Nineen's rack of lamb crust.

This crust recipe resulted from a scarcity of available herbs. My poor herb pots were almost completely denuded after the Christmas feasting and I forgot to buy more from the fruit shop.
So my assistant chef suggested the pinenuts and I think it was quite inspired!

1 teaspoon chopped rosemary
1 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley
1 teaspoon chopped chives
2 crushed cloves garlic
1/2 cup stale breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chopped pinenuts
30 g soft butter (I achieve this by mixing the remainder of the ingredients and adding the butter and zapping in the microwave for 20 seconds)

Mix thoroughly and use as a crust for 2 well trimmed racks of lamb (6 cutlets each)

The bones are wrapped in alfoil and the racks are baked in a 170 degree fanforced oven for 45 minutes.

This was served with roast potatoes, roast pumpkin, beans and asparagus.

Dessert was creme caramel with blueberries and cream. The creme caramel was a must as I had bought some aluminium cups recently for this purpose.

My recipe is an one I have been making for more than 40 years. It is definitely an extremely easy dessert.

The caramel is 1/2 cup of caster sugar caramelised in a frypan over a low flame (watch carefully to catch before it browns too much!) then poured into the cups to set. (Another warning - take care not to try to catch any caramel drips! The burn is quite horrific - ask how I know!)

4 eggs beaten with 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract and 1/2 cup of sugar. Add to 25 fl ozs of warm water with 1 1/2 cup of Sunshine milk stirred in. Strain this over the cooled caramel and cook in a baking dish in an inch of water in a fanforced oven for 45 minutes. Refrigerate for some hours.