lamb and orzo bake with cherry tomatoes

Individually ‘beers’, ‘curry’, ‘rugby club lunches’, ‘Greg’ and ‘JP’ are all fine concepts. It’s when I combine them, and maybe throw ‘hip flasks of sloe gin’, ‘wine’ and ‘pies’ into the mixer, that it goes horribly wrong.

At least I have some degree of consistency because if memory serves me right, the last time I went out with both of them I ended up puking, and the time before that when I went to St James’ Palace with JP, I also ended up with my head in the toilet.

The upshot is I’m feeling distinctly wonky today, which is more disastrous than usual as I can’t simply malinger in bed as I’ve got an interview pitch to create.

When in doubt – and by doubt I strictly mean ‘massively hungover’ – the best course of cooking action is to get a stew going. This is particularly true if it’s cold and wet outside, and you’ve got limited time on your hands because you’ve got beat your brains into some sort of order to come up with sensible ideas.

So whilst Ana and Milo are visiting the Bolgers of Kensington, and I’m cudgelling the grey matter for all I’m worth (whilst shivering due to cold/booze), we all have the satisfaction of knowing something warming and comforting is slowly bubbling away in the oven:

I remember this being a staple of the Wellington and cabana-boy-for-the-McPartlin years, and a very fine thing it is too!

sources
lamb and orzo bake, with cherry tomatoes - the black book