14 May - slow-roast lamb

With the FA Cup Final to watch on the telly this afternoon, it was the ideal time to do slow-roast lamb - popped in the oven at half-time, it was perfectly cooked for 8. This is a favourite recipe, originally from Waitrose Food Illustrated magazine.

• Slice two large onions and scatter in the bottom of an oven-proof dish. Add a whole bulb of garlic, split into cloves, but unpeeled, 50ml red wine vinegar, 150ml red wine, 50ml olive oil, a heaped teaspoon of rose harissa paste and some salt.
• Nestle a shoulder of lamb (c.700g today) on top of this mix and add water until the lamb's about 80% covered. Bring it just to the boil on the hob, then put in the oven at 180C for about half an hour.
• Turn the oven down to 150C and leave to cook for around 4 hours.

The resulting lamb is meltingly tender and falling to pieces on the bottom, but with a lovely crunchy crust on the top. The onions and garlic become really tender and jammy, but need straining out of the remaining liquid with a slotted spoon. I dollop the onion mix onto plates and top with a chunk of lamb (a mix of soft and crunchy bits), then serve it with some couscous, roast beetroot and pepper, and a splodge of minty yoghurt (just Greek yoghurt with chopped mint). It's a fabulous combination of flavours and textures and today was washed down with a bottle of bubbly to celebrate Man City's cup win!

3 May - chicken soup and peppers with chickpeas

Don't you hate it when you burn your mouth on your first mouthful of something? Today I managed to burn my tongue on some soup before it was even out of the pan! It was actually quite a nice homemade chicken and mushroom soup; with stock made from the weekend's chicken bones, some of the leftover chicken, the last of the Portobello mushrooms and just a dash of cream. Rather spoilt though by singed tastebuds.

Dinner was one of those made-up dishes that's sort of a combination of bits of half-remembered recipes. I wanted to continue the (mostly) veggie theme and had a fancy for something with a Mediterranean/North African feel. So I roasted a couple of peppers, then fried up a red onion with some garlic, added a few slices of cooking chorizo (the non-veggie bit), a can of drained chickpeas and half a tin of chopped tomatoes. Then I peel and sliced the roasted peppers and added them at the end. I served it with some couscous and a dollop of Greek yoghurt mixed with some crushed garlic and fresh chopped herbs (mint, coriander and chives) and topped with a few lightly fried pine nuts. One of those really tasty, satisfying combinations that seemed to work really well.