are recognised as producing great tasting nutritious and satisfying meals, generating such flushes of passion that professional cooks are now selling them nightly in swish eateries across the nation. While the weather is still wintery, let’s temporarily revisit the days of ‘no hustle and bustle no worries and no probs’ where people who liked each other shared a communal chat and a chuckle over dinner together in the kitchen with no fuss or fancy ingredients. Basic tucker cooked well costs less than a parking fine and makes us happy. Try it.

Lambshanks. Serves 6.
Hints for casseroles. You can use barley or tapioca as a thickener, any vegetable soup concentrates as a flavour additive, your favourite fresh or dried herbs.
Keep packets and tined stores ready in the pantry to deal with casserole attacks.
You can use the leftovers of today’s recipe as a soup or sauce during the next few days after removing the meatbones and pushing it through a sieve.
A good rich sauce will freeze well and can then reappear to become the base of your next exciting casserole in the kitchen. Extra vegetables can be cooked in the pot with the shanks for the last hour. Big hunks of pumpkin and potatoes can be cooked separately in the oven and fresh greens in the steamer if you prefer. An interesting addition to any casserole is pipped green olives, try them for a clean green taste sensation.

Ingredients.
6 lambshanks
A 400g can of tomatoes
A glass of red wine.
3 tbspns olive oil.
300 mls of water stock or soup.
Seasonings of sea salt, cracked black pepper and a big handful of fresh herbs for aroma.
A dinner bowl full of mixed prepared seasonal vegetables such as carrotts parsnips turnips leeks celery onions garlic cloves.

Method.
Heat the oil in a heavy saucepan and brown and soften the shanks then add vegetables, remove them and add the wine. Place the vegetables in the bottom of an ovenproof casserole pot, add seasonings and a cup of barley if using it, then the shanks and any remaining liquids and scrapings from pot.. Pour liquids over the shanks then tomatoes add herbs place a heavy lid or foil over the casserole and leave to cook low in the oven on low- medium heat for at least 2 hours at 180c. You can turn down the oven and reheat on high a few hours later or serve the entire contents just as they are immediately over a large hot mound of mash, creamy polenta or rice. If you really want to refine this good country meal for guests who do not understand the pleasantries of peasant fare, then remove the shanks, carve off the meat, ditch the bones and put the vegetables and liquids through a sieve and serve as a pouring sauce.