My wife is always complaining that I do not listen to her. Well it had to happen, Mrs R. has gone over the top this time and shown her real colours. It all started after a very busy Saturday night in the restaurant. We had just arrived home. I decided to sit in the kitchen and  unwind and had just poured myself a cool beer and sat contemplating  the busy Sunday lunch that was coming up. It was then I heard Mrs R. say something to me that I did not catch. “What was that you just said?” “You never listen do you?”  She probably was right especially at almost two in the morning. At last I got the jist of it. She was going into the other room to pop the telly on and check her lottery ticket. Then it happened, it sounded like a cross between a jet aircraft taking off and a female cat that was trying to escape from an old tom cat. The next thing I heard made me almost spill my beer. “YES,YES, I have six numbers up.” Cor blimmey, I heard that all right; six numbers well that’s a small fortunes worth. It was at that moment that my mind went into fantasyland. Forget having to travel miles to go fishing, I will have my own lake, should it be the red or maybe the yellow sports car, what make, should it be, how much money should we give to the family. It was at that time all seemed to go very quiet so I thought it was time to offer my congratulations to Mrs R. My thoughts recalled the last time that she had a small win on four numbers, it was made clear to me that it was her ticket and her winnings. Now we are not just looking at four numbers but six. I might have to prove that some of my hard earn cash may have been responsible for paying for the winning ticket, or failing that finding myself a good solicitor. As I started to say well done, that’s when Mrs R dropped her bomb shell, she briefly flashed the winning ticket in front of me, “yes I have got six winning numbers up but….” The word but, seemed to come across as a long drawn out word. I thought for a moment the long awaited words and you are not having any of it, its mine. Not so this time but, there it was that word again. Mrs R then informed me that her six winning numbers were in fact on two lines, and the grand total of the win was twenty pounds. Slowly I decided to sit down. She seemed to have a look of satisfaction on her face, and then she said, “Work tomorrow, did you hear that??.” For a long time now it has been in the back of my mind to sit down to write a book. Not just a cookery book but a book on real Norfolk food. The larder of fine ingredients that Norfolk offers us is there for everybody to use, from the sweetest of crabs from Cromer to wild samphire from the salt marshes. So with running a busy restaurant and other commitments I am sad to say this will be my last cookery column at least until I have finished the book.

This is a little dish that I created for my restaurant, and is still one of the best sellers You will require two lamb fillets per person, and to acquire the fillets all I will say is that I know of at least one excellent butcher in the village sells them. The lamb has to be cooked very slowly in a gravy. To produce the gravy don't go to all the trouble that we do, you can cheat a little by using a powdered chicken gravy mix.  So here we go: say for two people, make up about a pint of the chicken gravy and bring to a light simmer, pour in a small glass of red wine and add a few sprigs of chopped fresh mint. Please note the gravy requires to be of the same consistency that you would pour on your meat, and this should be cooking in a thick bottomed saucepan. Add the four lamb fillets to the sauce, and cook on a low heat for two hours just making sure that the fillets are not allowed to stick to the bottom of the pan. Now for the pea mash. Peel about four good size potatoes, cut into chunks and cook in lightly salted water. When the potatoes come up the boil, add a small packet of garden peas or if you wish you can add a can of mushy peas  after you have mashed the potatoes. Either way you will finish up with the same basic pea mash. Stop confusing the recipe Rushmore. Back to the plot: just a little tip you can cook the mash hours before if you wish and reheat it in the oven with a knob of butter on top. So the potatoes are cooked, drain off the water and add a small knob of butter and then mash the potato and pea mixture, add a little more seasoning if required. The lamb fillets do need the two hours slowly cooking to make them tender, if you find that the sauce is too thick add a little more red wine. Presentation of the dish is as follows. Place a nice spoon full of the mash in the middle of the plate, place the two fillets gently on top, and spoon the sauce over and around the mash. If you wish place a little fresh mint on top of the lamb, serve with baby new season carrots, and buttered spring cabbage.

Colin Rushmore