pastychamp

I wonder who can come up with the breast pun?

Yeah, sorry to my American friends who got confused, I wasn't aware that you guys think a pasty is something very different to us ;)

That's my favorite type of vegetarian ;)

Depends what joint of lamb you're using. For a classic leg, cook it on the bone and keep it rare - you want the meat to be nice and pink and juicy, and let it rest for a good amount of time before you carve it.

For a really tasty and reasonably cheap roast though, get some rolled shoulder and slow pot-roast it for several hours... it will just fall apart and taste amazing! You won't be able to carve it so it won't look as pretty on the plate, but the taste more than makes up for it!

And remember that lamb loves rosemary, thyme and garlic!

Oh, and it's not traditional but I like Yorkshire puddings with roast lamb ;)

Good question... The problem is, no matter how much you like a certain dish if you eat it often enough you get sick of it. When I was practicing for my first appearance on Masterchef I made chocolate fondant several times a week for several weeks, and though I love them I didn't want to eat one for months after!

Having said that, I'm a huge seafood fan so I guess I could probably eat a nice seafood platter (fruit de mer) many, many times before getting sick of it... or a really good roast lamb!

Uh oh, someone's trying to start a fight ;)

Seriously though it's an interesting question. I'm still doing research for the history part of the book so I;ve not drawn any definite conclusions yet, but from what I've found so far (and if you know otherwise please let me know I'd love to learn more) the only evidence that suggests the pasty was invented in Devon, is an audit book dated to around 1509 and then later in a written recipe in 1746.

The simple fact is though, go back a few hundred years and neither Cornwall or Devon were highly literate and recipes would have been past on by word of mouth rather than being written down. So a lack of written evidence is far from conclusive.

There are supposed to be cave paintings on the Lizard showing pasties which supposedly date back around 8000 years though. I've not seen them myself, but I'm hoping to go and see them and photograph them if possible for the book!

I'm not a chef. I did consider it as both my sister and cousin went into catering, but I went the techie route and i'm actually a games developer! So cooking has always just been a hobby/passion for me and I'm glad - I think if I'd have gone into catering as a career I'd have burnt out and have lost my passion - chefs work incredibly hard, and REALLY long hours!!